Right, here goes, I am always looking at other ways to make my first million, so I have been chewing over the following idea for the last few weeks, and doing a little bit of market reserch, and now I would like to ask other members if they have ever looked at doing this, and how (as I am now at a dead end) to go forward.....

I have been spending my Sundays up at my local recycling centre, and on average each week, something in the region of approx 50 - 75 PC base units come in for recycling.

My idea would be to approach the recycling centre with a view to holding a contract for all recycled IT equipment to come my direction. (At the moment all that comes in gets crushed, then shipped away).

Now at this time, I could approach the "right person" at the centre and offer him / her £3.00 and often they are happy with me taking a base unit home. The only issues with this is im never going to get away with turning up and taking all of them! + I often miss the good stuff, and find someone else has spend £3.00 doing it

In a past life (before I sold military equipment) I was an IT person for the Police, so I understand my way around IT equipment.

So armed with a screw driver, I would then strip down the base units, get them ready for re-sale, and sell them on.

Now for question time?

Do other members think this could be a good idea?
Has anyone else tryed this before?
How would you go about approaching the people concerned?

and yes I know I may have given away a great business idea, but if I don't do it and someone else does from here well done to them!

Regards

Yes it sounds a good idea,
Your first point of contact will be with the man at the gate have a word with him first you'll either get a yes or no , and you can always try other recycling centres in your area
Don't offer money first use that as your last resort,

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Ihave done this before but not with computers, I had an uncle who used to work at one. He would collect all of the best bits and bobs and pass them on, also, Why not take a look at the piece they have for old mobiles? Most have those now as well.

I think you'll find you will have to go much higher than that. Everyone there with exception of maybe the manager are just regular employees.

You'd have to speak to the actual private company who run the site and do a deal.

Of course you can slip back handers etc and take your chances, but that is hardly accountable to running a business.

I'd imagine you'll find they have similar deals in place for most of their recycling, after all they are ran by private companies now and have bills to pay. Mobile phones will go to one company, clothes to another etc etc etc.

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Last edited by greedyboy; 15-01-2008 at 12:53 AM.

Do other members think this could be a good idea?

I'm not going to say whether this could work or not, as I really don't know. However, ask yourself, why are people actually throwing the computers out? I very much doubt it will be a repairable fault. Chances are it will be due to old hardware, that in reality carries very little or no value.

Has anyone else tryed this before?

No, as I wouldn't choose to spend my weekends at a recycling centre for the sake of a few quid. Its just not how I choose to do business, but if it works for you, go for it!

How would you go about approaching the people concerned?

I'd say you have a pretty good chance of striking a deal with a few of the employees. Whether it would be by the book, I very much doubt it. They may even put a few things aside for you (once you have gone along a few times). Like Boro97 suggested, don't offer money, unless you need to. Likewise, don't let on that your hoping to profit from them. Although, I would not be surprised if they have some kind of policy in place to stop people coming and collecting other peoples junk.

In all fairness, I don't think this will get you much closer to your first million. Sorry to be so negative...

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Last edited by PT; 15-01-2008 at 12:54 AM.

Everyone who runs a wate management company is in the mafia , Be careful.

My son makes his living picking up recycleables on the street. I guess you could call him a junk man.

He picks up all sorts of computer stuff right out on the curbs. Locally the cities pick up anything that isn't normal household trash and recycleables like bottles, tins and paper with a knuckle-boom or cherry-picker type truck once a week. My son just goes around before them.

He makes a couple of trips a day to the scrap yard with steel, copper, brass and aluminum. You would not believe the lawnmowers, bicycles, electronics and computer goodies he picks up. I keep telling him he could sell them at a flea market, but he "wholesales" them. Has one guy buys washers and dryers, another buys vacuum cleaners, etc. Not much, maybe $ 10 each, or a good swap, but at the end of the day he's got a hand full of cash.

Plenty of computers, including laptops out there for the picking.
.

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The funny thing is here in China, every morning, we have guys using a horn announce "Buy used refrigerator, color TV, and computer!"

It is too much noise to hear it every morning in almost every corner in our city. They have a team to collect the old electronic stuffs. The boss has became a millionaire in a very short time.

I think you will find (as mentioned above) that most of these places already have 'agreements' in place. I know some sell the stuff themselves, while others supply people.

Our local plant supplies a large second hand shop. I know this because I took some old office furniture there a while ago and then saw it a week later sat outside the shop!

Originally Posted by Tango34uk

Right, here goes, I am always looking at other ways to make my first million, so I have been chewing over the following idea for the last few weeks, and doing a little bit of market reserch, and now I would like to ask other members if they have ever looked at doing this, and how (as I am now at a dead end) to go forward.....

Hehe, i think most people on here are, its one big game!!! Pass go, collect 200!!!!!

Originally Posted by Tango34uk

I have been spending my Sundays up at my local recycling centre, and on average each week, something in the region of approx 50 - 75 PC base units come in for recycling.

Hardcore!! Then again, I used to mooch around car scrap-yards when I had a VW camper, mostly for parts to keep it going but sometimes I would see something there that could be sold on easially or was rare, such as certian wheels, swtiches etc.. I will maby go again soon, its kind of fun at the same time..

Originally Posted by Tango34uk

So armed with a screw driver, I would then strip down the base units, get them ready for re-sale, and sell them on.

Like PT says, if you think there is profit in old and probablly broken computers, then why not.. But when you can pick up a new computer from ebuyer for something like £150, I guess your target audience would be limited.

Computers I have thrown out in the past were like win95 machines that could not or not economically upgraded to run 98/00 or XP. IMHO most people purchasing a computer would look for a modern system that can atleast get them on the internet.

I dont want to pick holes in your plan, becuase I sure havent come up with a money making beast of a idea yet either. It just seems alot of work in a market where prices are so low anyway..

If you go for it, as others have said, the first few times I would try and talk to some employees to get them to keep good stuff for you or to allow you to have first call on all of it. This way you can see if it works without too much hassle. If it does then you will need to make it more offical and get involved with management for contracts etc.

It was good to read through an idea which was better thought out with a more viable idea rather than just "Ive found a supplier doing Ipods for 20p, is this a scam" or "I want to sell ps3s and make £1 for every 400 spent.." :niceone:

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Last edited by cunning plan; 15-01-2008 at 09:16 AM.