[00:07] Speaker 1: Welcome to the Junk Refund Show, hosted by Alan J. Cook, founder of 1-800-JUNK REFUND. Have you ever paid those expensive junk removal companies to take away some of your stuff only to say to yourself, as a truck drives off down the street, "Some of that stuff wasn't junk." Did they try to sell it for you and give you some money back? No. Well, now there is a company that can do just that. Listen to our weekly Junk Refund Show on BBS Radio TV to learn how one lady spent $375 on junk removal and got $3,200 back. 1-800-JUNK REFUND represents the next generation of junk removal. Learn how to not only save your money on junk removal, but how to get some money coming back. Plus, purchase one of our radio vouchers during the show to save even more on your junk removal. Let's get the junk out of your home and out of your life. Now, with your host, Alan J. Cook.

[01:32] Speaker 2: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Junk Refund Show coming to you live today from the freeway, we call it the beltway, around Washington, DC. Just crossing exit 50, which is for Highway 50, which is in the Arlington, Virginia area. We're headed ... My buddy, June and I, we are headed to Alexandria to clean out a condo that could be, you know, three or four truck loads of stuff eventually, but today, they just want to start with one. It happens to be in the apartment complex that is also one of our customers where we go down monthly and clean out their storage units of the metal and the stuff that people, you know, s- are throwing away from a large apartment complex. So, we got kind of two birds with one stone today, and the apartment complex also has some stuff that they want to get out. So we are on the road, doing the show live for you. Welcome to the world of junk removal as I slowly scroll, scroll down through my outline while I'm in lane two, going south on 495.

[02:38] Speaker 2: We try to make it exciting folks, that's don't ever drive on the freeway holding a phone up to your mouth, that's a bad idea. But that's what we're doing right now. So we'll take our chances and hopefully n- get out of it without a ticket, if you know what I'm saying. Anyway, welcome to the show. It's, uh, it's a lot of fun. It's the world's longest running junk removal radio show. We're in, like, between year three and four, or something like that now. Proud to be on the BBS Radio TV network. They do a great job. Show goes to about 49 countries. Um, I don't know how many cities, but probably 3 or 400 cities probably. And we are thrilled to be doing it. So, it's got a little, we got a little bit of rain coming down. Not a big deal. Um, and we're having a fun day. I just wrote down earlier today to kind of do a quick outline for the show, l- literally about 20, 20 items, uh, to talk about. Um, and I'm excited to do that.

[03:38] Speaker 2: I do want to start with a job we did this morning and do a shout-out to a lady named Roxanne. Roxanne is somebody who apparently I have helped before 'cause I think she said something about, you know, "You've helped me in the past," et cetera. And we were down in DC, very nice lady, we were down in DC helping her move some stuff out. It was a Groupon job, and if you want to have some fun, go to groupon.com, look up 1-800-JUNK REFUND, look at our reviews. As of this morning, there were 509 reviews on there. They rate you, as you know, from zero to five. We have a 4.8 rating on 509 reviews. If you translate that to a customer appreciation percentage, that's 96% to 97%. Geico is at 97%. I, I kind of want to pass them and then make a big deal out of it, but we're at 96% customer satisfaction on over 500 jobs. So that should tell you something.

[04:47] Speaker 2: I, they tell me at Groupon that that is the highest customer rating of any junk removal company in the country, and they also tell me that if you're in the 90th percentile, or a rating of about 4.5, you're generally one of the best in your industry. We're at 4.8, right? 96%, 97% customer satisfaction, and the job we did this morning for Roxanne was a Groupon job. Uh, she and, I'm gonna guess it's her daughter, I may be wrong, but I think she and her daughter were there bringing some stuff out of kind of a basement condo that they have, and it included a mattress, a queen-sized mattress, which she was nice enough to say, "Hey, let me help you with this." And I basically just illustrated to her how you can roll a mattress upstairs, right? Up some stairs. And that's what I did.

[05:42] Speaker 2: I just took it and kind of end over end rolled it up the stairs, got it up to the top, took it out to the alleyway, put it there with the, some other stuff that she has, and all, and, and then she grabs her phone when we're all done, we pull up her Groupon voucher, we redeem it right there, and we're all good.So, kind of a cool thing. It was a lot of fun, and I told her this morning that I'm doing a radio show this afternoon and I was going to do a shout-out to her. So, shout-out to my friend Roxanne in Washington, D.C., northwest D.C., who bought a condo there and is doing a great job and was kind enough to help bring some stuff out. You also see some interesting stuff when you do these jobs, 'cause you're never really sure what you're going to get your hands on. For the first time in 20 years, I saw, and I hauled away because it was in her place, a miniature dryer. This miniature dryer is about the size of a college student's fridge. You know those fridges, those kind of things?

[06:42] Speaker 2: Couple of feet wide, three feet high maybe, something like that. This was a little bit bigger, but it is a, it's kind of a mini-dryer, and I was kind of fascinated with it. Um, I've got it on the back of the truck right now along with the rest of her stuff while we're going to do this other job, but I've never seen a miniature dryer before, and I was quite impressed with it and I'm interested to kind of look inside it a little bit and just kind of how this thing's built. But, anyway, you see some interesting stuff in this business, and you never really know what you're going to get next. The job we're going to right now, the apartment complex has a cast iron tub and then a couple of o- other appliances, probably a, um, you know, a washer-dryer or a stove or something like that. We're going to pick that up, but then we're going to help a lady get some stuff out who is moving, and we're going to do, like, phase one today. So, that should be kind of fun. Um, I want to talk about...

