all right my name is Aaron Young and we’re starting a converter unknown podcast and I’ve got Nick Snyder with me today thank you for having me absolutely you are we are in the recycle Idaho podcast room but you’re gonna we’re gonna get you your own here soon yeah yeah but I think we needed to have a good conversation and there’s no better way to start it really than talk to one of our biggest customers which is uh United Metals currently and yep how long have you been with United Metals nick uh Brett hired me in 2010 so I’m going on March March of next year will be 13 years so 13 years it’s been a good run man I started I started by unloading cans and even way back then the cats would roll through but I mean I I didn’t even know what stainless silver says aluminum was really let a known let it let alone like what a catalytic converter was worth you know so we’ve really come a long way on knowing how to buy them and you know and that’s where you guys come in to help us process them
and you know get them to the next level yeah I think that’s a great segue into the point behind converter unknown is um we’re trying to educate the people that were at the starting the businesses that were at the starting point of what you just alluded to uh that don’t really understand converters don’t look it up don’t want to take the time to do it um the taboo subject of converters so how long have you been dealing with converters we would buy them back then but we were the 20 cat guys twenty dollar cat guys we could buy any cap for twenty dollars even the ones that were with zero still common today of many scrap yards but we would also buy the cats that were worth three hundred dollars for twenty dollars because we didn’t know how to buy them not because we were trying to screw anyone because half the time we were getting screwed by your local white van core buyers they’d roll through with other scrap that we would know how to buy like copper and you know radiators and things of that nature and they would unload all their
app now that I know now I know what they were doing to me I bought a lot of aftermarkets that were worth five bucks okay for twenty dollars a lot like hundreds okay ridiculous yeah so and um I noticed way back then this is in 2010 the year I got hired one of the first things I did there I requested that we had an email so we could email quotes back and forth because we didn’t even have that set up we were still like just really really old school way back then so and I wish I could find this email it came from the Boise Rec Center at unitedmetal.us our old email address I was just or not Boise Caldwell Rec Center and I emailed Brett our owner CEO the man that makes everything happen for us I email them way back then I said hey Brett like we buy a lot of scrap from these guys and we buy a lot of cats from them but they keep they keep in like three quarters of the cats and like I’d like to learn how to buy those ones like I just don’t
know how and it’s thinking way back then at where we are today it just makes me kind of laugh and and how bad we were getting screwed by so many people but back then you bought we bought a lot of cars and they still had the catalytic converters on them so that helped absorb that blow we still came out you know net positive overall but we were again we were again fleeced pretty bad on the aftermarkets well it’s always been sort of a secret right I mean everybody’s tried to keep this industry sort of underground because those white Vans want to make sure that they’re able to buy them for 20 40 bucks and then turn it around and sell it to a legitimate buyer which converter reclaim has become which is another great segue into my next question tell me the transformation from the 20 cap by the three hundred dollar cap buy to maybe write up before converter reclaim was born so did you get help Etc maybe exactly like that 100 we did we got a lot of help we wouldn’t be where we are today without help from some really
great people that are still in the industry they’re still killing I just chatted with a few guys that still know our old core buyer over from alter great dude and he came he came down and taught us a lot before that we were selling our Gaylords to other people out of Utah they’d come up and they’d go grade them on site and pay us for him you know and I didn’t learn I didn’t know those guys at all Brett finally put together a buy with a different with alter altar came in and graded them with our team which was a handful of us uh buyers so we all we sat there for two days ago taking notes you know we were in their grain with him like trying there’s just so much to learn like it was hard to retain it all you know so that’s that’s when we first learned that’s when we were still buying it for twenty dollars a piece like even the aftermarket that’s when we learned that the aftermarkets where we were getting paid five or ten for you know so we’ve made that change immediately um we did
that and then Flash Forward maybe another year um we hired Jay Milligan on he already had worked for us but we moved them in to really help grow the converter side of the business so me and Jay flew over to Milwaukee with I think we sent eight or ten boxes of our own cats that way and we graded all of them and that’s where it all started like that trip just sparked yeah I think yep it just sparked our interests we really started to learn how to do things and they were him um Tad was his name or buyer and his assistant his right hand man Paul they were awesome for the longest time we sold to them and used them in and we finally got to a point where we got big enough where we could sell Direct um because that we didn’t have the units you know and there’s a lot of people that don’t have that you know it’s never will which is fine there’s nothing wrong with selling with the legitimate outfit that can do that so especially one that’s transparent and takes care of you know those local scrap
