One of the biggest problems people face when it comes to selling items is having the inventory and more specifically where to find that inventory to resell. What I try to do when I'm selling things at a yard sale or garage sale is always, always have some brand new fresh from the shelf items to resell. These items I try to get are things that people need because I know these items will sell. My item that I sell the most volume of that falls into this category is actually toilet paper. Yes. You read that right. Toilet Paper. Read on.....
The place to get these items is at salvage stores. These stores are found throughout the United States, but they kind of fly under the radar of most people. Mainly because of two things. 1 - The people that shop at these stores don't want their secret out there in fear of more people coming to the stores and buying up the inventory. 2 - A lot of these stores don't advertise at all. There's not even a sign out front of the really, really good stores.
Typically, rural Amish communities are a pickers paradise for these stores as you will literally find them scattered every few miles throughout an Amish community. Now don't get these salvage stores confused either with the salvage stores that advertise and really push the fact that you can get items for cheap there. Yes - you can get items cheaper there, but from what I've seen at these stores is that the markdown prices really aren't marked down all that much considering how much the store originally pays for their items on the secondary market.
Let me touch on the secondary market. A high percentage of the salvage stores purchase their inventory on the secondary market. The secondary market operates like this...and I'll use my highest volume mover toilet paper as an example. Say a brand new skid of Charmin toilet paper arrives on the docks of Walmart. While they are unloading the truck they discover that 2 skids had been damaged in the process of shipping. Say a towmotor fork stuck the side of the skids and stabbed a few packages of Charmin. Walmart will deny the entire skid due to those couple packages being damaged. Rather than pay the shipping to return the damaged skids to the manufacturer or distributor and take even more of a loss, these skids stay in the local area and are sold by the manufacter or distributor to secondary buyers on the secondary market at huge discounted prices. Say there is 40 12 packs of Charmin on a skid and only 2 packages were damaged. That leaves a full 38 packs of brand new sealed packages of Charmin. The packages I get normally cost anywhere from $6.99 to $7.99 in the Walmart stores in my area and the prices are just about the same everywhere else. I pay $1.99 for them at the salvage stores and then I put them out for $4 at the yard sale. I do this because you can get a similiar sized package at Family Dollar for $5. I'm still able to maintain my profit margin and I'm still able to give my customer a 20 percent cheaper price than they would normally have paid.
Now that's only a 2 dollar profit per package and I am doubling my money. What I do is I buy in bulk and I combine my shopping trip to include various other stops a long the way so I'm not wasting gas and cutting into my profit margin. I keep track of all my costs right down to the last cent so I can properly keep an eye on my profit margin. I suggest everyone do this with all your income generating endeavors.
Some other items I pick up there are pop (soda, cola, or tonic depending on what part of the country you're in! lol ), dish and laundry soap, diapers (which has the distinction of having my highest profit margin from the salvage stores), and various other household items people need. I get Pepsi and Coke for .15 a can and resell them individually for .40 a can. I'll keep them on ice and sell during yard sales. Some friends of mine will buy the 24 packs at the store and sell them for .50 a piece and still make a profit. That's a small tip for something you can do when you have your own yard sale.
Let me take a second and mention too that you can also get both perishable and non-perishable food items at these stores for heavily discounted rates. Say a box of cereal at a grocery store normally costs $4 or $5 - the same box at the salvage store will run you anywhere from .75 to $1. A little tip though is to watch the expiration dates on them. Some boxes you will find will still be a year out while others may be really close to expiring. So make sure you check those dates. As for reselling food, other than canned pop I don't mess around with selling food because quite honestly I don't know if it's legal to do that at a yard sale and I wouldn't want to deal with the negative effects if say someone was to get sick or something from food you sold them. You might be asking for trouble should you try to resell the food. But, for personal shopping and personal consumption the food values there are incredible to say the least.
