Free Scrap

I'm cleaning out my garage.
Selling off junk, throwing stuff away.
I put an ad on Craigslist - a wheel barrow heaping full of metal - some steel, some copper and brass, copper wire, battery cables, etc and took a picture of it.
Gave my address and said the stuff was on the curb.
Then I wrote if you take my wheelbarrow I will come after you with an axe.
Old man and old lady came right away in a nice Prius.
Started throwing everything in the hatchback.
When they were about done loading I went out to get the wheelbarrow.
The old lady asked if I really had an axe.
I just laughed and told her I didn't think they could get the wheelbarrow in their car so she need not worry about that.
She gave me a grateful nod and they went on their way - probably $20 richer.
I like Craigslist.

I had a couple pieces of furniture I no longer needed. I put it out on the curb with a "Free" sign. College town, it was gone the 2nd day.

Daughter is living in a house of mine with a 400' driveway. She saw that neighbors had carts of various types they used to take the garbage to the road. Left them full at the road edge in the AM and hauled the empty carts back to the house later that day. Asked if I could get here one. Gave her the little red wagon she and her sisters used growing up. She was thrilled, using something from her childhood. First garbage day she used it, it was gone. Someone took it. Boy, was she P.O.'ed. :evil: Not sure why the neighbors don't have the same problem with their carts.

As for the scrappers, a neighbor of mine does it. Seeing his little p/u truck filled with stuff that he scavenges amazes me (some has very little metal on it, lots of plastic) I can't imagine how he pays for his gas, let alone make his time worthwhile.

I give abundance of apples away in the fall. Set five gallon buckets full in a cart at end of driveway. Set a pile of plastic bags there for them to put apples in. I wrote on the buckets "Don't take the buckets" Wouldn't you know it. Looked down there one time just as a black pickup was driving away. He had taken the apples and the buckets as well. It was a raised pickup with loud exhaust and I heard him slow down and turn into golf course quarter mile from me. I drove down their and there set that pickup. Guy was already in the clubhouse and my buckets were locked in the cab. I left a note on his windshield saying "I want my apple buckets back" Several hours later I heard him drive past my place and my buckets were gone for good.

Some people don't honor the honor system as said below... consider the source !

There is a place near the horse stable we have, that is a working dairy farm and they have a very small self serve store in an attached outbuilding, it has all the dairy items, fresh eggs and some great quality meats. All local and fresh, even locally made yogurt. There is a camera on you, there is a til drawer with money it it, you make your own change, you sign the sheet so they know who bought what in case there is a problem, as I think one of their products might skip homogenization or pasteurization, raw milk I believe, per NYS and other rules, have to wonder if anyone ever tried stealing, takes a real jerk to do that, the products they sell are sought after, I have seen ads in CL for people wanting to car pool to get this milk for some reason. I'd have to believe if one of them caught you taking something, you may have wished the police found you first, maybe not so much lately.... but....

I put an ad in for some scrap tin and cheap metal shelving a year ago, + one good shelving unit and within 30 minutes it was being loaded up, they took all of it, even what did not seem to have any use at all. This was for a neighbor across the lane. I think it took longer to post and delete the ad than it did for someone to take the discarded items. Great thing was, they took all of it.

They way people are today, I don't leave anything easily taken near the road or lane here, like one of my old jackson wheelbarrows from the 50's, both kept inside since new as told by the owners I got them from. They don't build them like that anymore, though the current models with the stamped tray are still a great product. Those or my gardenway carts, I'd be livid if someone heisted one of those, out of sight and out of mind, you just can't trust people today, well some of them at least.

I've made great use of CL, and this time of the year is the best for items, I keep seeing troybilt horse models cheap, implements and lots of useful tools and such.

flying Belgian,
when I was young, he would have had a broken window. :evil:

But age has taught me that doing that will get you in more trouble than the original issue was worth.

How can you say "nice" and"Prius" in the same sentence?
When you start putting blocks, heads, and such at your curb, I'll be over.

I know a few years ago, I bought a new washing machine, and sat the old one out by the road. I don't think it was there 20 minutes before it was gone!

JML, it could have the garbage man who took it. My brother put out a 55 gallon drum with the obvious appearance of a reusable container, with closed bags of refuse in it. From a distance he saw the garbage man toss it into the packer and crush it!

What an A hole!

Sometimes I'm pretty sure the entitlement mentality is more prevalent among some of the middle economic group rather than the lower economic group.

When we had a yard sale my wife put an old sewing machine out with a price tag of 25 cents. It sat all day. At the end I took all the price tags off and put a FREE sign on the table, sewing machine was gone within a half hour.

The little red wagon that your daughters had growing up is a desirable collectible. The neighbors' carts are just ordinary non-collectibles.

I agree, iv hade people just take eggs, or leave what price they wanted to pay rather than my price of $2.50 a dozen! Lol

I was on the receiving end last summer but it was a little disappointing. The county decided to replace the little 18 foot long X 15 foot wide bridge on the gravel road in front of my house. It had 12" channel iron stringers 18' long underneath that were in pretty good shape and I had always thought if they ever replace that bridge maybe I could get those stringers. When the contractor came to remove the bridge i asked him if i could have the steel. He called the boss, boss said yes. I was feeling pretty good about it till i came back the next day to find a pile of twisted and bent steel laying on the ditch. The guy in the trackhoe had just ripped it out as quick as he could. I put the grapple claw on the loader and loaded it on the trailer, chained it down and took it to the scrap yard. Money wise I came out OK. 5500 pounds of steel times whatever scrap was going for two years ago, but I lost the good channel irons I could have used some day.

I used to do some repair work for a guy that did that! He said he would only dump a 55 once, it stayed in the truck, too hard on peoples backs. That's why most garbage trucks have robotic arms now.

Got rid of lots of stuff with a free sign-- everything from chairs to stoves. Nobody ever stole my sign. Growing up on a poultry farm, we sold eggs at the house. Dad always had a jar with a few bucks in change for people along with the eggs. Dad said he made a lot of money with it because people felt funny about reaching in and making change, so they just left money. Try that 70 years later.

a couple years ago I stopped by a "pile" of scrap out for trash pickup. It was just a few items, not nearly a wheel barrow full. I hopped out and a guy was at the house so I hollered if the stuff was free. sure he said and that little tackle box thing is full of copper! So naturally, I opened it up. He immediately started screaming like a psycho about how he gave me something for free and I had to check it first like I thought he was a liar. I loaded it up since I was half done by then but I wish I had thrown it in his yard. What a freak he was and the box was not full of copper

2 days? Summer break?