Scrap yards

I think I need to expand the scrap yards I sell to. I have been bringing my scrap to one yard almost exclusively for a few years now. I haven't even bothered to find out prices from other scrap yards. But I feel like the yard I go to has been downgrading more often. I break down scrap as far as I can (within reason) because I enjoy it, I like to see how things work and, you know, it pays more. Obviously scrap yards need to make money to survive, but so do I.

I plan on greatly expanding my services this year (scrapping and recycling) and I need to maximize my profits to cover my overhead and stay in business - full time. There are a few yards in my area and I need to find each one specialty (prices) and go from there.



Does anyone on here sell different metals for different yards? What are your thought about selling different scrap to different yards?

Originally Posted by nutpie

I think I need to expand the scrap yards I sell to. I have been bringing my scrap to one yard almost exclusively for a few years now. I haven't even bothered to find out prices from other scrap yards. But I feel like the yard I go to has been downgrading more often. I break down scrap as far as I can (within reason) because I enjoy it, I like to see how things work and, you know, it pays more. Obviously scrap yards need to make money to survive, but so do I.

I plan on greatly expanding my services this year (scrapping and recycling) and I need to maximize my profits to cover my overhead and stay in business - full time. There are a few yards in my area and I need to find each one specialty (prices) and go from there.

Does anyone on here sell different metals for different yards? What are your thought about selling different scrap to different yards?

Without counting our buyers here, I have sold to 5 different yards and 1 specialty recycler.

I have 4 local yards I sell to and I check prices often.

If you were going to buy a brand new vehicle would you go to the nearest dealer and assume they had the best prices?

I sell to the yard that's closest to me. It just so happens that they are the main yard in the area that all the smaller yards sell to.

Since they have the best prices and are the closest, I go there. The rest are just middle men.

Yes. I found out who all the smaller yards sold to, and opened an account with that one. Even their peddler prices were better than everywhere else.

19 yards within 20 miles by me. I have been to 12 of them over the years.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

19 yards within 20 miles by me.

Living in a heavy populated area has it's advantages.

Around here there are 2 yards ( 16 and 21 miles respectively ) that are still open this year. One is low volume, the other is more of an auto wrecking yard that happens to buy scrap.
Closest tech buyer is over 2 hour drive down I-80 .

Originally Posted by submarinepainter

are you selling in the greater Portland area?

Yes, for the most part. Will travel further with the right opportunity.

I sell to multiple yards because the pricing and grading varies from yard to yard and I have multiple yards in a 6 mile radius.

I also make sure I have enough weight to make a trip for nonferrous worth the effort.

There is also an odd dynamic here that two of the feeder yards pay better prices for many items than the three large shredder yards.

One newer feeder yard keeps its light iron price equal to or better than the shredder yards.

There are also other feeder yards that always have bad prices that I have never done business with.

Ive sold to 13 different yards In Pa, Nj, and Tx. When I do jobs far away from the area Im from I'll usually find a yard close by to sell to so 1 Im not wasting fuel hauling 2,000lbs of metalic garbage 4 hours down the road, and 2 I can collect more on the way back.

I also have a few different local yards that I sell to for different reasons. 1 is higher priced, next reason is different yards prefer/accept different things (I get some sketchy stuff at times), and sometimes if im passing by a low paying yard when Im near empty and just happen to find a large bulky item like say a hot water heater sometimes I'll just take it there and get it off my truck so I have room for more since most of my work is done at night and you never know what your gonna find. And sometimes I just like a change of atmosphere. But mostly I sell to the same yards when im in my normal areas.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Overall, this yard has treated me fair. But it sucks when at the end of a day working you're tired and you want to get paid. You have to replace the gas in your truck and pay your helper. You go to cash in and your material is downgraded. Not really a good way to end the day.

I sold my lead acid batteries to one place for about a year and they treated me nice and the money was good. I thought it was good because I had nothing to compare it to. A friend told me about another place that bought them and they paid more. I'm on my 4th buyer for batteries now and they pay more than the other 3 places I was selling them to.
I'm always checking all of the buyers for pricing and grading.

you always have to shop around, don't wast your time on the phone. they will always lie on the phone. Internet price lists are nice, but even those are shady, they get you on the grading or on the scale. anyone see the automatic 10% deduction if it is raining??? Building a strong personal relation is nice, but still once a month go shopping.
be blunt ask yards if they do well on one item or another, it happens one yard gets a great deal on batteries or electric motors etc. because someone on their staff knows someone. it might be worth your time to go to they guy that has a great deal

V/r HT1