[07:44] Speaker 2: First thing I wrote down today when I did this was the, the concept of taking charge of your own finances, and the reason I say that is because I have, um, trucks that I rent to do these bigger jobs, and, uh, they, they cost a certain amount of money every month or every week. We kind of, n- um, renew the, the rental for them every week, and it, and it has to be paid for with a credit card. And I don't know exactly how the credit card company does what they do, but there's a difference between authorizing a credit card and capturing a credit card when you're the, the vendor, uh, collecting some money. And sometimes what would happen is I would walk into the rental place, I would pull up my app for my credit card. It would say, "Here's your, here's your credit limit. Here's what you have available." and stuff, and if there's enough in there to go ahead and charge some money to rent the truck for a week, then I would do that. And they would go ahead and run it and say, "Okay, Mr.

[08:46] Speaker 2: Cook, you're good. Here are the keys." Boom, and I'm gone, and then I'm a happy lark for a week. Well, what happens sometimes is that they authorize the purchase that you want to make, but they don't capture it, and they go in and do the capture of everything, if I understand it correctly, kind of at the end of the month. So... And sometimes the vendors, uh, you know, in this case, uh, Cap- well, the banks, you know, in this case Capital One, for example, w- over the course of the month, they will approve an authorization, but then two weeks later, it can fall off, and it shows up on my app as credit that's still available. And so, I learned the hard way once when I went to Europe and I landed. All of a sudden, this money that I had put into the, into Capital One to pay down the balance, and I put, you know, a few thousand dollars extra cash in there, was gone (laughs) and I landed in Paris and I had zero credit available, which is a really painful situation.

[09:54] Speaker 2: And I intentionally put more money in there based on what my, what the numbers were in the app. Well, the bottom line is they go in, and at the end of the month, they can go in and capture what they had authorized during the, the prior three or four weeks, and that can send your credit limit over its limit, and you have no credit available, and it can be a couple thousand bucks, right? So, you know, when I was in Paris and I called the, the truck guys to talk about this, I said some things that were, you know, I, I used a little French. Let's put it that way. I was really mad, because I, I'm looking at, "How much, how much credit do I have? What's my credit line? What's available?" Every week that I go in there or talk to them or call them and they run the card for a, you know, certain amount and it's approved, then in my mind, that says, "Okay, that's paid for," and then I don't have to worry about that. Well, I'm wrong.

[10:52] Speaker 2: At the end of the month, it can come in and all of a sudden get captured, and all of a sudden, because it's been authorized and approved, it can send my credit card over its limit, and I don't have squat to work with, right? Well, I have had discussions with the rental people about, "How do you guys do this? How does the bank do this?" I've even talked to the bank, and I still can't tell you exactly how it all happens, but that's not my point. My point is you have to take charge and responsibility for your own situation, and if you want, in this case, if you don't want your credit card to go over its limit at the end of the month, then you'd better be making some payments to pay it down during the month so that when these big captures come in at the end of the month, you've already taken care of that, right? In advance. And then you don't get in this situation where things go overboard and all of a sudden you're kind of screwed.

[11:50] Speaker 2: So, I've just, I just put down this morning one of the things I want to talk about was just the concept, and, and you've done what I've done. You've walked into banks before and stood in line to make a deposit, and some miniature scuffle is happening between the teller and the customer ahead of you because the customer swears there should be more money in that account.And the teller says, "I'm sorry, sir, there's not," and, you know, "What's wrong with your bank?" Blah, blah, blah, and then a few expletives are, you know, shared. I- i- it just, it's a, it... Money is an issue, let's be honest. Money is an issue in life, and you want to take charge of it and be responsible for it. And I'm talking to myself here, as much or more so than anybody who might be listening. Take responsibility for it, and it's a... You know, numbers don't lie.

[12:39] Speaker 2: It's all math, so numbers don't lie, and rental truck companies know what they're doing, and credit card companies and banks, they know what they're doing, as a general rule. So if there's a problem, look to yourself first, see if, see how to approach it so that you don't have the same problem again, and then maybe look beyond that. But I'm, I'm, I'm just kind of saying out loud one of the ways, because this show is about how to get the junk out of your homes and out of your lives and out of your garages and stuff, one of the ways to get some of the junk out of your mental life is to reduce the number of financial problems that show up. And you can do that by taking charge of your finances and owning it and being on top of it, and don't be one of these people who walks into the bank and says, "Well, where'd my money go?" Well, you spent it, ding-dong, doing, you know, whatever you did.

[13:35] Speaker 2: So, anyway, just a shout-out that, uh, because money is an issue in life, and because a lot of things depend on it, um, taking good control of it and knowing what you're doing is critical, and I think it can lead to less stress, more happiness, and frankly, more money in the bank. So, I've kind of shifted my thoughts to say, you know what? It's a nationwide reputable truck rental company, it's a nationwide reputable banking company. Those guys know what they're doing, and if there's a problem, I probably need to look at myself first, and my actions, and then I can talk to them about theirs. That's not exactly how I've approached it in the past, but it is how I'm approaching it now, because I think that's just the right way to do it. And, you know, uh, what was the song that, that Michael Jackson sang? If you want to make a, a difference in the world, look at the man in the mirror? Something like that, right? So maybe that's a little bit of, of, uh, MJ wisdom for us at the same time.

[14:42] Speaker 2: Um, okay, on to number two. Uh, happy birthday. One week ago today, Abraham Lincoln turned 217. He was born on February 12th, 1809. I live in the Washington, DC area, so these presidents are big part of our culture here, and we decided to do a promotion in honor of his birthday, and for President's Day, that I'm quite proud of. Um, this is a deal that is available in the Washington, DC area. It technically could be ap- ap- applicable around the country, um, if you buy more than one of these. But let me tell you what we did. A regular Truckload of Stuff, which is a 12-foot box truck of stuff, that's like the size truck that you'd rent from Home Depot, for example, or a 12-foot U-Haul truck. One of those is 695, $695 retail price. There are companies in the Washington area that'll charge you 8 or 900 bucks for that same thing. We try to price stuff about 20 to 25% below some of these bigger companies.

