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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:17:09 PM EDT
On garbage night this past week, there was an older "70" ish gentleman "scrapping" (garbage picking) for the scrap metal people put out to the curb. He was out front and I said hello to him. He seemed decent but somewhat quiet. I've only seen him a couple times in the neighborhood "scrapping." I had a old snowblower in the garage and asked him if he wanted it. He accepted. I helped him load it onto his pickup and he was on his way with other scrap metal. With gas prices as high as they are, is the scrap that profitable?
( and no, im not interested in trying it  )
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:30:47 PM EDT
[#1]
Depending on the metal type, yes. Just picked up about 40-50lbs of brass someone had stuck out by the garbage can today. Old valves with a SS ball. All I will have to do is unscrew it, knock out the SS ball and sell it for $$$. I also always look for catalytic converters on my travels also. Get 1/2 dozen or so then take them in.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:32:12 PM EDT
[#2]
NON FREAKING STOP!!....and their trucks always look like they wanna fall apart, and they're stacked to the sky.....
 ETA: I do however scrap the extra copper wire from my jobs.......it's worth the time it takes me to strip the big stuff......but I don't pick trash for scrap. ETA2: I have a friend that always finds antiques in the trash....he found an old three legged cobbler's stool that was worth almost $400 bucks! |
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:38:52 PM EDT
[#3]
Im in the process of "scrapping" cutting up a D8 Cat dozer right now.
A few months ago it was almost 200 bucks a ton for cut steel, its dropped a lot since then. Ive got probably 40 ish tons stockpiled for the next time prices go up....gotta pay for my gun habbits some how.  The local gravel pit has literally HUNDREDS of tons worth of old equipment that has been laying around for the past 45 years and they wont sell any of it. |
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:42:30 PM EDT
[#4]
non-stop. can't really blame them tho. one person's trash is another one's treasure.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:46:46 PM EDT
[#5]
I brake for brass.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:54:38 PM EDT
[#6]
I need to start doing that.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 5:54:38 PM EDT
[#7]
Cost's more; but is worth it.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 6:25:55 PM EDT
[#8]
I love scrappers. They take what I don't want. I set an old microwave out one afternoon with a sign saying "still works". Sanford and son snagged it before dark.
Mark |
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Posted: 8/24/2006 6:32:54 PM EDT
[#9]
I don't "scrap" but I do recycle copper and cans. No use throwing away free money, but I'm not going to dig through the trash for it.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 6:42:17 PM EDT
[#10]
People just moved out of the appartment at the end of the block.
Landlords hauled everything out to the curb. I saw a bed frame as I was going to the store less than 2 hours ago. I was going to grab it on my way back, but it was already gone. Those cheap bed frames are made from pretty good angle steel. Chop the ends off where the wheels are, and you have a few dollars worth of metal that can be used for other projects. Lucky for me, I work at a place where I can use their dumpster. Nobody ever goes through my trash. When I rented an appartment, I got the use of a 2-car garage. Landlord kept a push mower in it. I moved the mower outside while I was moving things around, and forgot to bring it back inside. The next morning was trash day. A scrapper took the mower home with him. 
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Posted: 8/24/2006 6:57:45 PM EDT
[#11]
The metal maggots are paying up to $125 for catalytic converters at my shop
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Posted: 8/24/2006 7:03:59 PM EDT
[#12]
I live in KC and at some of the Chiefs games (thousands of drunk tailgaters grilling) after all the people go into the game there are trucks of bums who buy a parking ticket ($27) and then roam the parking lots tossing empty beer cans in the back of their trucks and trailers. I don't know how much they make off of it but it must be more than the cost of getting in. I've seen one with a 10x16 trailer and truck stacked to the top and they were almost all crushed. Must have weighed tons.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 7:06:34 PM EDT
[#13]
You would be shocked how much money some of them can make in one day.
GR
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Posted: 8/24/2006 7:26:50 PM EDT
[#14]
I work in an inner city metro area. On trash day you can watch people drive down the alley and pick through the trash cans all day. Its not uncommon to see two or three trucks full of people go down the alley looking in the cans within a few hours time. Im sure it makes them enough for beer money:) Since we dont have a big recycling program here I think its a good thing. I wouldnt do it myself but more power to them.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 7:38:41 PM EDT
[#15]
I will take the scrap wire that the sparky's toss out on our jobsites. Last week I did it and it took me ten minutes to load and a five minute side trip to the scrap yard for a quick $53. I figured it was an easy way to get gas for the week.
We constantly have people rummaging through all of our jobsite dumpsters. I am waiting for the day somebody ends up impaled on some rebar or metal studs that we throw out. |
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Posted: 8/24/2006 7:41:07 PM EDT
[#16]
A friend of my in laws makes decent money on the weekends selling stuff they've picked from the curb.