So, how do you find these stores? First, you can look online and see what you find. Almost 100 percent of the time you will find the salvage stores that are the ones I would consider to be the "commercial" salvage stores. They tend to sell for a little more than the other salavage stores and they really market the fact that they are a salvage store. BUT, for personal shopping you are still getting a better deal than at Walmart). Getting in good and finding the good salvage stores can prove tricky because like I said above.....people tend to keep these stores close to their belt and don't like to share in fear of losing out their own personal little goldmine. However, you will find some people who know about these stores. Ask others online in your particular area. If you happen to live near an Amish community, don't be afraid to pull up, roll down your window and ask one of the Amish where the local salvage stores are. You'll be greeted with a chuckle and 9 times out of 10 they are more than happy to point you in the right direction. That's how I originally found out about these stores about 15 years ago. Networking is key to any business you're in. I happened to know someone who drove around Amish for a living and they told me about them and a few Amish guys I worked with back then told me about them. When I originally set out looking for them, I couldn't find them because like I said....there was no signs! I ended up asking the Amish I came across on the road where the nearest stores were.
The networking paid off when I found the good salvage stores and then it paid off 10 fold when I was shown where to buy my products on the secondary market from the same place where the salvage stores purchase their inventory. In my upcoming book, I will go a step further and share with you how and where to find the "secondary market" stores so you too can obtain your products for huge substantial savings.
Thanks to all those Amish now I know where all the stores are located and I have a regular route where I hit all the stores and complete one giant circle. Hopefully, this tip will be of use to others out there. Good luck and report back if you happen to go out on a salvage store adventure.
Be sure to check out the following for more money making and money saving topics - always adding new things.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Friday, September 16, 2011
Recycling Plastic & Paper Pays and Saves You Big Money
Recycling plastic and paper may not be for everybody due to the fact that many don't have an easy way to get rid of their disposable plastic and/or paper. If you live in an area like I do, the local town provides recycling dropoff points for your plastic and paper which makes the decision to recycle easier. (You can also take your aluminum cans and other misc. metal there, but that you keep for yourself and cash in on it).
So who do you get paid for taking your plastic and paper there? You don't get paid directly. What you do is you eliminate your garbage bill. When we started recycling full on years ago, we found that we actually had very little garbage left over. So we got rid of garbage pickup. (I should note that I hate to promote an area which means less work for someone like the garbage man, but in a tough economy one may have to make that tough decision if it means saving every penny you can for yourself.)
In addition to recycling the plastic and paper, we have a compost pile for where the organic garbage goes. (side note...what I do with my compost pile is I used it in the garden. I mound up a nice pile (about a foot high off the ground) of pure compost in the garden and plant 3 pumpkin seeds in each mound. You won't believe how the pumpkins grown in the compost mounds. We never have to buy pumpkins come Halloween. In fact we usually have an overabundance of pumpkins, which I give away to people, simply because I like to watch them grow throughout the summer and early fall)
Back to the recycling though.....cutting out all the recyclable waste from the garbage usually leaves me with a small paper or plastic bag (the kind you would get when you're checking out at say a grocery store) of garbage every few days. I just take that and toss it in a garbage can when I'm getting gas or whatever. Gone is the garbage bill and we don't have to buy the garbage bags either.
That's a little tip for someone who might be trying to squeeze every penny out they can out of their budget.
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
So who do you get paid for taking your plastic and paper there? You don't get paid directly. What you do is you eliminate your garbage bill. When we started recycling full on years ago, we found that we actually had very little garbage left over. So we got rid of garbage pickup. (I should note that I hate to promote an area which means less work for someone like the garbage man, but in a tough economy one may have to make that tough decision if it means saving every penny you can for yourself.)
In addition to recycling the plastic and paper, we have a compost pile for where the organic garbage goes. (side note...what I do with my compost pile is I used it in the garden. I mound up a nice pile (about a foot high off the ground) of pure compost in the garden and plant 3 pumpkin seeds in each mound. You won't believe how the pumpkins grown in the compost mounds. We never have to buy pumpkins come Halloween. In fact we usually have an overabundance of pumpkins, which I give away to people, simply because I like to watch them grow throughout the summer and early fall)
Back to the recycling though.....cutting out all the recyclable waste from the garbage usually leaves me with a small paper or plastic bag (the kind you would get when you're checking out at say a grocery store) of garbage every few days. I just take that and toss it in a garbage can when I'm getting gas or whatever. Gone is the garbage bill and we don't have to buy the garbage bags either.