[15:48] Speaker 2: That's the regular price, but what we did, given that he was born on February 12th, is we made 12 of these truckloads available on a first-come-first-served basis for $217 off in honor of his birthday. So instead of $695, it's $478. That, my friends, is 32% off. These are actually good, or could be good around the country if you buy at least two of them. It's not worth it for us to fly around the country and come help you out when it's just one truckload of stuff, although we've done that before. Um, but if you want to buy a couple of them, then that's available. So we, we have, we made 12 of them available. We sold one so far, we've got 11 of them available. We just started advertising it on Facebook and some other things, other places, Craigslist and other places. But that is a great deal. That's 32% off, and a Truckload of Stuff is like four pickup trucks full of stuff, just to give you an idea.

[16:48] Speaker 2: The other thing is, if you have a house, I was just talking to a gentleman who called me just before I got on this show, uh, whose parents are moving. The parents are in their upper 80s. He needs to get their house cleaned out, three-level, single-family home, and normally two to three truckloads per level is what it takes to clean out a home, on average. Um, if you add that up, say it's two and a half per level, that's about seven to eight truckloads for this, this house. Um, seven, seven of those, let's just, or let's just say eight of those, at $695 is about $5,600. Um, take 32% off of that, and you're talking maybe a $4,000 job, right? They could go in and just buy eight of the vouchers that we have, eight of the 12. It would be less than $4,000, actually, and they get the same amount of stuff hauled away. So it's a great deal.

[17:49] Speaker 2: If you're l- if you want to look at the deal, go to our website, 1800junkrefund.com/abe, A-B-E/, and it'll take you to the page that has all the details, and there's a Buy It Now button there, too. So if you want to get one of these, this is a great deal. 32% off is about as...... as big a number, as big a discount as we've given people before for full truck loads of stuff hauled away, and all you do is point to it and we go get it and haul it out of the house. You don't have to put it out in front or pile it inside all in one room for us or anything like that. Just show us what you want gone, and we will go and get it. So anyway, happy birthday to Abe Lincoln's. We're having some fun with this, and I think we'll sell all 12 of them pretty quickly just because of the great deal that it is. So, I wrote down, number three, I wrote down Craigslist.

[18:46] Speaker 2: Th- th- this Craigslist is, is, I'm kind of fascinated by because it's been one of the most successful things that we've done, even though I think you could argue that it's not perhaps the most popular way to buy and sell something today, right? But the great thing about Craigslist, and I'll illustrate this with our snow removal business that we did, is that you can go in and, and buy an ad on Craigslist, technically any place in the country, for $5 for a s- for a business, a service that you offer or whatever. Five bucks, that's it. The ad stays up for 30 days. Okay? We went in when we got foot and a half of snow about a month ago in the Washington area. We went in and took, um, a couple of snowblowers, one a gas blower, one a electric blower that other people had thrown away, and they're none, they're basically brand new. They're in great shape. I put 'em in the storage unit.

[19:45] Speaker 2: When the snow came, I ran a $5 ad in the Gaithersburg, Maryland area for snow removal, and within 12 hours, I had four jobs booked and those four jobs made us probably 1,500 bucks or something. So, hats off to Craigslist. I just love what they do. I, I have an ad that I tend to renew on there just about daily, uh, for, for, uh, it won't be for snow removal 'cause that's a seasonal thing, but we pick up scrap metal, I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about that later in the show, we do junk removal jobs, and Craigslist is a fabulous place to do that for only five bucks. So, hats off to them, and then when it comes time, uh, you know, I try in my business, with the exception of Sundays, I try to just renew one Craigslist ad every day because I can post them geographically in the DC metropolitan area, you know, Northern Virginia, DC, suburban Maryland, whatever.

[20:48] Speaker 2: And I can even, you know, if I'm gonna spend some time in Atlanta, I can run an ad in Atlanta for a month, you know, to build up business. See, I think you can do it technically around the country. But it is a great deal. They deserve the shout-out, and we've had a lot of fun with it. So, there you go. We're through about three or four out of 20 items to talk about today, and I am still wa- making my way around the increasingly rainy beltway, headed to Alexandria to do a job. We're gonna take a break for about a minute. You're listening to The Junk Refund Show. I'm your host, Alan Cook. We'll be back to you here in the Washington, DC area in about a minute.

