WHY do people do this??
 

Maybe there's a legitimate reason for it that eludes me, but...

I can't remember the last time I pulled something off the curb with a fully intact AC power cord. They are always cut off, or at least have the plugs lopped off the end (easier to fix). Maybe it's to prevent kids from getting entangled or strangled, or to stop people messing with potentially dangerous failed equipment...but I lean more towards selfish and stingy people trying to prevent others from getting use out of their castaways! What do you think? A 27-inch Philips Magnavox S-Video equipped stereo CRT TV set I rescued last night needed absolutely nothing except a cord. :headscrat

The main reason? Copper scrap. The owner probably didn't do it. Some scrapper driving by probably snagged the cord.

its scrappers

Another reason that might account for a small percentage- recalls. I had a crock pot that was recalled. They sent a new unit, but they included a prepaid envelope and asked that I mail them the plug off the old one to prove it had been disabled.

It's amazing how some people scrounge up the tiniest bits of copper, thinking they're going to get any significant amount of money.

While in college, I worked as a telecom installer, and one time when we were pulling a lot of network cable (4-pair CAT6) in a large building, one of the janitors kept gathering up our cable scraps, which were only a couple feet long or so. He thought he was going to get big money for it.

There is a place nearby with a sign asking for ANY copper wire.
You see a guy sitting inside a box truck stripping insulation off it.
Wonder how that pays off.:scratch2: At least theyre not burning it off.

Yes, that's a good point. I had a surge protector outlet strip by APC which was recently recalled, and while they didn't require me to send in anything as proof (other than a digital photo of the serial tag), they instructed to destroy it by cutting off the cord.

Isn't that the type of cable where the conductors are copper clad steel?
If you take a magnet to the wire, it's attracted to it. :scratch2:

No, it's solid copper. This is what is used for Ethernet jacks (often called "RJ45" jacks).

I'd imagine the copper in a four-foot-long stranded power cable is worth such a trivial amount of money (as is the yoke!) that people wouldn't bother...this whole scrapping thing really has gotten way out of hand IMO. I can remember five years ago it didn't exist at all. Now we have trucks and vans driving down our street at all hours of Monday and Thursday nights. I'm very lucky if I get to save anything now. FWIW I'd rather these things fixed up and sold or given to people that can use them, instead of being completely destroyed for at most a couple dollars. >_<

I don't get it either. You would think driving around a full-size chevy truck or a big ford van getting 8mpg clipping random power cords would not be profitable.

That is a VERY good point!! :headscrat

Yup, as soon as I saw an older clothes dryer that I thought to be worth saving, I started dragging it. I wouldn't leave it long enough to go home for my dolly, which was fairly nearby. I knew from experience that a scrapper would have it before I got back. I was going to hide it and then get my dolly, but then I was offered help. The rear feet were destroyed from grinding on the concrete, but they're just specialized bolts, gone now.

Hey, it was free.

You should have seen me last week, toting an RCA D52W19 rear-projection HDTV over a mile from the thrift store dumpster to my house...on a modified wagon. :P

The said dolly also brought home a junker Hitachi console TV over 4 1/2 miles. Good for parts at least I figured, mainly the delta-gun CRT. I did part it out once I discovered that someone had severed and spliced the HV 2nd anode wire. Two days ago the stored 25VCXP22 was hit from the back by a falling small plant pot; lucky for me it was the pot that broke, I was standing directly over the thing. No more careless storage of small, hard items.

My neighbor does scrap, and he won't even waste his time with power cords. The great thing about a scrapping neighbor is that I can go through his pile anytime I want for parts or whatever. I haven't bought a lawnmower in years, when they die I just trade them in :D

Occasionally, I'll feel sorry for something that he's picked and give it a home. That's why I have a 1948 Westinghouse fridge in my basement....the finish isn't great but it works perfectly and silently. I just couldn't let something like that go to waste.

Had a tragic scrapping this week on my block, the one neighbor's dad passed away and I watched a perfect 1991 Caprice with low miles get hauled off by the junkyard. I almost cried. But the guy is the neighborhood looney (and I mean LOONEY) and nobody talks to him, else I might have tried to save it at the last minute.

That reminds me of a cougar I spotted one day. (80s cougars are my thing, heh). Anyway, it was a perfect 83, no rust, 5.0. It was just sitting in a driveway with 4 flat tires. I stopped and talked to the guy, he said it belonged to a guy who died and he couldn't get the title. He put a jump pack on it and it started right up. He said he'd try to get the title and he would sell it to me. Well, I stopped there about once a week for about 3 weeks. I wonder if I wore out my welcome. I came back on week 4 and it was gone and he wouldn't answer the door. Coincidentally I had to go to the junk yard that week, and there it was, crushed in the middle of a stack. Oh that made me wanna puke. What a waste. Even with no title that would have been an excellent parts car, even for the junk yard to part out! But they do that all the time, smash them immediately without even putting them in the yard. That kind of keeps with the theme of this thread, useless scrapping of otherwise good things.

I'd say some of us are past due for opening specialty junk yards with a large portion dedicated to older cars. Newer stuff for the fools who have to have the latest of everything, just to keep the business running, the rest for our preferred customers and ourselves.

I had a good thing going with a local scrapper at one point; I'd bring him old computers and cheap or otherwise unrepairable BPC and he'd let me take anything vintage or antique in return. I got some good stuff through him, but a couple years ago his wife had a kid and he had to stop scrapping to help at home. But hey, now I have less competition :D

My grandfather did this to the devices he gave to me. Why? He didn't even know. Oh well, that MiniDisc player is up and running once again.

Had an 84 cougar with the V6... All i have left now is the grille.. :D

SR