That's a little tip for someone who might be trying to squeeze every penny out they can out of their budget.
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Make Money Online with CashCrate
Here is another way to make money online doing the same things you do on other similiar making money making websites such as Swagbucks and Zoombucks. CashCrate is like a mirror image of Swagbucks and Zoombucks. Everything you do on those websites can also be done on CashCrate.
I don't spend a whole lot of time daily on CashCrate. I'll watch the daily videos and complete one of the free special offers where all they require is something simple such as just entering an email address. Because I don't spend much time on this site with special offers or completing the surveys that are on there (these are just like the special offers and surveys you would find on swagbucks, etc.) I don't make too much daily (but it adds up at the end of the month). I only average around $2 a day. I would say my total time invested on the site daily is only 5 minutes (if even that). So for roughly spending 3 hours a month (give or take a few minutes) total on the site I bring in $50 a month. You can make more money than that if you decide to do more offers. You can also earn points on the site which you can then turn around and cash in for gift cards. I just stick with the cash. But, that points option is out there as well.
So how and when do you get paid? If you earn $20 or more by the end of the calender month, CashCrate will automatically send you a check the following month. Their checks get sent out around the 15th of the following month and from my experience I've received my check then the following week in the mail. They do have a referral program which can change how and when you get paid.
If you have 50 or more active referrals, then you you can have your money direct deposited into your bank accounty and your payment will be processed on the 1st of the following month. The next level is a bit high, but if you have 500 or more active referrals then you have the option of getting paid weekly.
For those wishing to sign up here is my referral link for CashCrate.
(Tip: Make sure you don't use the same email address that you use when signing up and completing special offers on other webistes such as Swagbucks, Zoombucks, etc. - that way you can still participate daily on those websites without fear of being accused of "cheating the system"...if you try to complete the same special offer on different websites with the same email address, the company of that special offer you tried to complete on different sites will accuse you of cheating, which could lead to you being banned from that particular site...so to be safe ALWAYS use a different email address when signing up and completing special offers on these different sites)
Good luck with all your money making endeavors! Be sure to check out the following link for more ways to make money online and offline.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
I don't spend a whole lot of time daily on CashCrate. I'll watch the daily videos and complete one of the free special offers where all they require is something simple such as just entering an email address. Because I don't spend much time on this site with special offers or completing the surveys that are on there (these are just like the special offers and surveys you would find on swagbucks, etc.) I don't make too much daily (but it adds up at the end of the month). I only average around $2 a day. I would say my total time invested on the site daily is only 5 minutes (if even that). So for roughly spending 3 hours a month (give or take a few minutes) total on the site I bring in $50 a month. You can make more money than that if you decide to do more offers. You can also earn points on the site which you can then turn around and cash in for gift cards. I just stick with the cash. But, that points option is out there as well.
So how and when do you get paid? If you earn $20 or more by the end of the calender month, CashCrate will automatically send you a check the following month. Their checks get sent out around the 15th of the following month and from my experience I've received my check then the following week in the mail. They do have a referral program which can change how and when you get paid.
If you have 50 or more active referrals, then you you can have your money direct deposited into your bank accounty and your payment will be processed on the 1st of the following month. The next level is a bit high, but if you have 500 or more active referrals then you have the option of getting paid weekly.
For those wishing to sign up here is my referral link for CashCrate.
