How To Get The Best Scrap Metal Prices At A Scrap Yard

The world of scrap metal recycling has changed a lot in the past decade or so, if only for one small thing… Prices. Commodities have skyrocketed in recent years, taking with it something once worth pennies and making it into something worth dollars.

Where to Find Scrap Metal Prices Online

Scrap metal prices can be found on this website in the upper right hand corner of every page, under the title “Scrap Metal Prices.” Just select your scrap metal material, and it’s most recent prices will be presented in graph form along with some historical data.
These material prices are rough estimates of what your materials are worth, found by aggregating values nation wide. As explained below, the value of the scrap metal depends on many factors, and these online estimates are only useful for those tracking market movement; please call a local scrap yard and ask for their price list, and comparing it to the prices provided should help tremendously in evaluating “good” deals.

What Determines Scrap Metal Prices?

Scrap Metal Prices are a function of metal type, location, quantity of scrap metal, and current market value for your materials. In other words, the price you get paid by a scrap yard will depend on what you are selling (copper, brass, aluminum, steel, etc), where you are selling (what side of town, which side of the world, etc), how much scrap metal you are selling (pounds vs tons), and how much the material is worth once refined (“spot price”).

1. Scrap Metal Type: Scrap metal is broken down into many different types of categories. For example, Copper, Lead, and Stainless Steel are all types of scrap metals that can be sold at a scrap yard, and each of these metals can get further subcategorized into copper wire, lead wheel weighs, or 18-10 grade stainless steel, for example.Now, this is obvious to anybody who has sold metal before…But, what isn’t so obvious is the way your metal gets categorized! The category of your metal depends on the scrap yard you are at!!! For example, what one scrap yard considers bare bright scrap copper, another scrap yard will consider copper #1.Keep this in mind when shopping around for better prices, because the last thing we want is a quote for cast aluminum, only to find out the scrap yard considers your material to be pot metal. (~40% reduction in price!)
2. Geographical location: Without making too many generalizations, we can assume that scrap metal prices will always be highest in areas where there is the most competition. This means rural areas, areas far away from refineries, areas too far inland, etc will rarely have better pricing then those places where scrap yards can both fight for customers and haggle with refineries.Keep this in mind when searching for the best scrap yard. Spending 1 more hour round trip and an extra $15 in gas to get to a further scrap yard may make you an additional 15% at the pay out window! In a similar vein, you can always consider selling your scrap metal on eBay, which allows for tremendous competition, but which takes fees and costs you for time, shipping, and handling.(more on Selling Scrap Metal On eBay )
3. Quantity of Scrap Metal: On the surface, it is a simple concept; the more metal you have, the more it is worth. But further exploration shows that it really is a tool which can be used to your advantage! (Read more below)
4. Current Spot Metal Prices: These would be the prices that newly refined ore and scrap is being sold for. In general, the more money a refinery can the refined metal for, the more money you can sell your scrap metal for. (But, keep in mind, this isn’t alwaysthe case) The best way to keep up with metal spot prices is to check out Kitco spot price feeds.

How To Negotiate The Best Scrap Metal Prices

The easiest way to change the salvage value of your scrap metal will be to somehow manipulate any of the 4 different parameters that scrap metal prices depend on to your advantage. For example, selling to a different scrap yard can increase how much you make! Here are three simple techniques to getting better pricing, ordered from easiest to hardest; You will need to use all three to get the absolute best pricing!

1. Play the quantity:Every scrapper has encountered this scenario: You call up the scrap yard to check on the price of a certain type of metal; their first and only question “How much do you have?”When you buy/sell in bulk, you get better pricing, and the scrap yard is no exception. Try this on for size: instead of selling brass by the bucketful, try the barrel-full! Save up a 55 gallon barrel of brass (it doesn’t need to be full). A semi-full barrel of brass should weigh 1/4 ton – 3/4 ton depending on what type of brass components are in it.
   When you call up the scrap yard to ask what they pay for brass, they will be much more receptive to your price requests if they know you will be bringing in a 1/2 ton of brass, and hopefully will be happy to offer you 10% more than what they normally would!
   This mentality can be applied to all metals; Save up your shred metal and sell it by the trailer-full, or even dumpster-full!
   This type of price advantage is easiest to work out if you have a secure area to store your scrap metal. Be wary of thieves and city ordinances!
2. Play the market:
   All things being equal, scrap metal prices will drop slightly in the summer and increase slightly in the winter. This is especially true in areas that have very cold winters that impede recyclers and scrappers from collecting and salvaging. Use this to your advantage!!! If you can hold onto your metal for a few months before selling, you will most likely see a rise in prices in the winter!WARNING: this only works in scrap markets where there is not much volatility, meaning the price is not constantly jumping and falling without reason.
3. Play the scrap yards:Every scrap yard is willing to compete for your business, especially if your business is consistent! (Especially if you are scrapping full time!) If you are business or just a guy with a hobby, you can squeeze your scrap yards for better prices. It all dependents on how much material you are bringing in, and how consistently you are bringing it in.Start off by becoming a steady customer at a scrap yard that has proven itself to be of a high-caliber. This is the key! The better the scrap yard, the better they treat their customers. Be sure to introduce yourself to the owner, and always save your scrap yard price tickets! ALL OF THEM! Total up how much metal you bring in per week, per month, per year, etc, and how much material that is for them. Once you have developed a consistent and steady relationship with the scrap yard, and their workers, sit down with the owner (or acting manager) and have a frank and polite conversation with him or her. If they are not at all receptive of your request to have higher prices, that is not the end of the world! You can bring the same tickets to another scrap yard and show them how much material you are willing to bring them if they can give you better (“special”) pricing.
   The idea is not to be aggressive, but to be frank and open: They need to understand that you will bring your business to the scrap yard that can give you the best prices.
   The worst case scenario is that you end up still getting the same prices you were getting before. The best case is that you make more money per load just for asking!