yards I think that’s a big mess is uh We’ve grown in the industry as converter reclaim um we’ve we thought it was necessary to make converter unknown because of all the conversations we’ve had Nationwide with uh scrap yards whatever it may be that just don’t want to deal with it because they just don’t understand the incident out ins and outs and they think it’s a a bigger pain but you know not to get off into the weeds I want to learn more about your story and where you know converter reclaim came to really come to light and then that will segue into what converter unknown is looking to accomplish but again United Metal is one of our our parent company of course but obviously our biggest customer as well there’s a lot to learn on how converter reclaim uh sort of interacts with United Metal so from the point where you guys started getting interest in to converters how did we get to converter reclaim so me and Jay’s trip it was either the it was in Winter because I remember we landed in Milwaukee and I you not it was negative 22 degrees
when we landed and I’ve never experienced cold like that my phone wouldn’t work you know at my phone I was powered down right it was so cold um so it was in the winter of either 13 or early 14. we get there and we we get we get as much information as we can we really start trying to learn how to buy them they were real supportive of helping us too if we had questions we could text them because we were still shipping them cats all the time we’re selling they were our buyer and well we still didn’t know because we would go I remember the first few trips me and Jay we took our converter reclaimed truck we took our truck out and tried to buy I remember specifically there is one buyer that he’s a junk car guy he buys and sells junk cars and cuts the cats we met with him at a location and graded them all and I felt real confident this is going to be our first like goodbye it was like 100 cats we spent a lot of time grading them um he told us to off
basically because we were nowhere in the ballpark because we weren’t grading them right okay so we didn’t know enough yet we still were like so like new we weren’t using codes we’re just you know so that was hurting us we didn’t even know that you could look up by codes yet we didn’t even know that because that’s just that wasn’t done in the industry back then that was like kind of a newer thing um some people were doing it uh then we went to a few different shops they all told us the same thing like get out of here you know one of our first buys was a little mechanic shop Jay pull it off Jay did it but it was just like a couple you know and we were pretty happy it was a win oh yeah we like got a w then we went out to one of our auto salvages we’ve been doing business with for years but they’re selling to White Band guys which is fine that’s how they wanted to do it you know but we say hey give us a shot we went in there and graded them
same thing though the guy was like no not gonna do it we went ahead and go cowboy on that like what if we give you an extra thousand dollars because we know we still didn’t really know how to do this right and he’s like all right I was like our big like anytime I have to go like look at when converter reclaim started I always look at that day like that’s the day it was really important because I felt good because I was like a couple hundred cats yeah you know and we finally pulled a big one off it was a big win but that’s when we learned we didn’t know still we need to learn more and we had the volume we owned seven scrap yards we have the volume to support going to direct the smell of PGM smelter so we started fishing around and started learning more we found a smelter that could help teach us those guys that’s the next step they taught us so much and and Jay Milligan’s really the one that took it off like he drove that little converter reclaim truck around everywhere and he was
buying hundreds of cats for legitimate people from um tow companies mechanics muffler shops auto salvages like you know all these people that legitimately get cats because you know this but everyone listening to this might not know this believe it or not believe it or not their majority of the cats that are sold in the United States are not stolen amen and it’s something that is it a problem absolutely the stolen ones that sucks no one wants to go out to their car and have that you know but the majority of the cats out there recycled are not stolen believe it or not now there are some and I hope that’s something that converter reclaim can help fix yeah yeah that’s a great that’s a great point and something that we’re gonna probably cover throughout converter unknowns podcast throughout its existence you know the whole theft the whole media driven narrative around converter theft but you know it’s funny you mentioned that that converter reclaim buying locally because you’re talking about when converter reclaim was sort of created it was regionally you were testing the model everything’s Regional we’re just buying them in the Treasure