(Tip: Make sure you don't use the same email address that you use when signing up and completing special offers on other webistes such as Swagbucks, Zoombucks, etc. - that way you can still participate daily on those websites without fear of being accused of "cheating the system"...if you try to complete the same special offer on different websites with the same email address, the company of that special offer you tried to complete on different sites will accuse you of cheating, which could lead to you being banned from that particular site...so to be safe ALWAYS use a different email address when signing up and completing special offers on these different sites)
Good luck with all your money making endeavors! Be sure to check out the following link for more ways to make money online and offline.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Making Money Revenue Stream Tip 2 : Sell your newspapers for easy cash money
Here is a tip on how you can add to your money making revenue stream. This one has been around for decades, but over the last 20 years it seems to have been forgotten by a great number of people. I'm talking about recycling your old newspapers.
Now let me say right off the bat that unless you have the proper plan and set up (a constant source/supply, storage area, and means of transport) in place you will not make a lot of money recycling paper. However, that's not to say that you can't make a little extra money on the side. (...and If you have the ways and means to accumulate, save, and then transport the newspaper to the recycling center/yard then by all means save it in bulk) Read on....
You're probably wondering to yourself "How much is that old newspaper worth?" You can expect to get roughly 2 cents per pound for your old newspapers. The price fluctuates just like the stock market on some days you might get 1 1/2 cents per pound and other days you could get 2 1/2 cents. Always call ahead to make sure you know how much the recycling center is paying on the day you plan on taking your newspaper in.
Let's do a little math to see how much you need to hit a certain dollar mark assuming the going rate is 2 cents per pound.
100 pounds would equal $2.00 200 pounds would equal $4. 500 pounds would equal $10. 1 ton of newspaper, which is 2,000 pounds would only be $40.
As you can see, you would need a nice truckload of newspaper to make it worth your time to strictly try to make any money by recycling just paper alone. However, where recycling newspaper comes in to play in the grand scheme of things is when you factor it in to paying for your fuel. It's all about recycling your newspaper smart. If you know on one particular day you may be heading past the recycling center, then throw in a couple hundred pounds of newspaper and pay for your gas that way. (I should point out that uou don't want to make a trip to the scrap yard strictly for just 500 pounds of paper because you'll walk away even from it - you could however combine it on a trip to the scrap yard where you may have some more valuable precious metals like copper, which doesn't take up a lot of space......remember it's all about being smart about how and when to recycle it. For example, if you combined that 500 pounds of paper with two 5 gallon buckets full of copper, which combined may weigh a combined 30 pounds it would be worth it. The paper would get you $10 (pays for the gas)and the copper could get you anywhere from $60 to over $100 depending on the grade of copper.
500 pounds of paper sounds like a lot. But, in fact the space it takes up is rather small. Figure the back of your trunk full of newspaper and the passenger seat full of newspaper and that's a real close estimate for 500 pounds of newspaper.
As I said earlier you're not going to make a lot of money recycling paper unless you have the means to accumulate and transport it properly. However, when used smart and as a way to put $10 in the gas tank it's priceless and that $10 can be used towards something else like paying a bill, saving the money, or treating yourself and a friend to a couple of those nice big cups of iced coffee complete with whipped cream on top.
If you plan on getting into the recycling or scrapping field, a good investment would be to purchase yourself a small scale to weigh your recyclables with. I would highly recommend this as you can keep track of how many pounds you have of whatever the materials may be (paper, steel, aluminum, etc.). Always call the recycling center/scrap yard ahead of time for prices. Then apply those quoted prices to how many pounds you have and that will give you a really good estimate of how much money you can expect to make on that particular trip.
Also keep in mind that other different grades/kinds of paper bring in different amounts of money and you don't want to combine them with the newsprint. This article was written with just strictly traditional newsprint stock or newspapers in mind.
I hope someone can utilize this tip. I have many, many more to post and they all gel together in the grand scheme of things. Stay tuned for other money making ideas to add to your revenue streams and until next time...keep turning your trash to cash!
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Now let me say right off the bat that unless you have the proper plan and set up (a constant source/supply, storage area, and means of transport) in place you will not make a lot of money recycling paper. However, that's not to say that you can't make a little extra money on the side. (...and If you have the ways and means to accumulate, save, and then transport the newspaper to the recycling center/yard then by all means save it in bulk) Read on....