I was really surprised when he showed me stuff he pulled from the curb. working TV's, microwaves, radios. Some just needed a $2 cord. I always keep my eyes open on garbage day for fun targets at the range.
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Posted: 8/24/2006 8:35:59 PM EDT
[#17]
Don't worry about it unless the guy starts grabbing your used rubbers out of the trash.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 2:38:22 AM EDT
[#18]
I always leave stuff outside my driveway( in an alley) and I am suprised how fast it walks away. I always put a note on it stating that it is broken or that it works (in both english and spanish). Had a grocery bag of tamales left on the porch, this past winter with a note (in spanish) thanking us for a washer and dryer that we left out.
kinda neat. I would get rid of them myself but I dont have a pickup anymore. Jim |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 3:18:54 AM EDT
[#19]
Would you eat food you just found on your porch? |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 3:36:47 AM EDT
[#20]
In Brooklyn a few months ago, 2 or 3 homeless guys were burning the insulation off of copper electrical wires and they burned down a few blocks of 100 year old water front warehouses.
Between you and me, I think that the city paid was trying to free up the property because the buildings were protected and everyone wants water front property.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 3:58:09 AM EDT
[#21]
Are you a lineman? There can be lots of copper after a big job, eh??? Over a buck a pound!!!
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:02:25 AM EDT
[#22]
My son works at Waste Management ( garbage people). He scraps. Some weeks he brings home an extra $1000 just from copper & alum he pulls out of roll offs.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:05:06 AM EDT
[#23]
A few years ago I threw away a lawn mower. A guy came by in a 1980's Honda Civic and asked if he could have it. My wife told him he could but that it did work. I looked out the window and saw the mower on the roof of the car and his 8 year old son standing on the hood of the car holding it in place while the father tied it on. It seems sad and pathetic now but it was funny as hell at the time.
ETA: When I lived in apartment they had an old man picking up the trash. A couple times I saw him picking through the garbage. He said he was looking for nails. It really gave me the creeps. He wasn't looking for bed frames or microwaves. He actually took peoples bags of garbage out of the cans ripped them open and started looking through them. |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:14:42 AM EDT
[#24]
Damn, we get that amount for the whole car, with title of course. I may start taking the cats out.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:16:32 AM EDT
[#25]
And cue the Sanford and Son theme right about.......... now!
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:21:16 AM EDT
[#26]
LOL
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:22:04 AM EDT
[#27]
Shit I've got about 20 cat's laying in a pile right now. Time to load them in the car and go make some deals at the scrap yards.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:26:56 AM EDT
[#28]
Why are they worth so much? |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:55:44 AM EDT
[#29]
Platinum! 1233.00 an ounce. I know a guy that drives thru neighborhoods on the good side of town on trash day and picks up the good stuff. He has a Swap meet table at several swap meets around town. Wife runs one, He runs one, and his teenagers run two more. He makes 35K tax free. TAX FREE! and he has his days free do as he pleases. |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 4:58:20 AM EDT
[#30]
How much is there? |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 5:01:45 AM EDT
[#31]
Same here. I have a soda can crusher in my barn, set up on the wall and over a 55 gallon plastic barrel with no top. I crush them as we use them until barrel is full, then take it to recycling place for $$. They are paying 67 cents a lb right now! Good ammo money.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 5:27:23 AM EDT
[#32]
Do people take apart the catalytic converter? |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 5:31:59 AM EDT
[#33]
I just looked up how platinum is coated on the inside parts, but how do they get it off? It must be a very thin coating because if it's $1233 an ounce and a cat costs around $300, the platinum must be sprayed on. |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 5:33:50 AM EDT
[#34]
I dunno but at least a quarter ounce would be my bet. I know a guy that bought convetrers at 1.00 each back when the metal was considered unrecoverable. He has 3 semi trailers full. They are his retirement plan. He knew that someone would figure out how to recover the Platinum and Palladium (550 an ounce IIRC) that are in them.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 5:43:16 AM EDT
[#35]
Scrapping pays for my beer and ammo! Anything metal these days is worth $$. I'll take a junk van and fill it up like a dumpster. Got $120 worth of wire from a house demo site recently.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 5:59:45 AM EDT
[#36]
I have 100-115 customers per day that average about 75$ per trip. I have guys who do 3-4 runs a day and make 200-250$ per day.
It is paying pretty good right now. |
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Posted: 8/25/2006 6:09:24 AM EDT
[#37]
I save brass, copper and nickel.
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Posted: 8/25/2006 6:44:45 AM EDT
[#38]
I was looking into that as well, seems a guy on Ebay has a foolproof system he will sell you for 100.00. I don't think removing it yourself would work very well. |
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