Buying Worn Out Tools of Construction Business

Also, if you were the owner of the business that's negotiating with me tomorrow and somehow knew that I didn't know what I was doing, how would you treat the situation? Would you try to get me to pay as much as possible or would you say, "eh, it's trash, just pay a small fee and we'll call it good."

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

>>1450111
Immediately get on the phone tomorrow, call some contractors, and figure out if they'd let you haul their trash tools/nails for free and/or how much they'd charge (I'd offer to "haul" it for free, don't ask them how much you could buy it for). You need to get a feeling for how valuable that scrap metal really is to you - if the company you're negotiating with is the only source reasonably available to you, then they have a lot more leverage than if you could "shop" elsewhere.

Scrap metal has value, but that value is probably counterbalanced by the cost of the construction company hauling it to the scrapyard and the cost of them bothering to collect it in the first place. Their desire for a contract COULD be to just formalize terms and ensure you couldn't fuck them on payment, or it could be an attempt to profit off of some junk they'd otherwise have to deal with. Hard to tell. If I were on their side, I'd probably try to see if I couldn't get you to pay me more than the cost of the scrap less transportation costs, but that's because I'm an asshole.

Your best strategy: learn what your alternatives are, and then have them make an offer price-wise. If I were you, I'd offer them a price pegged to the local scrap cost of the materials - that way, they win (they don't have to transport it but get the scrap value, saving money) and you win (you pay probably less than you would at a scrapyard). Of course, if you go with that strategy, I wouldn't budge on price, mainly because I'd be coming in with inherently fair win/win terms.

>>1450160
Thanks. I'm intending on mostly ending up with rusty nails which I don't think you'd end up getting at a scrap yard but honestly, I don't know how that works. I told them that I'd be only buying things that were worthless to them so I imagine things they could sell at a scrap yard they just sell to a scrap yard. I just get whatever's left over.

>>1450176
Some quick Googling indicates that scrapyards will take nails, but by the pound.

If they are collecting the nails and selling them to you by the pound, offer them the scrap value by the pound.

If they aren't collecting the nails - that is, if you're putting effort into collecting them - then don't offer a dime, because you're removing workplace hazard.

(The reason I'm so heavily emphasizing scrap value: it'll peg the negotiations really well for both of you. Scrap values are usually uber-low because scrap needs to be re-processed, meaning you benefit)

>>1450179
Okay, perfect. You may have just saved me. I didn't realize that you could send nails to a scrap yard, lol. Had you not given me this advice, I might have signed a contract owing him a monthly fee and then getting nothing for it because he could scrap it. Based on my email conversation with him so far, he'd only have to give me things he couldn't scrap. I may have just offered to pay him for nothing under contract, lol