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Junk Refund Show with Alan Cook

Junk Refund Show with Alan Cook

Written by: Alan J. Cook
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1-800-Junk-Refund helps people declutter their homes and businesses with the unique option of getting some cash back! Our radio show, Junk Refund Show, takes it one step further by helping you get the clutter and junk out of your life as well! Listen each week as we help you not only declutter your garage, but we help you declutter your relationships as well! Not only can we help you clean out your dresser drawers, we can help you clean out that extra baggage you are carrying around your waistline too! Not only can we help you find that extra change that is fallen down into the cracks of your couch, but we can also give you some tips on how to make some extra money in your life! Join us as we explore that fascinating world of junk removal both inside and outside of your home, using interesting guests, 20 years of junk removal experience, and an upbeat and optimistic outlook on life!Copyright 2026 Alan Cook Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
Episodes
  • Junk Refund Show, October 15, 2026

    Junk Refund Show, October 15, 2026
    Oct 16 2026
    Junk Refund Show with Alan Cook A Day in Bed, a Grafton Ohio Garage, and a Laptop for a Pen Pal in Brazil Alan Cook broadcasts the entire show lying in bed in Rockville, Maryland, recounting a weekend haul to Grafton, Ohio, a tree that totaled his SUV, and a Craigslist-funded plan to buy a laptop for a friend in Brazil. A Rare Day From Bed in Rockville Alan Cook opens the Junk Refund Show explaining he is taping the entire episode lying down in his bed in Rockville, Maryland, something he says he has never done in four years on the air. He frames the choice around a theme of slowing down, prompted by a postponed 10 a.m. appointment that freed up his morning. Cook invites listeners to find him on Facebook under Alan J. Cook, pointing to his profile photo of himself ziplining across Colorado's Royal Gorge, nearly 1,100 feet above the Arkansas River, taken after a job in Denver. He describes adding names over the years to a running list he calls "the ten happiest people in the world," which started with himself, Oprah, and eight others and has since grown. He recommends listeners search YouTube for the Norwegian singer Sissel performing "Slow Down" with the Tabernacle Choir, calling it the emotional touchstone for the day's relaxed pace. The Call From Grafton, Ohio Cook explains the backstory behind slowing down: a call last Friday from a woman named Heidi in Grafton, Ohio, whose mother threatened to make her clear out stuff filling a three-car garage. He recalls the only other Grafton he knew was the ghost town in southern Utah used as a filming location for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and jokes that the name caught his attention immediately. He quoted Heidi roughly $2,000 for the job sight unseen, and she paid a $1,000 deposit by credit card through the Square app on the spot, wanting the crew as soon as possible. Cook notes the drive from Washington, D.C. to the Cleveland area is about five and a half hours, shorter than he expected, so he decided to drive up Sunday afternoon in a rented box truck rather than fly. He adds that the day before Heidi's call, a dead tree fell on his SUV parked behind his office, totaling his favorite vehicle just months after he installed a $4,500 transmission. Driving Up, Loading Out, Making It Pay After church and a baptismal service Sunday, Cook drives his 16-foot Enterprise box truck to Ohio, filling it with diesel using the Upside cash-back app along the way. He checks into a Days Inn in the Cleveland area for just 5,000 Wyndham points, the lowest rate he says he has ever found, using his Diamond-tier status in the chain. The next morning he finds Heidi has already condensed her belongings into organized piles, so the actual job runs smaller than quoted, roughly $1,500 worth of mattresses, box springs, church tables, and about forty boxes and bags of miscellaneous items. He loads the truck in about an hour, finishing by 10:15 a.m., and Heidi adds $400 cash on top of her deposit, meaning he nets $1,400 for an hour of work. Cook drives the load back to Maryland that day, reflecting on how jobs like this one have taken his company from Seattle to San Diego and from Maine to Florida over the years. Technology, Ankles, and a New Promotion Back home and still lying in bed, Cook details the free Upside app, which has paid him more than $1,200 in cash back on gas purchases over roughly two and a half years, comparing its steady growth to Warren Buffett's preference for holding investments forever. He recounts a scrap-yard accident about six weeks earlier, rolling his left ankle on uneven pavement and falling into a pile of scrap metal, and a lingering Achilles strain since the Ohio trip that comes and goes as he walks on it. Turning to marketing, Cook describes building an email list of roughly 800 clients in Mailchimp and spending the morning crafting a promotion called "Save a Benjamin," offering $229 worth of junk removal for $125 through his own Speed Pass program, cheaper than retail but keeping more money than selling through Groupon. He also boosts the same offer on the show's Facebook page for $5 a day, targeting the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. A Laptop for Karina and More Jobs Close Cook shares the story of Karina, a woman turning forty in São Paulo, Brazil, whom he met on a dating site and has corresponded with daily through WhatsApp and Google Translate for three months despite speaking no Portuguese. Wanting to help her buy a laptop for her work with children, he places a $5 Craigslist ad in three D.C.-area locations offering five pickup-truck loads of junk removal at $100 instead of $229, with proceeds earmarked for the laptop. The same morning, a weekly Groupon payment of $130 lands in his account, and a returning Accokeek, Maryland customer back from Bermuda books a truckload with a stacked discount down to $550. He also recounts hauling scrap metal for free from a gas station contact in Annapolis and a related pickup of barrels and metal slabs...
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    59 mins
  • Junk Refund Show, October 8, 2026

