in this special podcast I get a chance to sit down with Barry Prescott Brett Eckert and Jay Milliken as we go over our second year at the SEMA show take a listen second year Sema for a converter reclaim booth it’s the first year I got to go that’s freaking insane yeah yeah that I had a lot of work that goes into that show three million square feet is that what it was was three million it’s 3.3 million square feet of convention center and that doesn’t include the parking lots outside that are just packed to the gills with uh trucks and trailers and everything else that’s going on I don’t think anyone realizes how crazy it is until you go because I’ve told everyone yeah and until you go you can really appreciate the madness because it takes a good fall two to three days to walk the whole thing yeah and I and I knew it was big right but I got there and was seriously like holy cow yeah it’s good size you know and only made only made it one day right so I I already had the plan that I

wasn’t going to really talk to anybody and I wasn’t going to freaking watch a lot of different demo stuff I was just gonna try to just try to move right I didn’t even take that many pictures did you get to see it all I didn’t even know no no because I still I’m seeing pictures from that other people took I’m like where the hell was that yeah you know and I’m you know I walked and walked and walked and walked until I hurt and then I walked some more and then I walked some more and I sat down had lunch and then I walked some more and finally about three o’clock I was my body was like guy sit down you probably didn’t didn’t uh help our cause that we went out the night before party pretty hard I mean but you know I turned in at 11 so I won I wanted to be the first one of the booth the next day so uh and I and I met you on the train going over there I’m like God damn it I wanted to win try to beat us there yeah the

fact that they have tunnels under the convention center where you could take a Tesla to the other side that just like shows you how big and crazy that is right yeah I didn’t see that I I’ve never seen him I’ve only heard people talk about him right I’ve always wanted to write in them but we’re just this year especially we were just too busy none of us in the booth had a chance to even like go check that out two years and I haven’t even made it to the other two convention centers on the opposite ends of the South South Hall one of these days we’re going to be like rich and famous we’re going to like have other people work the booth and then we’ll be able to actually go walk yeah the whole show it won’t be the same though I like talking to everybody I know so anyway I agree that’s why we do what we do we’ll be like kicking them out go walk around and I didn’t see another converter company there was there was was there somebody else there one more but that big big dog United Catalyst

yep UCC Becky was it what’s her last name um really good it’s a good company they’ve been around for a long time they’re good at what they do yeah on the east coast East Coast like yep Northeast or I’m not sure where exactly the United catalyst is I love them but they handle the big like thousand plus units at a time woman owned company yeah she’s a she’s a she’s a hustler I I said I’ve always liked her I’ve always had a lot of respect for it it’s nice because she’ll kick down the little shops that wouldn’t make sense for her to sell and we’ll do it vice versa when there’s like a guy oh I get two thousand two thousand a month we’re like well you’re talking to the wrong people don’t talk to them right and that just shows you right there there’s enough business out there where we can all co-mingle and all co-exist oh yeah because especially when you’re dealing with legit companies try and do it the right way you know if it’s nice for us to find another legit company for the big dogs these big

huge auto salvages to go to you know absolutely yeah and you’re you’re always going to have competition you know you might as well get along with them work together and you can do a lot a lot better things than just fighting all the time yeah there’s a reason why McDonald’s sets up shop next to Burger King and Jack In The Box and eight other food spots right I mean there’s enough there’s enough for everybody to eat right and I think if you approach it that way and you don’t feel like you’re taking business from me or I’m taking business from you and you just basically make each other better at what you do and you have you know some people like tacos and some people like burgers that’s just the way it is everybody needs to eat everybody there’s enough food for everybody and that’s the way we’ve always approached it so and that’s why some companies even have multiple companies that do about the same thing they’re just called different things right you know which is like even crazier almost yeah do does does she take it further than we do or is

she just same same they they do full-on assays yeah they don’t I don’t think I don’t know if they smell I don’t think they do oh they send it off but what they do is they they bring like large Lots in um and perform assays on everything so I think that’s that’s kind of their sweet spot is bringing bringing you know a thousand ten thousand units at a time or bring in 10 000 pounds of honeycomb at a time I think they do both I think they’ll either decan and assay or just grind an assay so I think they do a little bit of everything on that end but they’re not to put a smelter in is a super unique piece of that puzzle I mean there’s only I think four of them in the in our country there’s a few obviously outside of our country um but yeah that’s a that’s a whole another beast in and of itself yeah doing the actual smelting so the show itself Jay what’s your opinion this year versus last year just well the people I mean we went to the show with more people and

