The rag and bone man

[YorkshirePud]

its a curious phenomena that the economic slump has lead to the rise of these again, they had all but vanished when i was a child and i only knew about them through stories from releatives. its amusing to write this as one makes his way down our street in his flatbed transit megaphone strapped to the wing mirror shouting "scrap iron!"

i feel like shouting "thats awfully specific isnt it!? that fridge isnt made of iron..."

it raises another question. if you had any scrap metal why would you give it to him for FREE?! ok if you cant transport it to cash it in fair enough but why give it to someone who can make money from it when you get nothing back?

discuss!

[DJ-Daz]

The rag and bone man used to give us kids cheap little toys for anything we gave him. We'd often part with old clothes, sometimes white goods, but usually anything we gave him was trash.

As for asking for iron and steel, it's a bit cheeky. I don't know if the scrap merchants give you anything these days, when the can recycling went on in the early 90's all theyd give for a bin liner of squashed tin cans was a fiver. I doubt they'd give even that now.

But if a rag and bone man can take your old iron down and make a profit, good for them.

[YorkshirePud]

my mam used to make quite a few bob from the Alu can recycling when it was in going on in the 90s i remember it was done in a yellow van at the morrisons supermarket in ponte!

i suppose if the money you will get for the scrap metal isnt worth it compared to the price and travel cost of getting it to the merchant whats the point.

[InfiniteStates]

Must be a northern thing?

Never seen them myself. Or maybe it's cos all the pikeys and gypsies have robbed it all before someone can come collect it...?

[YorkshirePud]

your kidding charlie steptoe and son were the ORIGINAL rag and bone men?!!??!?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steptoe_and_son