Yet another valuable lesson...sort of.

So last week I made three trips to the scrap yard...I made a deal with my boss over a pile of autobody scrap (heavy metal bumpers, crash bars from the plastic ones, fenders, doors, and hoods)...basically i can haul it to the scrap yard if i do it on my time...awesome deal...lots of sweat a little blood and time...free money for me...and his private junk yard gets a little cleaning...everyone wins...Here is the lesson part...and im not even sure what i have learned...maybe you guys can shed some light for me...Three trips...540 lbs...740 lbs...840 lbs...same pile of stuff...visited the yard on different days and at different times...first trip of 540 lbs was graded as "no. 2 steel" and i got about 40 dollars..the second trip of 740 lbs was graded "no. 2 unprepared steel" and I was given 46 dollars...then the third trip my haul of 840 lbs was graded as "tin" giving me a massive 14 dollars...I figured ok the first and second trips were a kick in the pants...no big deal prices are down a bit...but the third trip I considered a bit of a waste of time...I talked with the owner of the yard...apparently since he was wearing clean clothes and not sweating he was better versed on what the composition of a car body is...his exact words were "well the first two trips should have been graded as tin"..."because that is what a vehicle is made of"..........to which i reply "ok" (after a calm explanation of what exactly tin is and how much of a vehicle is actually "tin")...tin is a metal in and of itself...car bodies are electroplated with tin because it helps with corrosion...the weight of a vehicle comes from the steel that it is made of...am I wrong here?...or have I just been living a lie...fixing and painting vehicles for about 5 years now...?...someone please set me on the correct path here...ok so there is my sob story...im going to take all of my business to the only other yard for 50 miles...sigh. :rolleyes:

Well, this is what I've learned over the last four years of scrapping car bodies (hauled PARTS for body shops, garages and junkyards; never hauled a whole car):

Nomenclature can be confusing. Yes, tin is an element but some use it as a metal. Tin/Light Iron/steel seem to mean the same thing in different settings.

Bodies (fenders, doors, hood trunk etc) are Light Iron/Tin.

Bumpers are Unprepared Iron/Steel unless cut in two. Then it'll be #1 Iron

Brake rotors are #1.

Anything over 5' is Unprepared.

The value of lowest value item in the load will be applied to the whole load.

The way to get help at the yard is to take a nice looking young girl/woman and have her do the work. You'll get more help than you can use.

Mick oh my how true. I had my God daughter along on a trip few weeks ago (She's 22) because she needed a ride out that way. As soon as we both hopped out of the truck to unload, they came running and unloaded the steel and everything else for me. She said wow they are sure nice here....I looked at her and she goes oh...tits huh?

meh: personally I still get a little confused on the whole steel\tin\pot metal discussions as they seem to be very yard specific. Out here they don't seem to care (though I have my first dishwasher so we will see how forgiving they are, but with what I saw in the steel pile they better take it with the plastic liner.) You really need to always ask questions as they use a word like tin to mean something other than tin (like was mentioned above)

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then the third trip my haul of 840 lbs was graded as "tin" giving me a massive 14 dollars

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The body pieces are considered tin as they are less than 1/8" thick. But $14.00!!! that's less than 2 cents a pound! $33 a ton! That's terrible.

hek, i'm in the middle of nowhere here and .06/pond is still the lowest level/price you'll get for anything metal/steel

I'm not sure where the receipt went...but it was 14 and a little change...yeah there are only two scrap yards within about 50 miles...and its more of an agricultural area...Id be willing to venture a guess that there is not much competition...considering the positive response that I got when i went around to all of the local businesses asking about e-waste...there is maybe one other person around this area doing the same thing...still havent met them...lol...another question: what do you guys get for decent boards from monitors and tvs?...again id have to find the receipt but i think they only give about 2 cents per pound and label it as brass shred.

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another question: what do you guys get for decent boards from monitors and tvs?...again id have to find the receipt but i think they only give about 2 cents per pound and label it as brass shred.

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Low grade brown boards usually run from .05 up to .20 lb so I usually pick the copper, alum. heatsinks, and transformers off first before selling.

Yeah, my core buyer is paying .15 lb. for low grade, I don't know about mid/high grade. Yes IC chips,transformers,copper and heat sinks come off first.

who buys ic chips ?

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Originally Posted by mrmerlin

who buys ic chips ?

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Usually ewaste buyers, or you could Ebay them,

Ewasted buys them, you'll find him in the buyers section. But I don't think it would be worth it for you to send them from thr UK.