[21:24] Speaker 2: (instrumental music plays Have you ever hired one of those expensive junk removal companies, then wondered what they did with the stuff? Especially the good stuff. At 1-800-JUNK REFUND, we junk the junk, recycle stuff like metal and wire, donate items and get you receipts, and put up for sale the good stuff, and if it sells, you get some money back. Cynthia paid $375 for junk removal and got $3,200 back. Would you like to know how she did it? Tune in to the Junk Refund Show with your host, Alan J. Cook, every Thursday at 3:00 PM Eastern Time to get the junk not only out of your home, but also out of your life. Great commercial. I'm gonna call those guys. Great commercial. Hey, um, this is Alan. I'm your host for The Junk Refund Show every Thursday at 3:00 Eastern. I am, uh, with my buddy, June. We are on the beltway in Washington, DC. We are headed to Alexandria to pick up some scrap metal, but more importantly to help some people start the process of moving some stuff out of their place, and it's gonna be a truckload of stuff, and hopefully we don't get too wet in the rain, but I'm sure we'll be fine. So, um, a- item number four here, uh, out of 20, so I'm gonna have to speed this up a little bit, is the Upside app. I talk about this almost every week on the show. It's a free app. Go to the App Store and download an app called Upside. Uh, like I said, it's free, and what you do is you use that app. The next time you're gonna buy gas, go into the app first, find a gas station in your area that's on the app and is offering a deal, claim the deal, which is free, then when you go there to get the gas, pay for it with a credit or debit card. You then can add that card onto your account, and within 24 to 48 hours, you will get cash back into your account, meaning your Upside account, um, for various amounts. You know, w- you'll get anywhere from 5 cents a gallon to 45 cents a gallon, depending on the promos they're doing, et cetera. I have done this for the last two years, and my account right now, there's $930. I can go in anytime I want and have them just send that out to my PayPal account. I can take it in gift cards. There's a multitude of ways you can just close it out and take the money out anytime you want.... I told myself, "Leave it in there till it's, like, a thousand bucks and then go on a cruise or something." If I finish with, this month, in February, by, in the next two weeks, if I add another $60 or $70 to that and get over a thousand dollars, I would have saved a thousand bucks, or made a thousand bucks, I guess, um, by buying gas, which I'm buying anyway. And it also is good for restaurants and it's good for grocery stores. They recently added, one of the big grocery stores in the Washington area called Giant Food, that's like a s- a Safeway or an Albertsons or whatever, they added Giant Food, and Giant Food is giving anywhere from 6% to 20% cash back when you buy groceries. That's a, that's a blast, especially when you go into Giant Food and you find stuff that, you know, buy one get one free kind of thing. I mean, it's just incredible. So GetUpside app is a, is a great thing, because you're probably buying the gas anyway, and you're probably going to the restaurants, and you're probably going to the convenience stores or the grocery stores. You might as well claim, take two seconds to claim an, an, an offer before you go and start getting some cash built up. Uh, again, I'm s- I'm ... My goal is to hit a thousand bucks by the end of this month. I'm at $930 right now after just under two years. And I hear radio commercials in this area by people who get on there and, and they give their promo code, because if you sign up for this and use somebody's promo code, and I'll give you mine in just a second, you get an even bigger savings. Plus the person who has the promo code gets a little tiny savings, and they make a few bucks along the way, but, uh, for kind of getting you involved. But it is, uh, those people, when they come on the air with their commercials, are bragging about how they have $200 or $300 in their account. I got a notice at the end of 2025 that said I'm in the top 1% of all Upside users nationally. So there you go. It's just, it's just a great thing and it works. Now, if you're a golfer, you'll understand the terminology that says don't slice a nine iron or a pitching wedge, DS9PW. Again, the initials DS, D like David or don't slice, DS, the number nine, PW, that is my Upside promo code. If you use that code when you go in to do your purchases, you'll get extra savings. And they do some fun things too. They, when they, when they got Giant Food involved, they came out and said, "Okay, if you go to the grocery store, Giant, and you use, you know, five times this month, we'll give you an extra 30 cents a gallon off your next gas purchase." So sure enough, I go to Giant, I just buy regular groceries, I get a m- d- you know, discounted price at the store, then I get another 17% or 20% back from the Upside app, and whamo, um, I get, I, I then get cash back from Upside and I'm making money. Oh, and then I get, uh, after I did five of those, my next gas offer was offering me, like, $0.45 a gallon cash back, because they added $0.30 a gallon into the, onto the deal. Th- uh, that's just sweet. I mean, that's, that's money coming to you out of, you know, heaven. So I'm a big fan of the Upside app. It is available nationally, uh, in the United States. Go download the app, it's free, and remember the promo code DS9PW, and you can start saving some money and make- actually making some money on the side, build it up in your account, and it's a beautiful thing. So anyway, that should be a lot of fun. That's my ... I l- I love the Upside app and I talk about it often, because I'm making money doing it, and who doesn't love to do that, right? So, uh, so far, I gotta tell you, um, I haven't gotten us in an accident yet, so that's good news. It continues to rain, and the rain is picking up, and we're doing fine, and I'm about to, uh, take an exit in here and make my way to the place I'm going to. But I gotta tell you, maybe this is a bad idea, but it illustrates how easy it is to have your own radio show these days and how well it can work regardless of where you are. So if I get us to our destination without getting in an accident, then that, to me, is a victory. Um, every once in a while, I update you on what's going on in the dating world out there. Um, some of you are single, maybe many of you are single. Some of you are probably on the dating apps. I've been on the dating apps for about a dozen years, and I could write books on what I've learned. But I do want to do a shout-out to a new friend of mine, her name is Karina, K-A-R-I-N-A, somewhere in Brazil, if I remember right. She speaks Portuguese. I don't. But she has ... She's 39, she has beautiful photos, and I just reached out to her and said hi. We've been communicating for three or four days now on, uh, you know, on the app, and I'm ... And I use Google Translate to do it all in Portuguese. And so it's all in Portuguese, I'll send her, you know, some notes, she'll send me some stuff back, and we will communicate back and forth, and I just always have to stop and get it translated, you know, into her language, et cetera, and then translate her comments back into English so I know what I'm doing. But this lady is a very classy lady, and I, I will tell you this, if I, if I showed you her photos, you'd probably fly to Brazil on the next flight. I mean, you just would. If I told you about-And what's important to her in life, I will just illustrate it by the fact that I think she lives with her mom, and her mom's probably gotta be, what, 60, 70, something like that. And, and one of her, one of Karina's goals in life is to buy a home for her mom, because they live in, what I'm gonna guess, I don't know, I'm gonna guess is an apartment, and that apartment has stairs. And Karina's concerned about her mom having to, you know, carry bags of groceries up those stairs, right? Karina wants a, a notebook laptop so she can use it at work and get a better job and make more money so she can buy a home for her mother, right? And now I'm telling you, I, I've never met Karina, but I would bet my life that she's giving me the straight scoop, and I'm just very impressed with how down-to-earth she is and how, um, how transparent she is. She just seems to be very real in what she does, doesn't play games, um, is drop-dead gorgeous, and is just kind of fun to communicate with, you know? She told me the other night that communicating with me puts joy into her heart. Well, that's about as great as you can say it, isn't it? I mean, what more do you want than that? And you always, you always think in some of these situations about, you know, is this legit, is this a fake profile, blah, blah, blah. No, this is verified. This is not fake or anything, and I'm just kind of amazed at how straightforward and honest she is about her life, what's important to her, and that kind of thing, and she deserves a shout-out. It's, it's the Karinas of the world, in my opinion, that make life so great, and it's the Googles of the world that allow you to speak in Portuguese to the Karinas of the world, and that makes life great as well. So, you know, I've talked... Oh, and then another story, just for fun, I was talking to... And again, when I say talking, I'm online talking to somebody who's in Zurich, Switzerland, and I t- told her that I was in Europe, I was in Rome last May for my birthday, and she asked me, it was something about, um, something about May and what day my birthday was, or something like that. And I said, "Well, when's your birthday?" And she wrote me back and she said, "7.5." And I thought, "Is that May 7th or is that July 5th?" And so, I asked her that, and she says, "No, it's May 7th." Um, this girl, I can't even remember her name. I'm gonna call her Emi, E-M-I, I think is what it is, um, and I... And she's a, a woman, not a girl, but I have a bad habit of calling these folks girls too often, I think. Um, anyway, she, she said, "No, it's May 7th." She's 51, I'm 67, and I loved my trip to Europe last year on my birthday, so I'm gonna do it again this year, God willing, everything comes together fine and stuff. But she said, "My birthday's May 7th," and I wrote back, I said, "You're kidding." I said, "That's my birthday." I said, "I'll tell you what. If I make it to Europe, I'll come to Zurich and I'll take us out to dinner for our joint birthdays." Well, she loved that idea. What are the odds, probably 1 in 365 if not a heck of a lot more, that you're gonna talk to somebody that you'd be interested in going to dinner with and you share the same birthday? Those are astronomical. She couldn't believe it either. She was... She, she said, "In- incredible, that's amazing. We have the same birthday." That's a cool thing. So, I may do a show from Zurich next year, like I did a show from... Last May, I did the show from the Rome airport, as a matter of fact. Um, I may be coming to you from the Zurich Airport this year. I have no idea, but at least that's the tentative plan. I plan to go over there and, and do some other stuff, but then make my way to Zurich and meet this lady and take her to dinner and get some birthday cake for both of us. So, I think that'd be kind of fun Anyway, there are lots of cool people out there in the world, and it's a, it's a great thing to connect with them, and sometimes it's not the easiest thing in the world, and sometimes it's really quite frustrating. I can, you know, take a whole couple of shows and tell you all the frustrating things that have happened. But the good stuff makes up for the bad stuff, and it is generally good stuff. That's been my experience. Like I said, there are lots of cool people out there, and reaching them and talking to them is a blast, and you never know what you're gonna do. And it doesn't matter what language they speak. Google can help you work around it, and I just think that's a cool thing. So, I guess, uh, going back to Karina, if you're sitting on an, a, uh, a good laptop that you're not using, call the show and tell them, (laughs)

