I have gotten anywhere from $130-$210 (closer to $130 lately) for tin. It sounds like you are getting "#1 Unprepared". That is what I usually get when I clean things up and cut the metal to under 4ft. If it is 1/4inches or more in thickness and cut under 4ft. my yard will give me "#1 HMS" price which is around $260-$290/ton.
My advice to you is if you are getting tin price, dont bother to clean things up. My yard takes whatever as long as it has some metal on it (within reason). I have taken in metal christmas trees, old baby strollers, and appliances with lots of plastic on them. Make sure that it is worth your while in time to get a better price. For me, to clean up steel sometimes isnt worth it because I only get an extra 3-4 cent per pound. Also keep in mind that you loose weight from the plastics and other materials that you remove making it less than 3-4cent per pound more. Who knows you might even make more if you dont clean it up and dont get the upgrade in price because of the extra weight. If it is quick and easy and im not loosing a lot of weight I will go ahead and clean it up. If not, I will save my time and just load it into my truck.
With steel my yard isnt that concerned about contamination, as long as it is mostly cleaned up I will get the "#1 unprepared" price. Opposed to other metals that are non-ferrous my yard will downgrade the price even if there is just a little bit of contamination. So, with non-ferrous metals it seems to be worth it to spend a little time to clean them up. Ferrous dont spend too much time to cleanup for an upgrade in price.
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