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| A Day in the Life of a Scrapper
  1. #61
    jonnyjeb's Avatar
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    I know alot of this is my fault but.....Upon returning from vacation in August I came home to my garage emptied of all my Brass and Copper. Without going into details, the various metals combined to about 1800 lbs, much of which was bare bright. It was nearly impossible to move because of the "clutter" in the garage and the metal was way in the back. Probably someone in my own town. This is the second time (in 2 different houses). Police and detectives came, filled out reports and I haven't heard from them since. Wish there was a better way to keep track of large quantities of scrap being sold at one time....



  2. #62
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    It's usually the people that you keep company with. Sometimes it's one of the neighbors.

    You might go around to the local scrapyards and let' them know your shop was hit. A large quantity like like that wouldn't go unnoticed of somebody tried to sell it.

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  4. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by hills View Post
    I finally made a run to the yard today. It was pretty quiet. I was the only customer / vendor there. The small scale guys were great to deal with and it was a smooth process. Was hoping to average 1.00$ / lb. between the copper, ali, and everything else but it averaged to .91/lb. Still ... not terrible.

    Gotta see how everything plays out over the next month, but i'm strongly considering buying a motorized wire stripping machine with the proceeds from this trip.

    Maybe a Stripmeister and then add my own motor ? Haven't quite figured that part out yet.

    " Power Tool Junkie "
    i got the copper wire stripper cws 2. things a beast. if you got the volumes to feed it, you can make your money back easily. even doing what i did, buy the wire from the yard i worked at, strip it, sell it back. margins were thin doing that but i could generally average $20 an hour after the second day using it.

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  6. #64
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    It's definitely a professional grade machine. Way to go for having good tools to work with.

    It's a little out of my reach for the moment. What i was thinking is start small and then patiently build up to better equipment as i go along. I built some manual strippers out of scrap for stranded wire earlier this year.They work well enough for stranded but the cutter can't handle solid core wire.

    Crushing seems like it would work with something like 14 - 10 ga. solid with one layer of insulation. The solid cuts it's own way out. Have you ever seen something like a sheet metal roller ? Something along those lines. I've been gradually collecting the parts n pieces out of scrap for the last few months. Thought i would take a run at building it sometime this winter when things slow down.

    On the other hand ......

    I'm all for re-investing the money already made from scrapping right back into tools that help me work more productively.

    It snowballs that way. It starts out small and gets bigger as you go along.

    Maybe i should jump ahead and just invest in a manufactured machine that i can buy with the money i've already i made on the last run to the scrap yard.

    You know ... skip the home made tool step altogether ?

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  8. #65
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    So... it's happening - it's down to $20 per ton at Atlas Metal and Iron of Aurora and $50 per ton at Denver Scrap Metal Recycling. I haven't actively looked for metal in a long time, and at this point, if any of my regulars with mostly/only ferrous call me, I am going to have to turn them down or charge them to pick it up if they are desperate.

    Someone at Atlas told me it will be down to $15 next week - I had a bunch of copper and a few electric motors so that's the only reason I was even there.
    Last edited by SKWrapper; 10-06-2019 at 04:21 PM.

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  10. #66
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    Here in Saint Paul, Minnesota one of our local scrap yards was down to $15 per ton for shred steel on Friday. They dropped from 40 per ton. The other local one was at 65 per ton and said they would be dropping their prices tomorrow. They are cutting workers hours here.at one local yard because they hardly are getting business. Not supposed to get any better pricing at least thru the end of the year and possibly longer. Soon they will probably accept steel as a donation.

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  12. #67
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    It seems to be a common story lately.

    I went to the yard, the workers were sweeping the floors, steel prices have dropped to little or nothing per ton.

    It sort of makes sense though. The things we recycle become feedstock for manufacturing. If manufacturing is off ... it stands to reason that demand for our products will drop off.

