- Joined
- Feb 3, 2001
- Messages
- 32,359
I've been collecting/accumulating knives for upwards of 40 years and in that time I've only found a few ways of adding to my collection.
1) Buying a knife. 75%
2) Finding a knife .03%
3) Gifted/given a knife 20%
4) Making a knife 02%
(I don't consider trading to be adding unless your getting 3 for 1)
Now if all those options the one I wanna talk about is the 75% category, "Buying a knife".
If your one of of the lucky minority then you can just plop down a credit card and buy whatever you want when you want it. I'm not one of those lucky few but I'm sure I'm in the majority of enthusiasts who has to save up for my next purchase so how do I do it?
There were several ways I could pay for my purchases when I was still working, (not on a fixed income like now) hopefully this thread will give you guys some ideas on where to get some extra cash not only for knives but maybe something else you want or need.
Now through necessity I've had to get creative and resourceful to add extra money to my knife fund and I can't remember how many times I had $100+ saved for a knife and something came along that needed the money more than I did, (like the daughters car needed a tune up, or brakes, bills, whatever...) forcing me to start over again.
Hopefully some of my ideas will inspire a dialog here that'll get us sharing some other ideas on how to fund our addictions.
One of my favorite ways to make extra money for my knife purchases is scrapping, if you have a pickup truck, station wagon, car, heck even a motorcycle/bicycle you can make some money, the last time I went to scrap I took two aluminum truck rims from a truck I scrapped earlier in the year on the back of my motorcycle, made $30.
The key is to scrap the highest $ to weight ratio metals, ultimately gold and silver will get you the most $ for the weight but unless you were one of the Hunt bros. in the 70s-80s you'll have to rely on the lesser valued metals, copper/brass, aluminum and steel.
Of those three copper/brass is the most valuable and will get you to your goal quicker and with less effort, as with all scrap the the key to getting the most money is separating your scrap, the more homogenous,(mixed up) your scrap is the less $ per pound you'll get, could be the difference of between $10 for your load and $200.
See the scrap yards don't care what you bring them they make money no matter what, although they make more the more you do to separate it the more makes their job easier and as a benefit you get more for what you brought them so it's too your benefit to prep your scrap.
That means separating it into different categories,(you will have to learn to distinguish the different types of metals), from what they call light steel, (appliances, fenders, metal shelves/rack's) anything made of any kind of mixed metals up to what they call brite or clean, meaning all pure, no mixed metal. This may just be a matter of taking out steel screws from an aluminum window frame or the handle off a brass valve.
As far as sources for scrap, just take a walk or drive around your neighborhood, there are opportunities to pick up free scrap everywhere, aluminum cans and scrap metal litter the roadsides, every day of the week there is someone throwing out something,(garbage picking for money, we'll talk about that later) you could scrap.
If you don't have room for all kinds scrap metal concentrate on the more valuable stuff brass, copper and aluminum, every electrical device has something of value, the power cords are typically copper, just strip off the insulation for a higher scrap value.
Air conditioners are a small gold mine, just make sure the refrigerant has been legally recovered, some municipalities and businesses will recover the gas for free. In a typical air conditioner there's aluminum, copper and steel in one package.
Cars are another gold mine, people will pay you to remove cars just keep in mind that cars present some unique issues of their own, titles, leans some yards want that cars drained of all fluids things that require a certain degree of skill, a way to move the vehicles, the place to do it and tools but if you have those things it's possible to make between $300-$600 per car even way more if you sell parts, again scrapping cars is a whole other animal that requires a separate thread.
Last thing is to find out who pays the best for scrap, scrap prices like the stock market ride and fall so check prices for up swings or major drops and sell your scrap accordingly, when I was 15-18 I could make $600-$1000+ on a weekend scrapping.
Hopefully you got something outta this if nothing else if I'd didn't educate you I hope it at least entertained you.
I think I'll make this an ongoing blog but my hope is that in the meantime this thread will generate some exchange of ideas and we'll brought from them.