What to Expect to Get for Scrap Metal Prices

There might be a few people who want make an extra dollar out of the scrap metals that are sitting in a corner of their store room or of those metal pieces that they have collected as hobby. Some people who want to make this as a business might want to know, "What to expect to get for scrap metal prices". People who are interested in electronics and repairing them might have collected some old electronic gadgets as a hobby. If you are one of those, then you might want to get rid of these materials or devices, which are no longer useful to you or you may need to just to make some space for your new collections. For all of these people, it is very important know what to expect to get for scrap metal prices and how to maximize their earnings. Following are some tips that might help you get better prices for the metal scrap that you have collected.

Knowing the prices of the scrap metal you posses
As we all know, there are a few metals that are abundant in nature and can easily be extracted and some metals are scarce. And the metals that are really scarce have a high demand and you will get better prices for them even as a scrap. Apart from this, there are other metals, though they are available in the market quite freely, the demand is more than the supply. For example, steel scrap can be sold at better prices than aluminum because steel has a huge market demand compared to the later. Also, depending on the market conditions and supply, some metals may have more demand then what they normally have. So, you need to have an eye on the market conditions to make better profits.

Negotiating for better price - What you need to know?
Every yard or a scrap metal dealer that buy scrap from you, labor costs are the most important and may decide the price of your scrap metal. The lesser time you are making use of the labor in the scrap metal yard, the more benefits you may make. In order to attain this, you may want to organize the scrap you have already collected. This can be done by storing each metal scrap separately and sparing the dealer the time they require to separate them, which incurs labor costs.

Saving on Transport
You can also get a better bargain, if you are saving their time by supplying a huge lot of scrap metal pieces at a single go. This way the dealer can save the excess time and money involved in the transport and give you the best deal possible.

There are many websites that let you know what to expect to get for Denver scrap metal prices. All you need to do is spend some time researching on what scrap metals is that you are going to get the best profits. And this research is very essential because, depending on the geographical area and the availability of the metal in that area, different scrap metals may have different demands. You may also want to know about the industries located in your area which are willing to buy certain scrap metal pieces, for their production plants, so that you can collect those scrap metals and earn better profits.

How to Avoid Weight Limits at the Scrap Yard

Recycling isn't just great for the atmosphere, but it is also great for the wallet too. When there's a scrap metal yard in your town, you are able to take old home appliances, cans, vehicle parts, and many types of metal waste in and obtain money. Regrettably, many scrap yards have minimum weight limits.

Whenever you pause and consider it, it doesn’t make much sense, and some scrap metal recycling centers like Metal Movers do not have a minimum weight for their scale. Minimum weight limits discourage recycling. By preserve the absolute minimum weight, you're telling people having a mattress frame or perhaps an old lawn mower to throw it within the trash rather. Fortunately, you will find a couple of methods for making your way around these minimum weight limits to eliminate your metal trash and make some cash when you are in internet marketing.

Beat Minimum weight limits in the scrap yard by recycling aluminum

Whenever we moved recently, we found ourselves with a lot of random bits and pieces. A few old mattress frames, a reel mower, some rods. I figured make a couple of bucks by selling it towards the scrap yard rather than needing to pay to decrease them back in the dump. Since I Have had been going, I dug with the recycling bin and drawn out all of the soda cans.