    It depends upon who you listen to ... but ... it looks like the manufacturing sector could be going into recession.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...rs/3832366002/

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  14. #68
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    This is unacceptable. The McRib isn't back in Colorado. I would go out of ketosis for one of those things. It's the article that showed for me behind the banner.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...19/3856789002/

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  16. #69
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    At least three Las Vegas yards are only accepting tin for free right now and one is rejecting it entirely. One of our customers expects high grade aluminum borings to go as low as .10/lb in December, down from around .45 just 6 months ago. It you ever wanted to build something from iron or aluminum...now's the time lol

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  18. #70
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    What? I can take $1 a ton for appliances but no McRib? That is true punishment. Lol
    Last edited by SDSCRAP; 10-07-2019 at 07:01 PM. Reason: Added “is”

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  20. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by SKWrapper View Post
    This is unacceptable. The McRib isn't back in Colorado. I would go out of ketosis for one of those things. It's the article that showed for me behind the banner.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...19/3856789002/
    Hummm ... i dunno ... maybe our browsers display differently ?

    The main banner that popped up was the story. The headline read:
    More signs of recession? Slowing job growth, trade and factories add to economic worries

    Anyway ... no matter ... In the grand scheme of things it's not all that important. We might have to hunker down and stockpile for a few years but things will eventually pick back up. They always do.

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  22. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by hills View Post
    Hummm ... i dunno ... maybe our browsers display differently ?

    The main banner that popped up was the story. The headline read:
    More signs of recession? Slowing job growth, trade and factories add to economic worries
    behind the banner..

    My attempt at humor, but I really do like McRib.

    Hopefully this doesn't turn into a recession.

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  24. #73
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    Holding steady at $.0275 per pound in western MA. Down from $.04 per pound a couple of weeks ago. I don't have a huge area to store it in, but I will not go below that price. That is what soft side sheds were invented for LOL I will store it for a bit. If you think of it in terms of the stock market, this is a good time to hunt for steel......hmmmm

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  26. #74
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    Not sure why some of you are still looking for steel when there are so many other things to find that are worth so much more. SMH

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  28. #75
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    If you look at steel from a business point of view:

    There's the value of your time invested in picking it up and offloading it into storage.

    There's equipment expense like wear & tear on the vehicle.

    There's fuel expense.

    There's the cost of a place to store it. Property tax, depreciation on buildings, and so on.

    What's the anticipated ROI ? Simply put ... You've invested time and money into collecting steel. It does cost money to store it. How many years will you have to wait to see a return on your investment ?

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  30. #76
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    I look at it this way.... I have the space to store it covered in my yard for free, so that is not an issue. From a business point of view it costs you money, but from my customers point of view, it reinforces our relationship. If I do not pick up steel and help them out, I may not get their copper, brass, lead or electronics later on. Be careful how you turn someone down when you tell them NO for their steel. Everyone has their way to scrap.

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  32. #77
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    Quote Originally Posted by ragstoriches View Post
    I look at it this way.... I have the space to store it covered in my yard for free, so that is not an issue. From a business point of view it costs you money, but from my customers point of view, it reinforces our relationship. If I do not pick up steel and help them out, I may not get their copper, brass, lead or electronics later on. Be careful how you turn someone down when you tell them NO for their steel. Everyone has their way to scrap.
    This is pretty much the way i look at it. I have my big 3 i pick up from, Auto body shop, Plumbing company and a hvac guy. Dont want to lose these guys. Thats also the way i got these contacts cause their normal guys stopped picking up stuff last time the prices went to **** back in 2014
    Last edited by greytruck; 10-09-2019 at 05:09 PM. Reason: Yewwwww

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  34. #78
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimicrk View Post
    Not sure why some of you are still looking for steel when there are so many other things to find that are worth so much more. SMH
    I don't look for steel but it seems to find me........I am now charging to pick up things from residential..........Pickups from companies still free at this point..........Metal around $2/100LB here..........I can advertise for just electronics but other than a few regular large clients calls or sometimes few and far between........To make what I make off basically cold calls every month plus a few regulars is getting harder and harder.........I'm not getting any younger the trucks are not getting any newer and the dollar is worth less every day..........Go figure

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  36. #79
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    Yeah, totally agree guys. You can't pick and choose if you're providing a scrap removal service for a regular customer. You gotta take the good with the bad. That part of it wasn't clear.

    Around here ... you could chase steel if that was your specialty but it would be pretty hard to make a living at it.

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  38. #80
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    I just told one of my regulars (he contacted me) that I could pick up is stuff but I was perfectly honest with him and let him know very tactfully that this was pretty much a favor and that prices are critically low right now for metal. He insisted on paying me to come get his stuff. I guess the short time I have been doing this, I already built a stronger relationship with some of them than I thought.
    Last edited by SKWrapper; 10-09-2019 at 08:09 PM.

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