Street Sweeper did you call to get prices and take pictures of the scrap yourself and e-mail them to someone at the company? I hate to say it but its a two way street. I see people arguing all the time over this isn't that grade and was graded wrong. A majority of the time the problem really lies in the fact that they see so many tons in a day its a weight it and get it off the scale as quick as possible mentality and into its designated spot that mistakes happen. Remember if you break down a scrap yard its more like a production factory then you would think. Scrap comes in Raw material. Machines and man handle scrap and sort it to where its designated area is lets call it warehousing. Scrap gets downsized more and put into piles or areas for awaiting shipment. Taken from warehouse where its been put on pallet racks. Then trucks or railcars come in and pick up finished product. The cranes are more like huge fork trucks they just move scrap around the warehouse.

Who knows the retail manager might have not even been there that day and they had to use the next man up. Turns out the next guy up knows nothing and can just grade material as is. He might even grade it the lowest grade so he can't get in trouble at all by not grading something right. Trust me the yard would rather make more money then lose money by him not grading material right. He might have just been following orders.

Its also a very interesting point you make about ordinances being passed in big cities that are more stringent then the last bill passed in another city. I congratulate the cities that are doing this. Yeah its more paperwork for the yard but anything to cut down on crimes being committed and stealing metal for resale has to stop or slow down. Its a billion dollar problem and its not going away anytime soon. All we can do is preventative measures to counteract what the thieves are doing now not in the future. Wait till they steal your pile one time and then you might not feel the same. I have been the victim of theft so many times I can't remember them all.