[35:49] Speaker 2: and we'll maybe buy it from you or something, and then I'll ship it down to Karina so she's got a, a laptop to use. I keep hoping in my work, and we do get these, people throw away laptops and notebooks all the time, and there is a way to kind of get them worked so that they will work for you, right? So, you can get around that stuff and, and be able to fire them up and have them work. So, I'm on, I'm on the trail right now for a good notebook that I can send down to this awesome lady down in Brazil so she can get a better job, make more money, get a home for her mom, and then..Everything is good. And, uh, we will see, I told her, we get these ... All the time, people are throwing away cool stuff, and we'll get notebooks and laptops all the time. But if you want to make a Karina donation, let me know. Call the station, 888-627-6008, and help make Karina's dreams come true, and help her get a home for her mom. I mean, what more pure motive is there than that? That's as good as it gets.

[36:53] Speaker 2: And you can understand why, as a, one of the nice guys, me, I'm out there trying to help people and that caught my attention. And I thought, "Yup, that would be fun to help you out in some way, if we could make it happen." So, anyway there's, uh, there's a little something to think about in the midst of everything else that you might be doing. I want to talk about AIM Flight Training. A-I-M Flight Training is a flight training company in Northern Virginia that, uh, are doing some cool things. You, you go there for, like, a two-year program as a mechanic to learn, you know, about airplanes and how they're made and how you repair them and you fix them, and all that kind of stuff. Well, these guys saw my Craigslist ad for scrap metal, and they said, "Hey, we got a, an airplane over here we need to get off our lot. Would you like to come tackle it?" Now, that's a, that's the kind of challenge I just love.

[37:56] Speaker 2: And I thought, "Sure." This is a Beechcraft Queen Air twin-engine aircraft from 1978 that is basically stripped down, it's never going to fly again. It's made of aluminum and a little bit of metal, but mostly aluminum. And they want it gone, out of their parking lot. You, you go out to these folks' business, and you wouldn't think that in the back of their parking lot, they got a Learjet, they've got a single engine, like, Cessna airplane. They've got this Beechcraft that is stripped down. The wings have actually been pulled off of it. And various, you know, couple of jet engines sitting there. They've got a bunch of stuff. It, it is a scrap metal guy's, you know, heaven, because they're trying to get rid of all this stuff, and they just need somebody who's going to take it away. We do it for free, because we'll get paid money when we turn in the scrap metal at the scrap dealer.

