Craigslist Recovery Business

[Caligula45]

One time me and my brother tried to start a recovery business for rings and other valuables, basically we figured, 40$ bucks to start and 40$ more if we find it. This guy calls us up, only customer, real cool dude. He said this house was for sale and 20 years ago he lost his 24k gold class ring. Well my brother and I set off for the house and went in through back gate. We detected for maybe 30 mins, finding about 12 pennies, a nickel and quite a few nails and pop tabs, we started just marking each "ping" with a stick and went back and forth marking each spot till their werent anymore. After doing this for 30 mins (small backyard). We found maybe 22 more pennies, a nickel, a dime, and finally his Gold ring. It was shiny just like the day it was made. Well, we thought about being greedy and just keeping it, but being honest gentlemen, we returned it to the owner and collected our other 40$. Never got another call, but that guy was so happy we found it, and most of all he couldnt believe we even did.

 

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[dirtydig]

cool story!

 

[pescadore]

Too many free service's now for a for profit business. I never charged for finding stuff but have been rewarded. Tried not to take it but people insisted and said the didn't feel right unless they gave me something. My best payment was a dusty ole Whites detector in a storage shed in the back yard. Ordered a battery box for it and she fired right up. Sold it for $275 on a auction site.

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[jamey]

sounds good,some people will pay ya to find something for them,and ya made it worth every penny

 

[cudamark]

Too many free service's now for a for profit business. I never charged for finding stuff but have been rewarded. Tried not to take it but people insisted and said the didn't feel right unless they gave me something. My best payment was a dusty ole Whites detector in a storage shed in the back yard. Ordered a battery box for it and she fired right up. Sold it for $275 on a auction site.

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All of us have to decide what our time is worth. I don't know about you but I didn't get my detectors, batteries, or accessories for free or my vehicle or fuel either for that matter. I would expect that someone who lost something valuable to them would at least cover your costs. I know people who like to work on cars or do gardening work as a hobby too, but you'd never see me doing that for free. My time is worth more to me than that.

 

[Old Dude]

The opportunity to hunt a new site, with the understanding that I got to keep all relics/coins found would be payment enough for me. If I took the job to recover the ring, never once would the idea of keeping it cross my mind. Maybe I am too old fashioned, but my integrity and reputation is priceless to me.

 

[cudamark]

I agree, but, permission to hunt a site in exchange for finding a lost item is a form of payment, isn't it? I would gladly do it too if the site was old enough and looked likely to have old coins and relics. One time I hunted for a lost item and received a batch of home-made cookies as payment. It doesn't always have to be money. It's just nice to receive something for your efforts and knowing that what you do is appreciated.

 

[Sandman]

I did this recovery thing for profit. Someone would get my business card and give me a call to find something they lost and after driving there when I could have been out detecting and then getting stiffed on the payment, I starting charging $50.00 up front to start looking for two hours. I've looked longer than that. Mainly the money up front was to discourage the low life's that just want to see the nerd look for the "Rolex" by the buoy in neck deep water. Plenty of times I didn't keep the money, just glad to get to hunt a new area. Once had a guy that wanted me to find his ring which he lost while water skiing. I wouldn't take that job by the hour.

Always get a good description of the thing you are looking for and never tell them of other things you found while looking or they will claim them too.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I forget where I saw the ad, but a lady had lost a wedding ring, and it was about a 2 hour drive from me - but on my way to my farm so not so out of the way.. I offered to search for it for free if she'd allow me to detect her yard and keep the other finds.

She said no, she'd make other arrangements.....

Sometimes I just love people....

 

[Davers]

I forget where I saw the ad, but a lady had lost a wedding ring, and it was about a 2 hour drive from me - but on my way to my farm so not so out of the way.. I offered to search for it for free if she'd allow me to detect her yard and keep the other finds.

She said no, she'd make other arrangements.....


Sometimes I just love people....

What a Winch!!!!!