It works out it's a positive thing which I snapped up individuals aluminum cans. It works out its good which I required that extra 5 minutes, since it was the main difference between getting compensated and never getting compensated. This specific scrap yard keeps a 500lb minimum limit. I'd 115lbs price of steel. I did not realize they'd a restriction and also the scale operator didn’t realize I'd so very little until I re-considered. I couldn’t exactly wade in to the pile and retrieve my scrap, however they weren’t likely to pay me either.

Before the guy recognized which I were built with a bag of aluminum cans too. There's no the least aluminum (well, there's, but it’s one pound) That certain pound of aluminum soda cans meant they needed to pay me anyway, so that they may as well pay me for that steel too. I went home with $9 within my pocket which I wouldn’t have basically hadn’t taken time to seize that 45 cents price of aluminum.


Beat Minimum weight limits in the scrap yard if you take Your Neighbor’s Scrap

Traveling to the scrap yard? Discuss with together with your buddies and family should they have almost anything to take too. Maybe they've a classic satellite dish, mattress frame, or engine block relaxing in their garage it's never worth their time for you to eliminate.

Craigslist & FREECYCLE

Also try this would be to browse free ad entries. I have seen some vehicle rims listed free of charge before. That’s almost 100 pounds price of metal immediately! Satellite dishes are listed constantly, as people upgrade to HD which requires a more recent oblong dish rather than the more compact round ones. Old computer systems are great for one pound or a couple of steel. Filing cabinets, metal shelves, and mattress frames are only a couple of the things that you'll find free of charge and obtain compensated to recycle.

If guess what happens you do, you could attempt arbitrage. Arbitrage is taking advantage of issues available on the market by purchasing something for under it may be offered elsewhere. An excellent example is TB from Blue Collar Workman who scouts products at thrift stores for deals that may be offered for any tidy profit on eBay. If you notice something being offered for under its scrap cost, it may be worth obtaining and contributing to your load.

How To Identify Lead

Is 150% denser than iron, so it should feel heavy.

Is atomic element 82 with chemical symbol Pb (from latin plumbum meaning lead)

is very malleable, or soft, and can be carved with a pocket knife.

Will melt in an over or over a fire at 621°F

used to make bullets, and line xray machines.

is very toxic (but apparently has a sweet taste)

How To Sell Scrap Copper

The trick to selling scrap copper is to sell it directly to a scrap yard. If you are in the USA, chances are there is one or more scrap yards somewhere in your town/county/city that you may or may not know about.

Every scrap yard will be interested in buying your scrap copper. It is your job as a scrap seller to find the scrap yard with the best price, and that is closest to your house or place of business. You can always call a scrap yard and ask about their current pricing. (You can expect to get prices at or a little below those listed in the upper right corner of this web page.) To find the nearest scrap yards, I suggest using google maps, google places, or a similar local search engine.

Before you haul your payload off to the scrap yard, you will want to first sort it into its separate categories. Unless you sort it properly, the scrap yard will demote it all to the lowest priced category, insuring that you get paid less then it is worth. Scrap copper that is contaminated with steel, aluminum, or other less valuable metals will lower its value significantly. If you have copper pipes with soldered in joints, for example, these are called copper #2. But if you take your time cutting all of the soldered joints out, leaving just the copper pipes, you will have the higher paying copper #2.

These are 5 general types of copper that you will be getting your hands on when selling scrap metal, and all types of scrap copper can be broken down into further sub-categories:

• Scrap Copper Solids
• Scrap Copper Non-Solids (Turnings, dust, chips, ect)
• Scrap Copper Wire
• Scrap Copper Breakage (Scrap Motors, Scrap Transformers, Scrap Copper Windings)
• Scrap Copper Alloy

Selling Scrap Copper Solids
Congratulations! You have gotten ahold of the good stuff!

Scrap copper solids are any type of unalloyed, or pure, copper scrap . Scrap copper solids are usually the most sought after scrap metal in our industry (Read as “Mass epidemic of Metal Theft rocks scrap metal industry.”) If you stole your scrap copper, go to Hell. Otherwise, place it into one of these three categories:

• Scrap Copper #1 (Copper number one): Defined as clean copper clippings, punchings, busbars, commutator segments, tubing and wire not less than 1/16 of an inch thick. (Includes any type of solid copper, including mill grade copper, clean copper welding tips, etc)
• Scrap Copper #2 (Copper number two): Defined as unalloyed copper solids, at least 96% copper,  and free of excessively leaded, tinned, soldered copper scrap; brasses and bronzes; excessive oil content, iron and non-metallics; copper tubing with other than copper connections or with sediment; copper wire from burning, containing insulation; hair wire; or burnt wire which is brittle.
• Scrap Copper #3 (Light Copper):  Light copper solids are any type of copper sheeting that is less then 1/16 of an inch thick. This scrap copper is worth significantly less then copper 1 or copper 2.