    Junk Refund Show, October 8, 2026
    Oct 9 2026
    Junk Refund Show with Alan Cook Cast Iron Tubs, Groupon Hauls, and Cheap Flights Inside the Junk Refund Business Host Alan Cook broadcasts live from a stalled tub pickup in McLean, Virginia, then narrates a day of Groupon jobs, scrap metal runs, and a costly workshop accident while riding the Beltway between stops, closing with his tricks for flying almost anywhere for under fifty dollars. Live From McLean: The Cast Iron Tub Job Alan Cook opens the show broadcasting live from McLean, Virginia, where he and his helper June have pulled up to haul away a roughly 300-pound cast iron tub. Cook jokes about rigging earbuds so he can keep talking while wrestling the heavy tub, warning listeners the show might be a short one if it is still upstairs. When they reach the site, the contractor explains the tub is not quite ready, maybe forty minutes more, so Cook agrees to swing back later and heads off to plan B instead. Riding along in traffic afterward, he uses the moment to explain the four things his company does with every load it hauls: junking true trash, recycling metal and wire, donating usable goods for a receipt, and selling anything worth selling, with proceeds split back to the customer, a practice he says sets 1-800-Junk-Refund apart from ordinary junk haulers. Groupon Economics and a Railing Job's Sad Backstory Cook details his company's decade-long run on Groupon, where a quarter-truckload of junk removal priced at $229 sells for $99, netting the business roughly sixty percent after Groupon's cut. He cites around 500 reviews and a 4.8 rating, a 96 to 97 percent satisfaction score he calls the highest of any junk removal company on the platform. He recounts that morning's Groupon job at a second-floor apartment, where he and June tossed clothing bags and lowered unplugged lamps by their cords over a railing to speed things along, earning extra loads at $175 and $150 paid by Venmo. The backstory turns somber: the unit belonged to a woman who had just moved up from Florida after her husband died, only to pass away herself three weeks later, a reminder, Cook says, that junk removal often means stepping into people's lives at emotional turning points. Scrap Metal, Craigslist Leads, and a Costly Collision Cook explains how free Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace scrap-metal pickups double as marketing, since customers who get a free haul-away often call back later for paid junk removal at a twenty percent discount. He breaks down scrap pricing, roughly six cents a pound for plain metal versus twenty-three cents for dirty aluminum, and describes repeat visits to a Fairfax, Virginia collector who has spent years amassing lawn mower engines, carburetors, and file cabinets full of small-engine parts. The visit turns dramatic when Cook recalls that the same man, warned more than once to lower an old rusted commercial fan perched precariously above head height, instead walked into its sharp metal frame, gashing his scalp open and spending much of the day in the emergency room. Cook calls it a cautionary tale about clearing hazards before they clear you, even as the crew keeps hauling away truckloads of the man's metal collection. Nancy's Downsizing Job and an Advance-Payment Discount Cook describes a referral from Olney, Maryland realtor Karen Rawlings to a client named Nancy, who is downsizing from a thirty-year family home into a two-bedroom condo. He quotes the job at $495, then applies the standard realtor-referral discount down to $450, with another $50 off if Nancy pays before the crew arrives. Her husband balks at paying in advance, a hesitation Cook says he understands even though out-of-town clients wire full payment sight unseen all the time. The family agrees to the discounted rate, Venmoing $400 ahead of the job, and adds an extra twin bed frame and a sofa bound for her son's basement apartment. The job wraps smoothly, with Nancy handing over a hundred-dollar tip for the couch and her son kicking in another hundred for hauling furniture up and down tricky basement stairs, leaving everyone satisfied. Building the Business With AI Mailing Lists Still stuck in Beltway traffic, Cook credits BBS Radio's use of artificial intelligence for inspiring him to try Microsoft Copilot in his own business. He describes building a spreadsheet of roughly 800 real estate offices around Washington, D.C., each averaging twelve and a half agents, for postcard mailings aimed at generating whole-home cleanout referrals. A second database lists about 800 area gas stations offered free scrap-metal pickups in exchange for future junk-removal discounts. He recounts the mailings already paying off, with calls from an Annapolis gas station owner and a Burke, Virginia car wash yielding free metal pickups, one of which led to a follow-up job clearing barrels and sheet metal from a business in Lanham, Maryland. Cook frames the AI-built lists as a low-cost way to keep generating both scrap income and new long-term customers. ...
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    1 hr
  • Junk Refund Show, September 17, 2026