 

[Deerhunter24]

The opportunity to hunt a new site, with the understanding that I got to keep all relics/coins found would be payment enough for me. If I took the job to recover the ring, never once would the idea of keeping it cross my mind. Maybe I am too old fashioned, but my integrity and reputation is priceless to me.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

THERE IS NO AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT YOU CAN PLACE ON YOUR OWN INTEGRITY...IF YOUR INTEGRITY MATTERS THAT IS.

 

[Deerhunter24]

I for one, also agree with another comment that my time, gas, vehicle isn't free.

If it was finding a lost item for a friend...I don't charge them.
If someone wants me to make a special trip somewhere...then I'd hope to be reimbursed for at least my gas.
If its finding something for someone that I do not know on a personal level, then I see nothing wrong with charging a small fee or accepting a reward.
If I'm locating something for someone that saves them money...or they're profiting from it...then I charge a fee.

A few examples.

I have a few buddies that work for a guy who renovates houses for sale. This boss...renovates these homes for a local realtor. Anyway, his boss calls me and asks me to come out and try to locate these property markers. If I cannot find them...they have to pay $$$ to get it resurveyed. He was hoping I could find at least 1 or 2.

Anyway, this was a jacked up piece of property with like 10 markers on it. They were missing the 5 hardest to find ones. The others were already marked.

I ended up finding 4/5 of these markers in like 3 hours. He asked what I wanted as compensation...I said...How about $25 stake? He quickly agreed and paid me $100.

A month later...I found out he charged the realtor $300 as a fee for locating the stakes. The realtor was THRILLED with the $300 price tag because he didn't have to pay $1000+ to get it resurveyed.

Pretty funny how I got paid $100 for actually doing the work, but the boss made $200 just for me coming out there.



Another quick one. I've been searching some old farm fields that are old home sites. A neighbor farmer of these fields comes up and asks me if I can locate a property marker in their yard. He said they had it surveyed a few years ago and had a REAL GOOD IDEA where it was. I agreed to help him out. I was able to find it in less than 15 minutes. We BS'ed for an hour or so. He was a real nice guy. He then asked..."What do I owe ya?" I said, "How about a handshake?" He immediately was very gratious. He told me to scour my old maps and let him know if any of his properties had old homes at one time...I'd be welcome to come back and detect.


So...I think each situation is different from one another.


DH24

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

As Stated above...Each Situation is different from another....I was somewhere before and a guy came up and told me he lost his weddign band a week ago at the park i was at. In fact he was out trying to eyeball it the day i was there. I had no problem looking for his ring, and told him if i found it i would return it.

I figured i was already there looking for stuff, that if i happen to come accross it, i would Love to return it. I think returning a lost item that someone is emotinally attached too is worth much more than a couple hundred bucks.

But at the same time. if i were to see someone posting a post about wanting someone to find it. I would probally have to ask for something

 

[scaupus]

Some folks are determined to maintain their amateur status as detectorists and wouldn't dream of accepting money. Some get kind of heated about people who do charge; they think its unethical, unchristian, and mean for anyone to make a business of it. They think it makes detectorists look like pirates who take advantage of people who are in need of help. I think that's ridiculous . As soon as I got proficient with my machine, I just went right away for contracting to find things. It's been tremendously rewarding personally, as the people are so grateful and so happy, and surprised even. It doesn't seem to diminish their joy that they paid me to find the item.

I have never considered for a moment keeping an item I was contracted to find. The only dilemma I ever had along those lines occurred when I found a modern gold ring on private property that was not contracted for. The property owners had no obligation to pay me for finding that ring under the terms of our agreement, only for the ring they had me looking for. Just as a note of interest, they were the original owners of the house, yet they could not identify the ring as one of theirs, or even hazard a guess whose it might be - no one had ever mentioned to them losing such a ring at their house.

 

[cudamark]

Some people get upset if you DON'T take a reward. I just leave it up to the person to do what they think is best. All I ask is to be compensated for my costs. Anything beyond that is up to them. Sure, I've been stiffed a few times but others have more than made up for it with their generosity and appreciation.