A frustrating day at the local scrap yard .

[Tugger2]

I have a 75 ton American i have been slowly resurrecting . I needed some boom for it which i finally found sitting in the local scrap yard ive been dealing with for years .It had the heel section I needed as well as a good engine , torque converter and hydrostatic swing system.The former owners had already agreed to sell me the rest of the boom, for almost as much as they got for the whole crane I might ad.
When i talked to the yard manager i was told they had a destroy order on it,but was told to contact a regional manager which i did and explained that the former owners were selling me the rest of the boom .This was Monday of this week when i talked to him ,he was out of town and invited me to meet him at the end of the week to go over what i wanted and plan to to remove it. I didnt ask or haggle with him on price and he assured me that would not touch it until id viewed it and commited to the parts . I also explained that i have about 20 tons of other crane parts ready to ship in my yard ,most of it prepared to size ,oil drained ,cable cut and tin in a separate bin which i would deliver right away after we met and then square up on the parts.Also have a couple of 100 lbs of the brass in pails ready to ship. The heel section weights about 2400 lbs,engine and torque similar . Hopefully coming away with the parts i need and some cash for the rest of the boom from the previous owners. The manager had gone as far as to suggest they would just trade pound for pound.
End of the story is i go in there yesterday morning,hes not around to meet me.The office directs me to go in and see what i need and meet with one of the yard guys. I drive up to it ,its ripped to rat sh&t ,boom buckled and twisted engine smashed. Shear operator sitting his machine beside it saying nothing .Yard guy comes over and says oh we did this last week,which was BS as i saw intact at the end of last week thru the fence and got on the phone about it.
Sections of that 47H American boom are advertisted in the southern US on Crane Network for almost as much as they gave for the whole machine .
Im pretty frustrated as these parts were enough to make it worth while fixing this machine.I just wonder are these particular scrap people totally disorganized, mean spirited or just hired from the neck down and stupid. I know the scrap business pretty well and deals like this just add value to the scrap when done right.
My rant over!

 

[Old Doug]

Sorry i have been in that same deal before. One place very close to me had a truck like mine . i ended up with the front of it cab engine and the rear axle. I had to jump high and like to never made a deal to get it . How stupid they knew i would be using the truck i needed the parts for to haul to them. i dont haul to them any more.

 

[willie59]

There's a reason these knuckle draggers work at a scrap yard. Prolly couldn't get hired on to ride the back of a garbage truck.

 

[56wrench]

Most scrap dealers are the same— at least the ones i have encountered

 

[Tugger2]

They used to be a lot more diligent about getting value out of thier stock.They would know thier customers and call them up when they had piece of interest in the yard and sell the stuff at a decent profit . In those days i aquired lots of good parts at a great price. I even wound up with a really nice D6 9u and a D8 H.They made the profit with out the work,seemed like smart business to me. And in the the end that yard got every bit of my scrap ,now im a price shopper These 2 were my best scrap yard prizes.

 

[digger doug]

Every scrap yard around here seems to have the attitude "your trying to screw us, so we'll screw you first".

Except one small yard, so I go 30 miles to him.

 

[Welder Dave]

Then there's some that say they can't sell anything brought in as scrap. I don't know if you need to wave bundles of money in front of them or what but selling stuff intact at a profit seems like easy money to me.

 

[Tugger2]

They are just part of the world of lazy people that hide under the guise of liability,and holding up so called production.

 

[Shimmy1]

They are just part of the world of lazy people that hide under the guise of liability,and holding up so called production.

Or just enjoy being sh!tasses.