[38:56] Speaker 2: And we like aluminum, because if it's, if it's clean aluminum and there's no other mixture in there, no bolts or metal or cables or anything, you'll get 43 cents a pound for it at the scrapyard. If you walk in there with a, uh, a toaster, y- metal, you'll get five cents a pound. So if it's aluminum, clean aluminum, you get eight times, more than eight times what you get if it's regular metal If it is dirty aluminum, which is like ... That's what an aircraft is made of. It's got cables running through it, it's got a little bit of metal in there, it's got rivets, you know, but it's mostly aluminum, aircraft-grade aluminum, you'll get 23 cents a pound for it. So the other day, I took in just under a thousand pounds of aluminum and made a couple a hundred bucks just on the aluminum side of things. But I got to drive an hour each way to get there to get this stuff.

[39:50] Speaker 2: (laughs) And, you know, it's, uh, uh, I guess on some ways it might sound glamorous, but it's more of a, more of probably a break-even deal. I don't know. But at least it's kind of fun to just see, um, eh, what's going on. And the real challenge and the fun part of it is, 'cause I always loved a good challenge, the challenge is, how do you take apart a Beechcraft Queen Air twin-engine airplane with a couple of hand saws, basically? You know, which is what I'm doing. And the answer is, very carefully. Um, but it is working, and I've cut up about a third of this thing so far. Um, the guys there have a forklift that can help load it on, but you should see the looks of the other people who are in the scrap metal yard when I pull in in a truck and I, I've got a tail, you, you know, a, a tail fin on my plane. And, and I've got a, you know, some wings that are sitting there and stuff. I mean, you just don't see that all the time. It just makes it kind of fun.

[40:54] Speaker 2: So I'll be back in about a minute. We'll do the last segment of the show, and I'll tell you a little bit more about my experience out there and what's happening. But it's all due to a $5 Craigslist ad for scrap metal. And it's amazing, the kind of response you get for these kind of things Um, you're listening to The Junk Refund Show. I'm your host, Allen Cooke. We made it to this apartment complex. We got about one more segment to do in the show. We're just gonna hang out here for about 20 minutes, finish the show up, let the rain come down, and then we'll go do some damage helping some people out here. We'll be back in about 60 seconds, uh, on The Junk Refund Show.

[41:31] Speaker 2: Thanks

[41:35] Speaker 1: Have you ever hired one of those expensive junk removal companies, then wondered what they did with the stuff? Especially the good stuff. At 1-800-JUNK REFUND, we junk the junk. Recycle stuff, like metal and wire, donate items, and get you receipts. And put up for sale the good stuff, and if it sells, you get some money back. Cynthia paid $375 for junk removal, and got $3200 back. Would you like to know how she did it? Tune in to The Junk Refund Show with your host, Allen J. Cooke, every Thursday at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, to get the junk, not only out of your home, but also out of your life.

[42:33] Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to the Junk Refund Show. We are now here in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Alexandria, Virginia, where we're just gonna let Mother Nature continue to rain for about the next 20 minutes, and then we will start to haul some stuff away here and help some people out. Um, I wanna just talk to you about, uh, one of these scrap metal companies that we go and visit, it's called Rockville Metals, there's something you can learn from these guys and the way they run their business. I've talked about them before. This is basically a business run by Hispanic folks, so you can always pick up a little Spanish while you're in there. Um, and they just do a great job. For example, uh, recently, uh, well, uh, every week, if you go in there with some scrap metal and they buy the scrap metal from you, if you go in there any, any Saturday morning, they will have a, a, a couple of trays of muffins there, large muffins, and they're free.

[43:31] Speaker 2: You can just grab a, grab a muffin or a sweet roll or something on a Saturday morning. If you come back Saturday around lunchtime, they will have approximately 100 free boxed lunches available for you, and you don't need to buy, they're not for sale, they're free. And people will tip a dollar or two, you know, when they get a lunch. And this last go-around, last Saturday, they had Wendy's, you know, biggie bag kind of meals that had two burgers inside and some fries and a chocolate Frosty for everybody. Amazing. And this was free stuff, right? For Christmas last year, they gave out small backpacks, which is, which is... I have it in the cab of my truck right now, it's where I keep some of my cordless drills, is in the small backpack that they gave me from Rockville Metals. This year, they gave out a... it's almost like a round bamboo-type, uh, speaker, that music speaker that you plug into or use it on blue- Bluetooth or whatever, and it's basically your stereo speaker for your room.

[44:42] Speaker 2: Uh, it's amazing, right? I don't know how many of them they gave away, but they had one there at Christmastime when I went in. So, I go to these guys, they are just great to work with, they, they do a lot of fun giveaways for their customers and they treat their customers well. They... If you go in there with a refrigerator and you want to take out the, uh, what do you call it? The core that's at the, that's at the compressor, that's in the bottom of the fridge, which is one of the reasons it makes it so heavy, that's got all the Freon in it that makes, you know, the pipes cold in the fridge. If you wanna take that compressor out, they will pay you more for the compressor than if you just push it off with the fridge, in which case you get five cents a pound. You'll get more if you take the time to take that compressor out. Same with copper, same with wire.

[45:31] Speaker 2: So we go in with, you know, a toaster, and we'll cut off the wire and put it in a bucket for wire, and we'll get, you know, a dollar a pound for wire instead of getting five cents a pound leaving it attached to the toaster. So, they do cool things like that, and that, and that's just, that's industry-wide. But what these guys do is just make it fun to be there. And if you go in any other time other than Saturday mornings or Saturday at lunchtime, they have a soda machine in there with four different sodas that you can, you know, and a, and an ice maker. You can walk out with a cup of ice with your favorite soda or with ice water or coffee or tea, and they have a popcorn machine, and they're, they're popping popcorn all the time. That stuff is all free, and it's, uh, it's amazing. So, they do a great job, and they make it fun for people to go in there.

