A Detroit auto-detail operation called us on a Monday in October. They had been stacking empty soap and wax totes behind their building for eight months. Twenty-two totes total, in varying condition.
By Friday of the same week we had paid them and the totes were on our wash line. Here's how that went.
Monday: the call comes in
Owner emailed us through the contact form at 9:14 AM. Subject line: "22 totes need to go." Description: prior fills were two SKUs of car wash soap concentrate and one SKU of carnauba wax base. All non-toxic, all clean industrial. Photos attached.
Within an hour I had the email. Within three hours I had cross-checked the photos against our intake standard and confirmed they were all candidates for Grade B or C reconditioning. I sent a quote: $42 per tank, $924 total, pickup Friday.
Tuesday: scheduling
Owner approved the quote at 7:48 AM Tuesday. I checked our outbound routing: we had a Wisconsin run leaving Wednesday and a Toledo run leaving Thursday, neither of which routed through Detroit. So I authorized a dedicated Detroit pickup for Friday.
A dedicated pickup for 22 tanks is profitable but marginally. We could have asked them to wait two weeks for the next consolidated route. We didn't, because in the buy-back business, response time is the moat.
Wednesday and Thursday: prep
The owner walked the pad on Wednesday afternoon and confirmed final count. He texted me a count update — 22 confirmed, all valve-intact, all clean.
Our driver loaded a 53-foot trailer on Thursday afternoon for the Friday departure. Bringing 22 tanks back leaves the trailer about 65% full, which is fine for a dedicated single-stop run.
Friday: the pickup
Driver arrived at 9:30 AM Friday. Owner met him at the rear gate. They walked the count together. Driver verified each tank's valve and bottle condition with a quick visual. All 22 passed. Loaded out in 1 hour 40 minutes.
Driver handed the owner an ACH form. Funds hit the owner's account at 2:18 PM the same day.
What happened to the tanks
The tanks ran through our wash line over the following week. 18 came out as Grade B reconditioned and went on the shelf at $115. 3 needed gasket replacement and came out Grade B at $128. 1 had a small bottle crack and went to Jamie's fab corner — that one's now a raised growing bed in a Rivertown community garden.
Our resale on the 21 saleable tanks: roughly $2,460. Cost of pickup + wash labor + gasket + freight: roughly $1,650. Margin on the lot: roughly $810.
The decision to do a dedicated pickup was the right one. The owner became a repeat customer in Q1. He sent us 14 more tanks in February.