    Junk Refund Show, September 17, 2026
    Sep 18 2026
    Junk Refund Show with Alan Cook From a Twisted Ankle to a Temple in Cleveland: A Week Inside the Junk Refund Business Host Alan Cook recounts a rain-soaked day of junk removal jobs, a broken rental truck and an ankle injury at the scrap yard, a quick trip to visit the new Cleveland Ohio Temple, and a decluttering client who happens to share his name with a famous golfer. Fresh Off Two Jobs and a Rainstorm Alan Cook opens the show still damp from an afternoon rain shower, fresh off two jobs in the Washington, D.C. area. He describes clearing part of a storage unit in Laurel, Maryland, for a client named Jewel, noting with amusement that nearly everything she owns is lavender, from her T-shirt to her phone case. Earlier that morning he helped a longtime customer named Archie load up a driveway full of items. Both jobs used the company's Groupon special, a pickup truck load of junk removal for ninety-nine dollars instead of the usual two hundred twenty-nine. Cook explains the yearly birthday voucher he sells every May, discounted to match his age, sixty-eight dollars this year, and the radio-only deal available by calling in during the broadcast and leaving a name with producer Don, who passes the information along so Cook can follow up after the show. The Four-Part Junk Refund System Cook lays out the mechanics behind 1-800-Junk-Refund. Every job gets sorted four ways: true junk goes to the dump, metal and wire are recycled, usable items like clothing and dishes go to charity with a donation receipt sent back to the customer, and anything that looks sellable is listed, with the customer receiving thirty-five percent once it sells for twenty dollars or more. He runs through pricing, a twelve-foot box truck around six hundred ninety-five dollars, a pickup load at two hundred twenty-nine, and a one-hundred-nineteen-dollar minimum for something like a single refrigerator pickup. Referrals from realtors earn customers ten percent off, and paying in advance earns another ten percent. He also plugs free scrap-metal pickups around the D.C. area and his habit of running thirty-day Craigslist ads for five dollars, which he credits with generating thousands of dollars in scrap and cleanout business over the years. A Referral, a Broken Truck, and a Bad Fall Cook credits realtor Mike Parente for a referral to a couple named the Millers in North Potomac, Maryland, a job that started rough. Days before the scheduled start, the company's rental box truck loses power after a diesel exhaust fluid sensor malfunctions and limits it to thirty-five miles per hour, and it stays in the shop for over a week. Cook shows up to the multi-thousand-dollar cleanout with a pickup truck instead. At the scrap yard, he steps into a dip in the pavement, rolls his ankle, and falls backward onto a pile of scrap pipes, badly scraping his knee and thumb and losing the ability to put weight on his foot. He fashions a cane from the handle of a discarded floor-waxing machine and keeps working. A Zelle payment from Mr. Miller is delayed several days by bank limits, leaving him briefly without cash to pay his crew, but the job still wraps up in roughly nineteen pickup truck loads. Movie Chairs From a Mansion in Great Falls Back from the injury, Cook turns to a job for a friend named Brian in Great Falls, Virginia, a former Bank of America mortgage employee who now buys and flips distressed properties. Brian tells Cook the first sign of a distressed home is overgrown landscaping, since upkeep is usually the first expense an owner cuts. Brian, who has built a mansion with an indoor theater seating twelve in stadium-style rows, is replacing worn reclining movie chairs and hires the crew to haul the old ones away. Cook and his helper June load the chairs, heavy with metal frames and upholstery, into a pickup truck and a repurposed SUV outfitted with a salvaged rear cargo carrier. The scrap yard pays for some loads of chair bases but rejects one for having too much upholstery and not enough metal, so that load goes to the regular dump instead, wrapping up a job worth about eight hundred fifty dollars. A Fast Trip to the Cleveland Temple With his ankle still tender, Cook takes off for one of his long-running personal projects: visiting temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the world, a hobby that has taken him to roughly one hundred thirty of the church's temples over about nine years. He flies Southwest from Baltimore to Cleveland for fifty-nine dollars each way, takes a cheaper Lyft over an Uber to reach the new Cleveland Ohio Temple in Independence, Ohio, and spends a couple of hours there before heading back to the airport. Rather than pay for a hotel, he sleeps for free on a cushioned bench near a not-yet-open Chick-fil-A, phone charging nearby, and boards his six a.m. flight home. He recounts a story from his friend Thayne, who volunteers at the temple and was invited into the small celestial room when one of the ...
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    1 hr and 1 min
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