Valley yeah doing really good it’s working finally With a Little Help From A smelter was able to understand how to actually buy an individual cat fairly on both sides we just weren’t being competitive the old way we were buying them we weren’t being competitive enough with just any all the other core buyers there’s a lot of traveling core buyers in the United States right um so we were not nearly competitive enough until we found a new partner that helped us educate us and make us more competitive where we could actually do it and then all these local shops had a new alternative on how to sell them you know yep and those there’s still many many many local shops out there that do not understand this process and frankly don’t understand that this exists and they’re still stuck on you know core charges back to a manufacturer or the white van which is coming around what is a core charge on a converter do you know so it ranges from 50 to 100 depending on whether it’s a gas Gasser or a or a diesel so there’s a good chance you’d be better off
to pay the core charge and then just keep your can and sell it 100 okay 100 got it and even if they didn’t know would they be able to like ask you yeah then you could be like oh that thing’s worth 20 it’s no time out of their their day to text me a code and I can tell them their 400 cat is worth 400 not 50 and and now you have a new Revenue stream within that muffler shop or the auto shop that exists all over the United States and I think that’s that’s why converter reclaim has gained so much momentum you know we haven’t really talked about where converter reclaim regionally so rather than me getting into the weeds let’s talk about the day that United Metals decided this could go National I am pretty sure me and Brett and Jay were sitting at this table right here and Brett had a napkin I did what we like to say and and it was a box program where we quote pay for shipping and send them a payment you know Nationwide you know and it’s been I mean you would know much
to me when did we do when did we start when do we ship our first box yeah yeah I think you guys before bringing me on uh converter reclaim was was thought of and you all did it probably in like a February of last year of last year okay yeah so yeah it’s been a pretty amazing so February 2021 yeah right so we’ve been doing it for more than a year but really to me we weren’t really doing it till SEMA yeah after SEMA that’s kind of like my head we kind of really learned and bring that’s a lot of kudos to you bringing you on and really figuring out how to help service out these everyone yeah yeah the nation is in dire need of this service and I think we’ve hit a it’s not a niche it’s an actual need you know what do you say you’re talking to people more than me in the converter world what do you say to these people that always call you you a Thief what do you think about that big one are they blame do they blame you for the the crackhead that kind
of cat off yeah they blaming you yeah or Commerce reclaim yeah that’s a great question and it’s honestly probably the most known thing about catalytic converters in the world I’ll just speak nationally nationally is that they get stolen because that’s a media driven narrative which is fine because getting your catalytic converter stolen is not fun and it’s expensive but at the end of the day the number the number is 25 million and change annually that cats are recycled responsibly and 19 000 on average claims per year from stolen catalytic converters so less than .01 percent of catalytic converters are actually stolen which doesn’t mean it’s not a problem so I think converter reclaim is very unique and this is what we tell people when people say you guys are part of the problem once we explain to them that we’re actually part of the solution and how we approach our business model with no cash with all of our data that’s collected and saved for any type of investigation the pictures name address anything that investigation might require ID you know we’re not saying that it’s impossible to get through our system but for
the most part those crackheads those guys out there the actual criminals that are cutting these things off of Cars those guys don’t want to deal with us they don’t want to have to send in a picture of their driver’s license they also want cash because they don’t want to be traced and because they don’t want to give you anything you could give that the local PD to get them locked up you know okay yeah I think that it’s it’s not perfect no solution is perfect and the answer is not to stop recycling you know as we progress through this podcast we’ll talk about the importance of the pgms in our modern day Society yeah you know but there they use that stuff in like cancer medicine cancer medication great great one yeah Platinum so Palladium microchips yeah microchips cancer medicine I mean other catalytic converters you know things for our green future yeah that that we are so you know forced to believe in you know whether we like it or not it’s coming but Platinum Palladium are important parts of our future and it’s only mined in two places in the world where’s
that at South Africa and Russia okay so Russia might be hard to get the pgms out of it yeah so yeah so we only right now we’re like for United States probably just um Africa yeah right yeah yeah there’s a bit of a hold I would say coming out of Russia yeah given the times so well I like what you’re doing I’m excited to listen to your podcast I’m it’s an honor to be on the first one um do you have any others scheduled with anybody yet yeah so you’re our biggest customer so this is our our first one we will start to sort of reach out to other people in the industry that we just want to learn from um I don’t claim to know anything about the catalytic converter world I’m here to learn and educate the the normal Mom and Pop Shop out there that don’t realize the amount of money that they’re giving away and also the taboo subject of converters need to be brought to light because what we’re doing as an industry for the most part is a good thing so I really appreciate your time in telling
us your story and hopefully you’ll come back for another one you got it all right thank you thank you