in hopes that we’d get to walk around and take a lunch and a bathroom break and it wasn’t like that it was just uh non-stop all day long you know that’s why I want to Time Lapse it so because we were still kind of in covid mode last year yeah you know masks and masks and no international travel but this year was The Big Show you know and even then I said I mean I think on the um attendee level wasn’t wasn’t back all the way up to pre-covered levels I think on the vendor side it was yeah but better on the attendee side it wasn’t still back all the way to pre-covered levels so maybe next year if everybody goes hard it’ll be which is mind-boggling because there was still a lot of people and I think on our end um looking back you know our transition into anti-theft products as well as buying converters is it was a big big part of the show for us and I’ll let Nick speak on it a little bit more but you know that that transition for us and what

we plan to do and really move on the anti-theft side and the true business to business side is like one of our differentiators it is the difference between tacos and hamburgers so this year we brought a cat strap we recently partnered with them and that brought most people to the booth not the recycling last year the recycling brought people to the booth and all the crap cracks about theft and all that too which we’re working on fixing that too but this is the next step for us as a company is that sell these anti-theft devices and then we’re working on a software component and we probably got 800 700 people that want to supply those straps at their shops and put them on their customers vehicles and so are those muffler shops or just repair shops all of the above on everybody that’s kind of impacted by catalytic converter theft which was the Hot Topic right I mean last year with theft was important but this year because that it just went bananas in in the Years between last year and this year the amount of theft and everything that was going

on and you know the amount of awareness and attention to the theft so that was like the hottest topic on the converter side was a what can I do for my customers to help prevent theft and B what do I do with the converters because all these laws and regulations are coming down and I don’t know that I have I feel comfortable selling them because I don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble because I actually have them on hand yeah because the laws that we talk to that were like you know like legitimate get these and I got five or ten of them sitting in the corner because I don’t feel comfortable doing anything with it now because all I hear about in the news in the media and that’s you know that’s how they portray it they just want to scare everybody so one thousand percent and that’s what we’re going to clean up yeah I’m excited for that software to make it possible for certain people that get them that are legit to be able to process them and get them recycled because unfortunately it’s her and the legit guy

that has the five that he just can’t move it’s gonna make them all go to the landfill eventually which that’s going to be doesn’t be sad because those precious metals were hard to get out of the Earth yeah you know they’ll never get reclaimed again they’re going to get lost well there’s yeah there’s a reason why they’re valued so high right yes and then those Metals need to get back into the system because they’re using so many things more than just catalytic converters are used in medication for cancer patients they’re using a lot of electronics and the list goes on and on you know so that’s important that’s where like myself and our company is really passionate about making sure those precious metals gets reclaimed into the right place so so let’s talk SEMA what was the coolest thing you’ve seen Barry what kind of stands out for you oh there was there was a lot um what were we the South Hall South Hall downstairs kind of by the entrance there was a a square body four-door Dually on the dirt blue and white I made a tick tock of it yeah

that was pretty sweet he’d even made a custom badge to bankrupt 35. nothing like an old Square yeah there was those are kind of like making a those like those are like making a real comeback last I feel like the last few years like between five years people are really like falling back in love with that truck yeah I mean I think there’s always been a certain amount of people that have like appreciate it but it feels like that’s kind of the new you know the new Buzz yeah everybody wants something that’s uh kind of got that vintage feel but good looks awesome yeah yeah and it was you know and it was just kind of like definitely not a high-end Builder area where he where that truck was at there was a red uh five Window Coupe in the mother’s Booth did you guys see that that thing was good you saw way more than we saw yeah yeah but that’s why I’m like just tell us all the cool I didn’t get lucky but but uh in fact I got it sent to me last night there was an all-aluminum

like fully custom truck built Mid Engine that was all polished aluminum the whole truck I just got it I didn’t see it I got a video of it sent to me last night I’m like holy cow what was the car was it a car that had all the engraved I mean everything was engraved on that thing did you did you see the picture I think my dad me and my dad took it but it was like I mean they did it with like a Dremel like they’re tattooing a body yeah but they they tattooed I mean the everything underneath the hood the block the radiator or the artwork or what yeah but no basically just kind of like you would say engrave a gun or something okay Swirls and the got an artist the art Artistry I guess you know I didn’t see that yeah but if I saw a picture of it the thing that I really didn’t think about going down there was all the vendors yeah you know I walked around quite a few pretty cool you know I’m going to look at that up someday on the on the just

don’t even know to look at it further yeah um I felt sorry then they weren’t far from the booth but there was probably 10 or 12 tape vendors there all trying to explain why their tape was better than that guy’s tape like those guys were having a hard week yeah yeah well that just goes to show you like for the young people out there that don’t want to go to college or whatever the case may be like I almost think it should be a requirement for like especially area high schools that could get there and if SEMA could I mean I know there’s some sort of student Partnerships because we talked to yeah a lot of students in like Automotive but those kids are already destined they already know they’re going to go to Automotive I want the kids that don’t know they’re going to go into Automotive to go to a show like that and say I know this is the automotive industry but I mean look how many sales people are here look how many car people are here look how many truck people are here look at like how far this

