How much profit do the scrap yards make per pound?

Like I said before, in scrapping size does matter. it's all about volume, volume, volume.

I think it all depends on who the scrap yard is selling to or how it's being processed. Copper all day long is awesome if you are having it refined, representing it and asking for a full accountability. If you refine 5,000 lbs of copper II for example, that leaves you with 95lbs of other metals. Copper II is only refined to 99.9, which leaves .19 of other metals you can recover the other values associated with the copper, which are more than likely to be worth far more than the copper itself because a percentage of them is going to be gold, silver and maybe platinum or other PMs.

A lot of scrap yards are selling their scrap outside the US now, because they get better pricing, and there is a lot more copper refining outside the US rather than inside the US. Most scrap yards are too far away from a copper refinery to make it cost effective to have it processed here, specially when China and India are so willing to pay the extra to obtain it. It's sad, very sad, that the US is allowing so much metal worth so much to leave our shores only to re-purchase it again in the form of consumer goods and building supplies. Makes me sick to be honest.

In any case, a very savvy scrap yard can make double on copper if they are geographically close enough to a metal refiner to make it worth their while. Otherwise, it seems most scrap yards are just selling to another larger scrap yard down the line.

Scott