You're probably wondering to yourself "How much is that old newspaper worth?" You can expect to get roughly 2 cents per pound for your old newspapers. The price fluctuates just like the stock market on some days you might get 1 1/2 cents per pound and other days you could get 2 1/2 cents. Always call ahead to make sure you know how much the recycling center is paying on the day you plan on taking your newspaper in.
Let's do a little math to see how much you need to hit a certain dollar mark assuming the going rate is 2 cents per pound.
100 pounds would equal $2.00 200 pounds would equal $4. 500 pounds would equal $10. 1 ton of newspaper, which is 2,000 pounds would only be $40.
As you can see, you would need a nice truckload of newspaper to make it worth your time to strictly try to make any money by recycling just paper alone. However, where recycling newspaper comes in to play in the grand scheme of things is when you factor it in to paying for your fuel. It's all about recycling your newspaper smart. If you know on one particular day you may be heading past the recycling center, then throw in a couple hundred pounds of newspaper and pay for your gas that way. (I should point out that uou don't want to make a trip to the scrap yard strictly for just 500 pounds of paper because you'll walk away even from it - you could however combine it on a trip to the scrap yard where you may have some more valuable precious metals like copper, which doesn't take up a lot of space......remember it's all about being smart about how and when to recycle it. For example, if you combined that 500 pounds of paper with two 5 gallon buckets full of copper, which combined may weigh a combined 30 pounds it would be worth it. The paper would get you $10 (pays for the gas)and the copper could get you anywhere from $60 to over $100 depending on the grade of copper.
500 pounds of paper sounds like a lot. But, in fact the space it takes up is rather small. Figure the back of your trunk full of newspaper and the passenger seat full of newspaper and that's a real close estimate for 500 pounds of newspaper.
As I said earlier you're not going to make a lot of money recycling paper unless you have the means to accumulate and transport it properly. However, when used smart and as a way to put $10 in the gas tank it's priceless and that $10 can be used towards something else like paying a bill, saving the money, or treating yourself and a friend to a couple of those nice big cups of iced coffee complete with whipped cream on top.
If you plan on getting into the recycling or scrapping field, a good investment would be to purchase yourself a small scale to weigh your recyclables with. I would highly recommend this as you can keep track of how many pounds you have of whatever the materials may be (paper, steel, aluminum, etc.). Always call the recycling center/scrap yard ahead of time for prices. Then apply those quoted prices to how many pounds you have and that will give you a really good estimate of how much money you can expect to make on that particular trip.
Also keep in mind that other different grades/kinds of paper bring in different amounts of money and you don't want to combine them with the newsprint. This article was written with just strictly traditional newsprint stock or newspapers in mind.
I hope someone can utilize this tip. I have many, many more to post and they all gel together in the grand scheme of things. Stay tuned for other money making ideas to add to your revenue streams and until next time...keep turning your trash to cash!
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online and Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Make Money Ebay Craigslist Tip: Rummage or church sales are a good place to get inventory
Rummage or church sales could be a good source for your someone to acquire inventory to resell. Many of these sales will drop their prices as the end of the sale draws near because they would rather move the items rather than have to clean it all up. (Typically too these items are donated to sell at church sales) This is where you need to be like a swashbuckling pirate swooping in to grab your booty.
Many times what they do is they will offer bag sales where you can stuff whatever you can into a bag for a $1. Now remember most of the items have been picked over at this point. But, if you've already taken a look around the sale make mental notes of where certain items that weren't worth buying individually are at so you can make a move on them fast. Typically, these will be nickel and dime items but you'll never know what you'll come across. I attended a 4th of July church sale and when it came to the $1 bag sale. I picked up about $50 worth of re-sellable merchandise in one $1 bag. 2 of the larger priced items in the bag were 2 Glenn Beck identical audio cd sets containing 7 cds in each one. I turned around and sold these to a used store yesterday for $12 for both of them. So I made my money back. The way I look at it is you can't go wrong dropping a $1 for a bag full of items. Remember too to check the condition of the items you buy if you intend on reselling them.
