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Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Advice on Starting Small in the Salvage and Recycling Business
A recent message that I think is of interest.
Mike, I am very interested in the salvage business but I want to start small and put off getting involved in heavy metals, construction waste, and goods that are space and labor intensive. What do you recommend?
My response:
Hi ____ - One of the first things I did was go around to local businesses and see what sort of things they might be interested in. I found a rebuilder of valves - water, oil, gas, etc. - who would buy old valves from me right away.
Also in winter, keeping in touch with insurance agents helps. I've gotten tons of free aluminum from torn up awnings and mobile home porches. The aluminum is easily scrapped - no storage involved.
When I've done deconstruction I've almost always been able to sell the stuff before I took the building apart so no space required there and there are all sorts of sizes of buildings.
The electronics end is going to take space and time to sort, determine what's of value, etc. so probably not best to begin with if you don't have the space to work on stuff. Good winter time work though.
Every community is different. I'd just get your name out there as THE salvage guy and see what happens. I'd stay away from beccoming the hauling guy. That's a different deal and folks will look at you differently if you charge to haul stuff away. Put up flyers, cheap ads, and talk to folks and then pick and choose.
I've run into barrels full of valves at times that I could buy at pennies on the dollars that I would get and turn them over the same day.
Some really big things like a water tank on an 80 foot tower I got for free and resold in a few days and never ever touched it. you just never know.
More examples in the manual.
Good luck and keep me posted on your progress.
Mike
www.RecyclingSecrets.com
Mike, I am very interested in the salvage business but I want to start small and put off getting involved in heavy metals, construction waste, and goods that are space and labor intensive. What do you recommend?
My response:
Hi ____ - One of the first things I did was go around to local businesses and see what sort of things they might be interested in. I found a rebuilder of valves - water, oil, gas, etc. - who would buy old valves from me right away.
Also in winter, keeping in touch with insurance agents helps. I've gotten tons of free aluminum from torn up awnings and mobile home porches. The aluminum is easily scrapped - no storage involved.
When I've done deconstruction I've almost always been able to sell the stuff before I took the building apart so no space required there and there are all sorts of sizes of buildings.
The electronics end is going to take space and time to sort, determine what's of value, etc. so probably not best to begin with if you don't have the space to work on stuff. Good winter time work though.
Every community is different. I'd just get your name out there as THE salvage guy and see what happens. I'd stay away from beccoming the hauling guy. That's a different deal and folks will look at you differently if you charge to haul stuff away. Put up flyers, cheap ads, and talk to folks and then pick and choose.
I've run into barrels full of valves at times that I could buy at pennies on the dollars that I would get and turn them over the same day.
Some really big things like a water tank on an 80 foot tower I got for free and resold in a few days and never ever touched it. you just never know.
More examples in the manual.
Good luck and keep me posted on your progress.
Mike
www.RecyclingSecrets.com
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Make Money: Aluminum Recycling & Salvage - Winter Storms Bring Recycling Profits
Winter storms and extreme weather make a lot of aluminum available for recycling and reuse. Mobile home and trailer awnings are particularly susceptible to damage beyond repair. I found that many folks are very happy to just get the damaged material out their yards. Some will want to be paid a bit for the scrap.
I placed ads in freebie newspapers in the area and also posted signs on bulleting boards saying that I wanted damaged or unwanted used awnings and trailer skirting. I also contacted all the insurance companies in the area and left them a little handout saying the same. Nowadays, also postings on your local Craigslist and Freecycle makes sense.
Note that even though the awnings are damaged beyond repair in the eyes of those giving up the material, it doesn't mean that it's useless. Some of the larger parts of the frame are made of nice aluminum extrusions that are useful for other applications and easily resold for more than their scrap value. Same goes for some of the apparatus associated with the awnings.
This is NOT the sort of material that you want to take to the local recycler that normally deals in cans and plastics. My experience is that they will either not take it at all or offer you little or no money for it.
This is the sort of material that you want to hang onto until you have a trailer or pickup load. The best place to sell this scrap is to large metal salvage yards in big cities. But there's work to do before you haul it in or you'll get less than the best price. Sorting and cleaning is what it's all about.
There are different prices for different types of aluminum including...
Click here for complete article
This is part of an ongoing series documenting my experience in and thoughts about the future of the recycling and salvage business.
Visit RecyclingSecrets.com and the Recycling Secrets Blog for more information about recycling, reuse and salvage.
Mike Meuser
2010 is our year!!
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