[46:25] Speaker 2: The other thing that is great is that when you pull into their yard and you go across the weight scale and then you back up to the pile of metal, they will let you take the copper pipes off of the water heaters. Because copper is about $3.20 a pound, the water heater is gonna get you a nickel a pound. So, taking the copper off is a good move, and, uh, and it allows you to make more money. They will let you chop that thing off while you're there in their yard. Other companies like this will prohibit you from doing that, at least some of them will, and that's one of the things that sets these guys apart. Not only do they feed you, not only is it fun, not only can you learn a little Spanish along the way, but they make it convenient for you to do business. They will take televisions. There are some companies that won't take televisions, they won't take computer screens, monitors. These guys take it all. Old TVs, new TVs, doesn't matter.

[47:23] Speaker 2: Um, and that's good for we scrap metal guys because it adds that weight onto the amount of weight that we're gonna get paid for and we don't have to separate it out by what some of these other folks are doing. And, uh, after Rockville Metals here, I wrote down Wendy's lids. You know, I, I did a post on Facebook recently, and all of this, by the way, is about how to get some of the junk out of your life, right? That's kind of the theme of what we're talking about. I went... I love to go to Wendy's and I love to get chili, especially in the winter. Get a large chi- like I did today, get a large chili with some crackers and with an ice water, which is free. And they do a thing where you pay three bucks and you get a key chain for the year, and anytime you buy something at Wendy's, you show them the keychain, you get a miniature kid-sized Frosty. And I like to get the little chocolate Frostys, which I did today as well.

[48:15] Speaker 2: Well, one of the problems is, in Montgomery County, Maryland, they passed an ordinance that says no more plastic straws. So, these restaurants have to serve you with paper straws, and those paper straws disintegrate in the drink after about 10 to 15 minutes. They literally unravel and they don't work anymore, right? And I guess we're doing this to protect the environment and save fish. I'm not sure. But that's what we're doing, and-And I, so I did a post showing this Wendy's straw and how frustrated I was that it, this, this sucker just comes apart and then it doesn't work, and that's all because, you know, we wanna save the wildlife and the oceans or something. I don't, I'm not making light of that, I'm just saying I don't, you know, I don't get it 100% here. I just want a good straw that works, so I, I didn't see any dolphins in the drive-up line, you know, paying money at Wendy's.

[49:06] Speaker 2: I was just me and a bunch of other humans, and so I just want a straw that works 'cause I'm the customer. Well, I made that post and somebody came out and said, "Yeah, but this is because we're trying to protect, you know, the wildlife in, in the waters," and stuff like that. And I went, "Yeah, okay. But, okay, I get it, um, but I still have a soda here that I paid for and I can't drink it 'cause the straw's, you know, falling apart." And, uh, and, oh, oh, and that's frustrating. Well, the other day, I go into Wendy's and I get another, uh, like, an ice water or some medium soda or something, and those brilliant folks put, they changed the cap on the drinks. They gave me a cap that has a hole cut in it where you just drink the thing with no straw needed. And I went, "That's a brilliant move." I love those kinda caps. You get 'em at Wawa, which has, by the way, the, the best ice in the world.

[50:00] Speaker 2: You get, you get 'em at Wawa and you just grab this drink, there's no straw involved, and you just drink the thing right, you know, right out of the, out of the lid, and it's awesome. So that's what Wendy's did, and I thought, "You know what? They deserve a shout-out because they're solving a problem in a creative way, and I think that's pretty awesome." I wanna mention our radio show vouchers. We, we have a special voucher if you call in the show and you're in the Washington, DC area. You call 888-627-6008 and give our producer, Don, your name and phone number. Then he'll give it to me. You won't be on the show live or anything, he'll just take your name and number. He'll give it to me after the show. I will send you a special link and it will allow you to buy a Groupon-type voucher for $79 instead of what's normally $99 on, on Groupon.

[50:59] Speaker 2: Now, it's not a Groupon voucher, but it's a voucher from our website that gives you the same amount of stuff, it's just a special discounted price for buying it off the radio show, right? So, it's the best deal we offer for a pickup truck of stuff, which is what a Groupon voucher gets you, a pickup truck of stuff. A pickup truck full of stuff. This radio voucher gets you the same thing. You can buy up to two of 'em, 79 bucks a piece, normally $229 for each one. That's a great savings, and they're available only to people who listen to the radio show and call in during the show. So, any week, Thursdays from 3:00 to 4:00 PM Eastern, call 888-627-6008, tell Don you wanna just leave your name and number for the radio show vouchers. He will get the information to me after the show. I will send you the link and you can buy them and off you go. A special deal available only to listeners of the radio show. So we're, we're pretty proud of that.

[52:05] Speaker 2: Um, I am having a blast right now with a rice cooker that was thrown away last week from a home, a condo that we're cleaning out in Leisure World in Silver Spring, Maryland. Um, these are some folks that own this condo. COVID brought some challenges. They moved back to California, but kept the condo here. The husband then went back to Taiwan, passed away. They've had the condo for six years, completely furnished, food and everything. Nobody's lived there. The g- the realtor, a guy named Mike Parent, who's a great guy, we're, we're gonna try and get him as a guest on the show, by the way. Um, he's, he's the one that got us in, and we're in doing our thing and taking care of this, and it's been a, a fun experience. One of the things they had was a brand new rice cooker. I brought it home, I set it up, I've done th- these before.