What you need to be looking for are items that you can turn around and make garaunteed money. Keep an eye out for any kind of metal such as brass items for scrap metal, which can immediately return money on your $1 investment. Knowing your types and how to recognize the various metals come into play here. Carry a small magnet with you to help decide if it's magnetic or non-magnetic. General rule of thumb - it's it's magnetic put it back because the price of steel isn't worth stuffing the item in the bag. You would be surprised at how many small household items are made of brass or copper. To the uneducated these types of items are still sitting around at the end of a sale. At the sale I mentioned above I stuffed 3 pounds of copper into the bag and 7 pounds of brass. That's roughly $16 right there in just scrap metal value.
Also, don't be afraid to take a gamble on some items such as old pictures in old frames because you never know what's hiding in the back of the picture. If it fits in the bag, you can't go wrong for a $1 investment. I will touch on what to look for in old pictures in another post.
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online & Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Many times what they do is they will offer bag sales where you can stuff whatever you can into a bag for a $1. Now remember most of the items have been picked over at this point. But, if you've already taken a look around the sale make mental notes of where certain items that weren't worth buying individually are at so you can make a move on them fast. Typically, these will be nickel and dime items but you'll never know what you'll come across. I attended a 4th of July church sale and when it came to the $1 bag sale. I picked up about $50 worth of re-sellable merchandise in one $1 bag. 2 of the larger priced items in the bag were 2 Glenn Beck identical audio cd sets containing 7 cds in each one. I turned around and sold these to a used store yesterday for $12 for both of them. So I made my money back. The way I look at it is you can't go wrong dropping a $1 for a bag full of items. Remember too to check the condition of the items you buy if you intend on reselling them.
What you need to be looking for are items that you can turn around and make garaunteed money. Keep an eye out for any kind of metal such as brass items for scrap metal, which can immediately return money on your $1 investment. Knowing your types and how to recognize the various metals come into play here. Carry a small magnet with you to help decide if it's magnetic or non-magnetic. General rule of thumb - it's it's magnetic put it back because the price of steel isn't worth stuffing the item in the bag. You would be surprised at how many small household items are made of brass or copper. To the uneducated these types of items are still sitting around at the end of a sale. At the sale I mentioned above I stuffed 3 pounds of copper into the bag and 7 pounds of brass. That's roughly $16 right there in just scrap metal value.
Also, don't be afraid to take a gamble on some items such as old pictures in old frames because you never know what's hiding in the back of the picture. If it fits in the bag, you can't go wrong for a $1 investment. I will touch on what to look for in old pictures in another post.
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online & Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Make money scrapping and recycling - Get Educated on the value and different types of Metals Here
If you want to get into metal recycling (scrapping), the first thing you should do is learn the values of the different types of metals. Generally, the most common types of metal you will run across are steel, aluminum, brass, and copper. I listed those in the order of value going from the cheapest prices paid (steel) to the most expensive prices paid (copper) per pound. You will also sometimes find mixed metal...say a piece of steel pipe is stuck is a brass fitting or you have an aluminum window that has a bunch of steel screws or other misc. steel parts - these will be paid roughly about 2 times whatever the going price per pound that steel is going for. That's just an estimate though to give you a rough idea of that the mixed metal is worth.
*I should note that unless you have someplace to store steel, it's a good idea to just take whatever steel you have with you whenever you go to the scrap yard. Simply because steel isn't worth as much and it's the bulkiest of the metals. You can have a whole truckload of steel that weighs say 1,000 pounds. If steel is going for say .05 per pound when you cash it in, then you're only looking at $50 for a full truckload of steel at the scrap yard. That's not too good of a scrap yard trip after you take away your fuel costs. What I try to do is round out my full steel loads with some more valuable metal like copper or aluminum. Say you have two 5 gallon buckets of copper wire you add to your truckload of steel. ....and say the copper in those buckets weighs 30 pounds. Copper usually hovers around $2 per pound depending on the type of copper. (You will have what's called #1 (clean....nice golden and shiny) and #2 (dirty...dirt stains, grimey, etc) copper). So that 30 pounds of copper equals $60 - more than your truckload of steel. Add that to your truckload to get the most value out of your trip to the scrap yard.