expands I mean all over the people from all over the world are there from all different countries slinging tires slinging tape slinging yeah you name it like well really you can make so much to it that has nothing to do with going to college you can make a good living without going to college you can make a good living with going to college you can make a shitty living with going to college you make a city living without going yeah it all like boils down to how much like work you’re gonna put in but I mean we’re all living that that world of trucks automotive scrap and we didn’t even realize how big SEMA was until we actually went so how many people could go to an event like that be like man the possibilities are endless and that’s not it’s inspirational exactly yeah it’s the 10th largest industry in the world like there’s nine other Industries in front of that that are bigger than the automotive Industries so it’s just wild to think about also and the students like even though they’re going to college for like Automotive but that’s a still a

different path than you know that was still kind of like frowned upon by certain people you know but I think that that thing’s shifting where it’s more respected to get into a trade and it was cool that these teachers were bringing their students to a show like that where they could really maybe especially if they were maybe on the verge of maybe going a different route and maybe could pull them back in and even on the recycling side of those universities the universities themselves are having trouble recycling their converters which is interesting to hear because yeah how many contacts do we make with University like yeah we get a project I did four we have different people converter off this car we don’t even know what to do with it yeah one guy was like I took it to the recycle yard and they wouldn’t let me recycle it you know this is a like a professor you know pretty smart individual right like it makes you wonder all those big busts like are all those precious metals never going to get recycled now they’re just going to sit somewhere no they’ll go to

like a police auction or that I mean they’ll they’ll make it back in but it’s going to be you know yeah they’ll make it back into the stream but I just feel like it’s going to be via you know one of the federal you know departments somehow whether it’s you know FBI or local police or Sheriff’s Association I mean I’d assume those funds will then get distributed back yeah it’d be nice if they could put maybe they are if they put those funds into like a pool or if your cat gets stolen that you could like apply to get money from that like that bus you know yeah something like that would be really cool okay well you know you put this action yeah you put this this lot you know you call the cops got stolen and then there’s like the system like I think that would be cool if they put that together 100 but who knows I doubt that happens so so back to SEMA we love Peterbilts right we all got Peterbilts only one Kenworth and one Sterling but uh did you guys see that welder up semi out front

that had the 57 Chevy 55. yeah 55. that’s like one of your best tick tocks yeah it’s almost at a million right yeah yeah yeah I think I made about 13 bucks off of that thing so far I saw that uh so I saw a tick tock that guy had a tick tock where he made it his own Tick Tock the guy that built that Steve guy from yeah and he was talking about you know how much time and money he’s got tied up in that does he have a show the guy that made that yeah the show is actually called welder up it’s it’s okay it’s not on anymore but it was you know it was like because that was one of the coolest things I saw that and they’d build something cool out of it but uh your dad uh your dad took a picture with him too and got to sit inside of that truck too so yeah which is good because my dad is like a purebred trucker yeah yeah the only one thing that SEMA that stood out a little for you know then all that is the one

Peterbilt that I didn’t know if I did you see any other trucks when you were walking around there there was one other truck out front that was was pretty nice there was a bubble nose they built it as a roll back oh yeah it’s a GM right yeah it was painted painted like that welder up truck yeah so all patina like mm-hmm yeah and it’s it’s just like that truck wasn’t Perfect Right the truck wasn’t perfect the car wasn’t perfect but it was just his art right yeah that just drew people to it it had the Torches were functional yeah you know you know I think I I saw you know your Tick Tock I’ve seen a ton of tick tocks with it popping up yeah and yeah and it was I think it was really popular maybe we could maybe we could uh let them let us put a couple trucks in there sure put a truck in it find a cool car yeah beau’s car I like that car Bo has I don’t know it needs it needs some love can we get a truck in the booth well I mean

that they got a bunch of other big ships I didn’t see any semi trucks upstairs though yeah yeah I saw some cars I saw some motorcycles maybe if they move us downstairs where we belong in the muffler area I thought we could get it up in there if the cat strap where probably petition to go down there that we’re selling something so what was it on the software side too because I went to the uh I want to say the north what is it the North Hall that had um I love the four wheel drive stuff and the outdoor that was the north building I think it’s more like like because we’re all about repair and fixing on our floor yeah downstairs but below us is tires and four wheel drive stuff but over there it’s like all the real car builds are in there yeah somebody that sells engine stuff you know we’ll see we’ll see if we uh how much motivation we have to go again yeah it’s a lot of a lot of work a lot of time a lot of money but uh definitely worth it to hang out with

