"[RICHMOND, TX] For nearly three weeks, Donald Thomas, a Home Depot employee, fought for his life at a Houston hospital after being run over by someone trying to steal pallets..."
It's much cheaper for an employer to cover losses from theft than to pay worker's compensation or death benefits to someone trying to be a hero...
The use of the word 'hero' in that sentence almost sounds perjorative. I don't think he was trying to be a 'hero' as much as someone just trying to do the right thing.
And he may have been just standing there when; ran over.
Pallets around here can retrieve $17.00.
It never occurred to me pallets were valuable. You can always find a bunch of them in construction dumpsters around "block" time or "roof tile" time or "paver" time and they will hold them out for you if you ask. They don't like paying to have the dumpster guy haul them away. Pallets fill up a dumpster in a hurry.
I've got pallets here that nobody will take back. I guess I'll just break them up and put a piece at a time in the trash bin.
Perce
Value varies. Some pallets are odd sized and have no value at all. Others are say, 48 x 40, 4 way entry and meet specifications used in certain industries and are easily sold and do have good value.
I need the 48 x 40 for one customer and I buy reconditioned for $5 each. At the same time, we get in material from China on containers and get 36 pallets at a time and no one wants them due to the odd size. 43 x 37.
Perhaps things have changed, but my father was an amateur woodworker, and he usually started with a pallet. They were made of very good hardwood, albeit rough cut, and if you found a piece that was clean, you could work it into a very good piece of wood. I still have a nice desk we (he, with me reluctantly helping) made. It would be hard to find and afford equivalent wood today, at least where HD has driven out the old lumbar yards. Perhaps
Not all pallets are worth money. In my area many end up in the dumpster. Some people; that can burn wood, salvage them for fire wood. A local on Craigslist will sometimes offer $0.50 for them..I notice he is picky about them. I suppose he resells the better quality pallets.
I bought some roofing tiles a couple of years ago and had them delivered. I was charged a $17.00 'core charge' for the pallet. That was refundable when the pallet was returned.
Most pallets are made from hardwood, albeit the lesser grades, but there are always some good boards to be found. If you look on the woodworking page of my web site you'll see a doll sized oak desk I made for my wife.
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