Trying to decide what to turn in....

I have not been to the scrap yard in almost a Month... still going out everyday and collecting. Well i have reached a point where i am running out of living funds so i have no choice but to turn some stuff in. As of recently copper prices are starting to increase a bit and ive noticed non-ferrous prices are not nearly as bad as they were 2-3 weeks ago. I have collected an abundance of both ferrous and non-ferrous items (more ferrous ofcourse)... last year i would say 60% of my revenue came from shred... so i really dont want to turn it in at the current rate of .04/lb. So im wondering should i just keep the steel pile building in hopes the market will reboundor keep the non-ferrous? I would say i have between 15-20k lbs of shred. The pile looks like i own a small scrap yard lol

Only you can decide what is best for you.
Here is my thoughts..
Turn in what is easiest for you to replace.
For me non-ferrous is a little harder to come by than shred.
You have to eat, so turn it the shred. Find more next week.

Al is pretty normal. I heard the other day that it is one of the few things that is cheaper to recycle than to mine. it should be safe to turn in.

With that amount of shred, you should be able to call around and get a better bulk price. I would turn in aluminum, it's price has stayed pretty stable. Keep the copper for another few months. Might be time to start thinking about resale before scrapping. People are still buying stuff.
Good luck

Im going to pick up a restaurant stainless grill today that weighs about 400lbs... + i have probably another 100-200 lbs stashed. my buyer at my scrap yard said he would pay me .45/lb on clean stainless, so im thinking i will turn that in along with my overflowing electric motors ( probably 400-500 lb ), 20 fridge compressors, lite insulated #2, and transformers. And then a few loads of shred. That way im saving good and bad lol.... I am always on the lookout for resale items, which normally i find something everyweek, but lately it has been slow. Ebay is great for most smaller items, 70% of craigslist buyers piss me off between there negotiating an arleady lower then everyones price or the " i will be there friday " andddd they dont show lol

Another thought is if you are wanting to still stockpile some shred in anticipation of prices going up, sell off your lighter bulky stuff, which will make room for anything smaller and heavier you might pick up. I have a lot of dishwashers and water heaters I need to take in, and I am taking in the dishwashers first as a trailer load of them is about two thirds the weight of a load of water heaters.

glad your not giving up and your hard work will pay off and with that much I do agree that your prices will be a lot better. depends on how much your getting in tons but I would research your options and area for other scrappers and start loading rail gondolas . I hate the word co.op but its the same concept I had not heard of in this business before at least with smaller scrappers like me who load maybe 2000lbs max in my truck if I don't break something lol but even after overhead still getting 6-8 cents a #

Originally Posted by Gotscrap2012

Do you remove motors, wire, brass and alum or is all this going in to shred?

All of what you see is shred.... it has already been broken down and stripped of good good metals.... the good stuff is stored in my garage.

Not that's its not organized and neat but another question you have to ask is how long before someone calls the city code enforcement on you?? That pile wouldn't last a week in my back yard before someone ratting me out...