If you have the space, you can monitor the going price of steel and cash in when it's high. In the last couple of years the metal markets are a mirror image of the economy. Before the U.S. slid into a near depression steel was at an all time high and was going for 15 cents a pound. When the economy sank, so did metal prices and steel slid all the way down to 1.5 cents per pound at one point. It has since slowly creeped up into the 6 or 7 cents per pound range. So...keep an eye on those prices.
PRICES CHANGE DAILY AT THE SCRAP YARDS/RECYCLING CENTERS and you will need to monitor the prices to get the most value out of your scrap metal.
Don't throw away your used car batteries. These are accepted at the scrap yards. Prices change on them as well, but I've received anywhere from $2 to $4 per car battery. If you happen to be buying a new car battery, many places will refund you a "core charge" if you bring in your old battery as well.
Copper is the gold mine of the scrapping world, but at the same time...it's not easy to come across. You have to develop a keen eye to where you can find copper. A good place to get copper is in wires or air conditioners. In my area, I see a lot of used air conditioners that people put out by the side of the road and mark as free - simply because the old bulky air conditioners are energy hogs compared to the newer models. If you happen to come across these sitting by the side of the road, pull over and throw it in your car or truck. Inside you will find copper tubing, possibly some aluminum pieces, and the big money maker is the radiator found on the inside of the conditioners. You will have the steel shell and misc. pieces as well. What you do is strip the conditioner apart and seperate all the different metal because if you don't (and you just take the whole unit as is to the scrap yard) then scrap yard will just give you the low mixed metal price per pound. All in all a junk air conditioner can get you anywhere from $20 for a small window air conditioner to $40 for the larger window air conditioners.
To be continued.....
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online & Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
*I should note that unless you have someplace to store steel, it's a good idea to just take whatever steel you have with you whenever you go to the scrap yard. Simply because steel isn't worth as much and it's the bulkiest of the metals. You can have a whole truckload of steel that weighs say 1,000 pounds. If steel is going for say .05 per pound when you cash it in, then you're only looking at $50 for a full truckload of steel at the scrap yard. That's not too good of a scrap yard trip after you take away your fuel costs. What I try to do is round out my full steel loads with some more valuable metal like copper or aluminum. Say you have two 5 gallon buckets of copper wire you add to your truckload of steel. ....and say the copper in those buckets weighs 30 pounds. Copper usually hovers around $2 per pound depending on the type of copper. (You will have what's called #1 (clean....nice golden and shiny) and #2 (dirty...dirt stains, grimey, etc) copper). So that 30 pounds of copper equals $60 - more than your truckload of steel. Add that to your truckload to get the most value out of your trip to the scrap yard.
If you have the space, you can monitor the going price of steel and cash in when it's high. In the last couple of years the metal markets are a mirror image of the economy. Before the U.S. slid into a near depression steel was at an all time high and was going for 15 cents a pound. When the economy sank, so did metal prices and steel slid all the way down to 1.5 cents per pound at one point. It has since slowly creeped up into the 6 or 7 cents per pound range. So...keep an eye on those prices.
PRICES CHANGE DAILY AT THE SCRAP YARDS/RECYCLING CENTERS and you will need to monitor the prices to get the most value out of your scrap metal.
Don't throw away your used car batteries. These are accepted at the scrap yards. Prices change on them as well, but I've received anywhere from $2 to $4 per car battery. If you happen to be buying a new car battery, many places will refund you a "core charge" if you bring in your old battery as well.