Selling Scrap Copper Non-Solids
This basically covers all things like dust, chips, turning, ect. I don’t feel like I need to really get into this too much, mainly because most yards have their own prices and procedures for selling those.

Scrap Copper dust, chips, and turnings, ect are worth only as much as your scrap yard is willing to pay for them, and unfortunately, that is usually not that much in my experience. (Around 25% of spot price.)

If you end up having more than about 10 pounds of these, I would suggest trying to melt them down into your own copper nugget to make more money. I have used propane to melt turnings down in the past. Find a method that works for you, and stick with it… If you don’t think it is worth doing: Dont do it! (I decided it wasn’t worth the propane!)

Selling Scrap Copper Wire
Every yard is different when it comes to insulated scrap copper wire. You may find that it is worth stripping your wire if you cant sell it for a good price, or maybe you will find that you never should strip wire…

Scrap Copper wire can be sorted into 5 different grades:

• 85% Wire: Thin case with a diameter comparible to a pencil’s. If you have this type of wire, just strip it yourself and get full copper price!
• 70% Wire: Romex/machine wire without any attachments. Found inside of any type of electronics or appliances
• 50% Wire: Extension cords and appliance cords
• 35% Wire: Thinly gauged wire with a considerable degree of attachments. “Communications wire” For example, VGA cables, telephone wires, ect.
• 10% Wire: Christmas lights

Unfortunately, most yards do not segregate scrap wire into so many types. This will usually result in just 2 types of categories for you scrap copper wire:

• High Grade Coppe Wire: Any copper wire with a single layer of insulation.
• Low Grade Copper Wire: Any copper wire with a double layer of insulation.

Again, THESE ARE JUST GENERAL GUIDELINES! Every scrap yard is different. Every scrap yard will purchase scrap copper wire with standards which have been agreed upon between them and a refiner.

Selling Scrap Copper Breakage

Scrap “copper breakage” is another way of saying anything with copper winding. 

If you have scrap electric motors, scrap starters, scrap alternators, scrap transformers, scrap inductors, scrap ballasts, or scrap power supplies you could be getting payed over 3.5x what you are getting for shred steel.

As a general rule, if I have any type of scrap copper breakage that weighs more then 20 pounds, I will break it apart into scrap copper and scrap steel. Depending on what your yard buys, you may not even have a choice, and to get a decent price, you must disassemble!

To pull out scrap copper winding, I cut through the winding that stick out of one end with a sawzall. Then I use a 5 point hammer and punch to hit the copper windings out of their slots. If They slide out easily, I will cut through one end of the copper winding, and then pry the winding out on the other side using a pry-bar/ crowbar. This is also one of the techniques you will need to perfect depending on your situation.

It is different for Scrap Transformers.

Selling Scrap Copper Alloy 

The world of metallurgy revolves around the broad range of alloys that can be created from any type of metal, but you are most likely familiar to the more common scrap copper alloys: Brass and Bronze. These are effectively the same thing, as the definitions have become blended in modern culture. This has lead many scrap yards to just call this price “Copper alloy” as opposed to scrap brass or scrap bronze.  (Technically brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, and bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, or other elements.)

In the beginning of 2011, scrap copper alloy is worth about $1.75 per pound, and is increasing with the price of bullish copper.

But other then scrap bronze and scrap brass, scrap alloys also come in the shape of Cupronickel, Inconel, and Monel. These specialty alloys are worth much more, and you need to find a yard that buys them for their higher scrap values.

One unusually Scrap copper alloy source is in Scrap Silver Plate, and Scrap Immitation Silver. These are actually cupronickel, copper, or German silver.

How To Identify Brass or Bronze

• is usually a yellow-ish color and pays about half the price of copper #1.
• may be called brass or bronze, but some will say “Copper alloy” to avoid confusion.
• Is often found in the form of pipe valves, fluid manifolds, decorative pieces, or instruments.
• Can be alloyed with nickel, in which case it is called a CUPRONICKEL

How To Identify Copper

Is mostly used in wiring and electronics.

Makes great cookware

When copper is pure it has beautiful pink color

Due to tarnishing, is usually a red or brown color. (also beautiful)

Oxidizes into a strong green color.

Is more dense than iron, by about 15%.

Bright Copper is another name for very pure copper, usually wire. Bright copper is the most valuable of scrap copper

Copper #1 is clean copper, including pipes without solder joints.

Copper #2 is painted copper, copper with solder joints, things of that nature

Light Copper is copper sheeting. Some yards may call this copper #3.

Copper Breakage: Motors, transformers, inductors, some processors, et cetera.