scrap metal prices and how it affects our hobby

[Cybrvanr]

This past weekend we had what our neighborhood calls a "cleanup day" This is where people can put out all sorts of bulk trash like yard waste, old furniture and appliances, etc. Generally, this is also a great day to go scavenge and find some good vintage junk, some of it in very restorable condition. Recently, however others outside the neighborhood have gotten word of this, especially scrap-metal people, and "attack" the neighborhood like vultures looking for anything with good metal in it...including major appliances!

I imagine the demand for scrap metal influences the avaliablility of good washers and other appliances outside of trash days such as this. Appliance dealers have gotten really reluctant to give up "trade-in's". In fact, one of the local appliance dealers that used to refurb tradeins and sell them in their next-door storefront. I imagine the reason for this is because they can get much more money scrapping them than they could selling them as operational machines. Appliance dealers also offer all sorts of incentives and discounts for giving them your old machine.

This doesn't seem to bode well for our hobby, as older machines are "turned in" versus kept or given away to others. I have also noticed that used appliance dealers, which used to proliferate around here, are becoming fewer and far between.

Luckily, there's a run of nostalgia and it's "cool" to have vintage mid-century stuff which helps buck the trend to scrap anything that's old. The problem is that this stuff is typically made of thicker, heavier , and thus more valueable metal. There are also more exotic types of metals in older appliances too, like brass, copper, etc, that fetch high values on the scrap market too, making the old stuff more desireable for scrappers than the newer stuff.

 

[toggleswitch]

~I have also noticed that used appliance dealers, which used to proliferate around here, are becoming fewer and far between.

In NYC where the poverty grid as an ovelay to the city grid grows every year, we have TONS of such purveyors of second-hand toys.
Once I have a permanent space, I'm a-going huntin'

 

[gadgetgary]

Just the other nite

I was trying to rescue an avocado green Maytag washer. The owners told me it was illegal to pick up anything on the street deemed as trash(what kind of BS line were they giving me?). In the next breath, they told me I was welcome to it if I really wanted it. Soon, the next town over from me will have bulk pick-up. That is when it is time to go 'street shopping' for a treasure.

BTW...I just happened to 'borrow' this from that avocado green Maytag on the street:

 

[toggleswitch]

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

~The owners told me it was illegal to pick up anything on the street deemed as trash (what kind of BS line were they giving me?)

Oh child, if anyone obeyed the law to that extent, that would have KILLED all the fun I had in my youth on the streets of Greenwich Village and Manhattan in general.

(ducks and runs)

 

[wannapinkset]

Thats what I have been saying. The scrappers are really agressive here even when you tell them you can up their profit for a choice before the scrap yard. Its like a stubborn streak, brain damage, too many drugs no comprehension, or something. They would rather crush them than make more money.

WTF? Where is the logic in that I ask you? I do not begrudge anyone a living. Scrap would be an issue without people that did this, but when there is an interest expressed and money offered, what is the major difficulty? Once crushed, lost forever.

Look at the prices on ebay lately for vintage machines! Jeez! 455.00 for a 1 18?!? Jeezus! Scrappers are selling to the wrong set of individuals. My opinion.

 

[launderess]

Supreme Court ruled years ago, once someone throws something into the rubbish,a nd that that rubbish hits the curb it is fare game.

Here we have a rather active community of immigrants who go through trash like vultures each time rubbish is put on the curb. Add to this the night before recycling pick up is a free for all with all and sundry from the immigrant community picking through discarded household items ranging from air conditioners, to vacuums, to fridges. For the larger things some people arrive in vans to cart them away, others simply hack away at the appliance to get out what they can. The noise at night sounds like a hoard of very large rats armed with baseball bats beating away at things. The latest arrival to this group is a truck of men that drive around picking up newspapers and magazines put out for recycling. Have no idea what they do with all that paper, as NYC recently stated it made no money on the stuff and at one point cut back on paper recycling/tried to do away with it all together.