all the people that we want to be doing business with and and helping uh well that’s our true Target that’s our true target market that’s why we like SEMA so much is we’re not you know we’ve we’ve made a name for ourselves going after the individual recycler you know but we’ve also built a decent following of doing business to business transactions and I think as we shift our Focus to getting people educated to be able to sell to us that are businesses and why we present you know a strong case for you to do business with us so we can do business to business transactions I think that falling will only grow and probably even be more motivating to go to SEMA because that’s who you’re really trying to deal with the the guys that have the muffler shop the mechanic shop the those are the guys that you know are need a good outlet for their converters and they need someone that they can trust and depend on and not you know have some guy driving through and three times a week interrupting the flow of their shop I mean that’s our real

that’s that’s the real Market that we chase you know I think 80 percent of the people that go into the booth either work at a shop or own a shop it felt like at our booth at least yeah you know they’ve all experienced it the world needs core buyers like one thing I don’t want to discount or on is the world needs guys out there that are willing and able to buy from the individual like we have seven scrap yards right we buy from individuals through our scrap yards we vet them we go through the process we do it so that part of it I mean I want I mean how many scrap yards and and companies out there that need those individual core buyers those those guys need to exist they just need a proper way of being able to vet their customer in a proper way of being able to track and and basically keep the proper records of their transactions so they can feel comfortable buying and selling yeah right and I think that’s and that’s where the report that’s what I’m saying that’s where the industry goes is well and

also if they were running legit businesses they could pay taxes and Commercial tax and Road tax and the same taxes we’re all paying just keep the lights on you know so like I said I don’t I don’t the core buyer needs to exist um those guys out there you know people with their have a physical location and a good place to go they’re keeping proper records like that needs to be able to happen yeah but businesses need a good home a good consistent home for their material as well agreed yeah I think it’s a good chat yeah anything else well I want Barry to give us a little spill about his new podcast tell everyone when what it’s going to be about so really I mean chicken like Chronicles um and it’s really just gonna be about trucks what we do um why we do a different different vendors and in the community um different shops different mechanics you know and and the drivers you know you know I plan to you know we’re gonna do some some one-on-one type type conversations we’re gonna do some just sit around shoot the conversations

and and uh and try to just um really highlight what Trucking is highlight the people that are out there that I mean highlights it highlights kind of like a way of like saying that you’re taking the people that have a strong passions that people have a passion for the car industry there’s a lot of people that have a passion for the trucking industry right correct and being able to like let those guys talk about their what they got going on is important yeah I think you could have a podcast on taking a if you just do it right like everybody does it it would we could we could discuss it but I mean like I think it’s important to like we have a podcast about scrap in Idaho this podcast wherever this one goes is a podcast about converter reclaim And discussing converters right think of a podcast about Trucking and what it’s about and the people that are doing it right and there’s I mean that’s the beauty of podcasting it’s just getting people on to tell their story and what they got going on discuss their industry their passion their interest like

I’d encourage people to have a podcast about anything I’m gonna start the next podcast taking a I think you should I think you should be folder crumble hot and sweaty two squares or are you four Brett we want your podcast about chips and salsa I know we want the chips I have a note section on my phone I know I’ve seen it I’ve seen it in action I’m like a like a chips and socks that’s the addict before you do this podcast can you do the chips and salsa podcast version okay all right well I think we’re good all right thanks buddy I appreciate the invite and it’s great to be able to come down and so what’s the next show real quick like and one of the reasons you said you want to go to the show was you were thinking about doing like a show in Vegas or a truck show yeah Louisville Kentucky is Mid-America truck show mats and it’s supposed to be like SEMA for trucks yeah are you wanting to go are you want to so what’s the goal I I do want to go and I and

I every year I get right down to it and then I back out because it’s just so long to be able to go back to Kentucky and do that and last year I even I had registered um our yellow truck to go out right to have it sitting in the in the area and and I just keep backing out of it but I really what is it it’s so this coming year it’s it’s the end of March it’s like the 20 28th 29th 30th and first to April I know the first April’s the last day but uh but yeah it’s another just crazy event three days not three days yeah it’s three days yeah maybe we’ll put a truck and have a converter booth there maybe yeah and you know like we’ve got a new truck coming we’ve got a new trailer so I’ve been talking with you know with Western trailer and with with Jackson computer Peterbilt about possibly trying to do something together to bring some equipment out there and maybe we can convert a reclaim can you can you buy like a semis worth of converters while we’re out there I

mean it’d make it it justify a lot to why we’re out there well I mean there’s a lot of trucks that uh you know if they’re 2007 or new or they have a cat or a DPF and uh we do deal with a lot of shops that uh you know need to replace those things if they can’t be cleaned or baked or you know however they do that right you know so they need to find their way back into the recycling stream also so so gotcha but we got options that’s it all right okay guys thanks for coming up absolutely