[53:00] Speaker 2: I love to now go into Giant Food, buy some rice, get the upside cash-back offer for doing that, come back, throw some vegetables in the top of the rice cooker to steam those, and I'm having a blast with just eating rice and steamed vegetables, ice water, you know, all the healthy stuff for dinner. And it's off of an appliance that somebody threw away. Um, that's a sweet life when you do that. And I g- I gotta do a shout-out, my buddy, Jun is here, he's been listening to this radio show. He and I have been cleaning this condo out. They had a medical bed in this condo, and then they had a medical chair. It's the best way, the best word I can think of to describe it. It's actually a reclining large chair on wheels. If you recline that sucker a little bit and put it out in the hallway where all these condos are lined up going down the hallway, that is a great vehicle to use to transport boxes of stuff out of this condo.

[54:01] Speaker 2: And we have been doing this, Jun has done most of it, and just all of it, all the stuff, it's 84 steps from the condo to the elevators, and then it's down the f- six flights of stairs, and then it's probably another 84 or 100 steps to the truck. And Jun does that back and forth, back and forth. I, I get the stuff ready up in the condo, and then he'll load it up and get it downstairs. He does a great job. And that's the way we're emptying this condo. Thank God for that chair, because it beats the heck out of a hand truck or a four-wheel dolly, and you get so much more stuff on it. It is a very well-greased chair (laughs) . So it, it turns on a dime, it adjusts, and boy, you get a lot of stuff out of there.... in one shot, which makes the job just go much easier, and I think that's awesome. Um, sometimes we do a little thing here on a spiritual nature.

[54:59] Speaker 2: I'm gonna do one little plug for a friend of mine, uh, who made a post on Facebook recently, and this guy is one of the great dads in the world. He really is. He just loves his, his boys and what he's doing, and he's got them involved in athletics and these kids are really good at athletics and, and my buddy is there cheering them on. Um, he made a post that he put up where... This guy's name is Mitch, that's all I'll tell you. But he put it... made a post of him and his two boys playing golf. And he, and he said, uh, the post says something like, "Here I am with my..." Uh, "Here I am with my sons of Mitch- sons of Mitches." That's the way he called it. "Here I am with my sons of Mitches," and they're on the golf course, and then he said some comment about, you know, if truth be told we should really be in church, or something like that.

[55:55] Speaker 2: So, I haven't said anything about that to him personally and yes, I'm talking about it on a radio show, but I just want to give an opinion here that... I'm a golfer. I played golf since I was about 12. I've won golf tournaments. I've chipped in from 100 yards out on the fairway. I've hit drives over 300 yards down the middle of a fairway. I've had some fun with that sport. But I'm here to tell you, this is my opinion here on how to get some of the junk out of your life, don't teach your boys that the greatest happiness in life comes from a golf course on a Sunday. Teach them that the greatest happiness in life comes from going to church on a Sunday and play golf any of the other six days that you want to. That's my little mini-sermon for the day. You, you know, they, the- there was a commandment given one time that says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," right? Well, that still works.

[56:55] Speaker 2: And just as a little bit of fatherly advice to all the wonderful dads out there, and Mitch is one of the best frankly, um, just remember that if you take him to the golf course or some other place on a Sunday and not to church, you make it easier and easier for him to go to the golf course in the future and not to church, and I think that's a mistake. The blessings that you get from going to church in your life last, or could last, an eternity. The blessings that you get from playing golf last four hours, or until your next round of golf, and that's it. The memories will last a while, but they're just much better benefits if you go to church on a Sunday instead of hitting the golf course. So, there you go. There's my little sermon for the day, um, on how to get some of the junk out of your life. Just remember, put yourself in a position where you get the greatest long-term benefits. And God can give you those forever, a golf course can only give them to you for about four hours.

[58:05] Speaker 2: So, don't sell the one short in favor of the other one. Make sure you emphasize the one that will pay you off for the longest with the greatest amount of payoff. I hope that makes sense. Um, three last things real quick and then we'll wrap up. Shout out to Closet America. These guys have us come down, which I did this morning, they have us come down and pick up their s- their scrap metal that they're cutting up into strips. These are like the, the little strips that you'd put in a closet that you then hang the hangers on, you know, to put shelves on. That kind of stuff. Well, every week they get couple of big, you know, buckets full of, uh, or garbage cans full of metal that is scrap metal from the, the remains of them cutting up what they needed to cut up for a customer's job. And they also get aluminum. So we, we had, this morning, two big buckets of metal, a big bucket of aluminum that I picked up and hauled back up to the scrap metal yard.

[59:07] Speaker 2: Those guys do a great job and it- (clears throat) Arguably, we're not getting rich doing it, but it is fun having them as a customer and going down and picking up a few bucks to turn that stuff into scrap metal. So, shout out to Closet America. I love Simply Orange orange juice and I'll come back next week and tell you more about Krispy Kremes. I just want to end by saying thank you to Matt Damon, yes, that Matt Damon, for all of his wonderful support of the show. We're trying to get him as a guest on the show. I just love his Bourne Identity movies, you know, and some of the great things that he's done. Um, I just think he's a class act. But I want to thank him for his support of the show. I want to apologize to Jimmy Kimmel we didn't have time to get him on this week. We'll try and do that in a future broadcast. Anyway, everybody have a great week. Uh, looking forward to the Junk Refund Show next week at 3:00 Eastern.

[01:00:05] Speaker 2: We're here and it looks like the rain is starting to die out a little bit. We're gonna go, uh, help some people and, uh, see if we can make a few more bucks. Thanks to the BBS Radio Network. We'll see you next week on the Junk Refund Show. I'm your host, Allen Cooke. Have a great week.