Next installment making some extra cash at the flea market... (mods I'd like to keep this in general if possible, I think that most would benefit from it here but if this is not the appropriate forum please feel free to move it.
1) Buying a knife. 75%
2) Finding a knife .03%
3) Gifted/given a knife 20%
4) Making a knife 02%
(I don't consider trading to be adding unless your getting 3 for 1)
Now if all those options the one I wanna talk about is the 75% category, "Buying a knife".
If your one of of the lucky minority then you can just plop down a credit card and buy whatever you want when you want it. I'm not one of those lucky few but I'm sure I'm in the majority of enthusiasts who has to save up for my next purchase so how do I do it?
There were several ways I could pay for my purchases when I was still working, (not on a fixed income like now) hopefully this thread will give you guys some ideas on where to get some extra cash not only for knives but maybe something else you want or need.
Now through necessity I've had to get creative and resourceful to add extra money to my knife fund and I can't remember how many times I had $100+ saved for a knife and something came along that needed the money more than I did, (like the daughters car needed a tune up, or brakes, bills, whatever...) forcing me to start over again.
Hopefully some of my ideas will inspire a dialog here that'll get us sharing some other ideas on how to fund our addictions.
One of my favorite ways to make extra money for my knife purchases is scrapping, if you have a pickup truck, station wagon, car, heck even a motorcycle/bicycle you can make some money, the last time I went to scrap I took two aluminum truck rims from a truck I scrapped earlier in the year on the back of my motorcycle, made $30.
The key is to scrap the highest $ to weight ratio metals, ultimately gold and silver will get you the most $ for the weight but unless you were one of the Hunt bros. in the 70s-80s you'll have to rely on the lesser valued metals, copper/brass, aluminum and steel.
Of those three copper/brass is the most valuable and will get you to your goal quicker and with less effort, as with all scrap the the key to getting the most money is separating your scrap, the more homogenous,(mixed up) your scrap is the less $ per pound you'll get, could be the difference of between $10 for your load and $200.
See the scrap yards don't care what you bring them they make money no matter what, although they make more the more you do to separate it the more makes their job easier and as a benefit you get more for what you brought them so it's too your benefit to prep your scrap.
That means separating it into different categories,(you will have to learn to distinguish the different types of metals), from what they call light steel, (appliances, fenders, metal shelves/rack's) anything made of any kind of mixed metals up to what they call brite or clean, meaning all pure, no mixed metal. This may just be a matter of taking out steel screws from an aluminum window frame or the handle off a brass valve.
As far as sources for scrap, just take a walk or drive around your neighborhood, there are opportunities to pick up free scrap everywhere, aluminum cans and scrap metal litter the roadsides, every day of the week there is someone throwing out something,(garbage picking for money, we'll talk about that later) you could scrap.
If you don't have room for all kinds scrap metal concentrate on the more valuable stuff brass, copper and aluminum, every electrical device has something of value, the power cords are typically copper, just strip off the insulation for a higher scrap value.
Air conditioners are a small gold mine, just make sure the refrigerant has been legally recovered, some municipalities and businesses will recover the gas for free. In a typical air conditioner there's aluminum, copper and steel in one package.
Cars are another gold mine, people will pay you to remove cars just keep in mind that cars present some unique issues of their own, titles, leans some yards want that cars drained of all fluids things that require a certain degree of skill, a way to move the vehicles, the place to do it and tools but if you have those things it's possible to make between $300-$600 per car even way more if you sell parts, again scrapping cars is a whole other animal that requires a separate thread.
Last thing is to find out who pays the best for scrap, scrap prices like the stock market ride and fall so check prices for up swings or major drops and sell your scrap accordingly, when I was 15-18 I could make $600-$1000+ on a weekend scrapping.
Hopefully you got something outta this if nothing else if I'd didn't educate you I hope it at least entertained you.
I think I'll make this an ongoing blog but my hope is that in the meantime this thread will generate some exchange of ideas and we'll brought from them.
Next installment making some extra cash at the flea market... (mods I'd like to keep this in general if possible, I think that most would benefit from it here but if this is not the appropriate forum please feel free to move it.
