Approaching Scrappers

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Tue Oct 19 10:55:36 1999

A couple of relatively important things to keep in mind:

(1) scrappers sell the items they collect as scrap. Homogeneity is
important to this pursuit, i.e. unpainted pure aluminum scrap is more
valuable than mixtures of painted and unpainted aluminum, and there must be
no non-metal or non-aluminum mixed in, else the value goes WAY down. This
means that they have to add labor to the mix before they can scrap most
computer components, e.g. disk drives.

(2) they are ALREADY in business and ALREADY plan to make money with what is
in their lot. They already know what they will get for their stuff once
it's "cleaned" and sorted. That often means they have to add considerable
amounts of labor in order to get top prices.

(3) they already know that there is some stuff that YOU will pay for if you
think it's going to be of value. Some people will pay more for old stuff
than others, though and they know it is out there, though they don't know
what YOU specifically want.

If you treat them as though they know their business, and as though you know
yours, i.e. with appropriate respect, even though you may not believe either
to be true, a simple question at the outset about how he wishes to set
prices on the type of materials you wish to take home is probably all you
need to get started. Many yards have these prices posted somewhere, so look
around and read the signs before you start asking questions. It might not
hurt to start with a "look around" the yard. If you see others collecting
what you think might be of interest to you, then watch and listen. You'll
be surprised what you can learn!

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Randy Kaplan <rkaplan_at_accsys-corp.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, October 19, 1999 4:31 AM
Subject: Approaching Scrappers


>Hello to all -
>
>Has anyone used/approached scrappers as a source of collection? If so,
>what has been your experience? How do you approach these guys?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Randy
>
>
Received on Tue Oct 19 1999 - 10:55:36 BST