Copper is the gold mine of the scrapping world, but at the same time...it's not easy to come across. You have to develop a keen eye to where you can find copper. A good place to get copper is in wires or air conditioners. In my area, I see a lot of used air conditioners that people put out by the side of the road and mark as free - simply because the old bulky air conditioners are energy hogs compared to the newer models. If you happen to come across these sitting by the side of the road, pull over and throw it in your car or truck. Inside you will find copper tubing, possibly some aluminum pieces, and the big money maker is the radiator found on the inside of the conditioners. You will have the steel shell and misc. pieces as well. What you do is strip the conditioner apart and seperate all the different metal because if you don't (and you just take the whole unit as is to the scrap yard) then scrap yard will just give you the low mixed metal price per pound. All in all a junk air conditioner can get you anywhere from $20 for a small window air conditioner to $40 for the larger window air conditioners.
To be continued.....
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online & Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Money Making Revenue Stream Tip 1 : Sell your pennies for up to 3-4 times face value
Cash in your pennies for more than face value with 0 % Investment and 0 % Risk
Here's a little money making tip that a lot of people don't know about - cashing in your copper pennies. What? You heard that right. Pennies made before 1982 consist of 95 percent copper. (About half way into 1982, the U.S. switched over to minting zinc pennies. So, there is also a percentage of pennies from 1982 that are copper. To keep it simple I tell everyone to save pre-82 pennies that way they know for sure they have the copper pennies) Copper is creeping up again in price due to a high demand for it. The mines cannot produce enough of it due to the huge demand for it from countries like China. Some predictions are saying that the price for copper could reach $5.00 per pound within the next few years.It takes roughly 150 pennies (I think the exact number is something like 146?) to equal a pound of copper. Right now copper is well over $3.00 a pound and it fluctuates daily just like the stock market. So figure those 150 pennies are worth $1.50 if you were to spend them at the store or just save them. They will always be worth 1 cent a piece. Never ever nothing more. However, if you cashed those 150 pennies in today at the scrap yard for the low end of $3.00 a pound you would double your money and walk away with $3.00.
Personally, I wouldn't go out of my way to to sell them now though. (If you do want to sell them now, read down below for a good tip on where to get the most bang for your "penny") My suggestion would be to sort them out of your daily pocket change and save them just in case you need an immediate need for a "rainy day fund" stash of money. Remember - any pennies before 1983 are the copper ones and the ones you need to sort out for the copper value. Pennies minted in 1983 and later consists of 97.5 percent zinc and are only plated in copper - those go in your other penny rainy day fund jar. lol
It does sound hokey or fishy to save currency in hopes of melting it down for scrap value, but it is one way that people are adding to their self-employment income streams. It is one way you can make some money and bleed all the value you can out of your hard earned money.
Now the real catch here is the investment potential and this is where you can maximize your penny value . If you go on ebay, you can see that there is a thriving market of copper speculators who are buying up copper pennies up in bulk and hoarding them. Head on over to Ebay and do a search for "copper pennies" and you will find people selling them from just 1 pound all the way up to hundreds of pounds.
There is another catch to this program and that would be how to acquire the pennies. What you do is go to your local banks and ask for large lots of pennies say in $25 or $50 lots. You sort out the copper pennies (either by hand or the faster way of via machine) and then take back the zinc pennies to the bank. Simple as that.
It is illegal to melt down currency for scrap value. In 2006 they re-enacted the law where you cannot melt down currency for scrap.
However, there are investors and speculators out there who are willing to buy the pennies at much more than face value because they believe that the melt ban will be lifted just like the silver melt ban was lifted. As a result these people are hoarding and stockpiling pennies in hopes of the big payday.
Scrap yards are one of those speculator/investors and there is a large thriving market on ebay to sell your pennies.
If you want to sell your copper pennies, you will need to personally call the scrap yards that are buying up the pennies in your area or sell them on ebay.
Just to clarify too...It is perfectly legal for you to sell your pennies this way but it is ILLEGAL for you to melt them down.
In these tough economic times every one needs to find ways to make money. Hope this helps someone out and would like to hear anyone's thoughts on it. Was this helpful?
Be sure to check out the following for more money making topics.....
The Dapper Scrapper Index to Making Money Online & Offline for Sustained Self Employment Income
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)