Questions about yard pricing

I frequent what I consider a regional yard chain. Sometimes I am in line with customers with larger amounts who get their lot repriced due to volume. I'm curious, what might be a typical better pricing amount for these folks? Obviously they aren't the main "big clients", but a few hundred to a few thousand pounds.

The second question I have is to the wholesale to retail pricing...or the margins the yards operate off of... For instance right now it seems like shredder is in the $300 a ton average delivered to China and prices under half that for the peddler. Obviously the costs of operations are paid for in that difference. Shredder seems like a wide margin, while copper seems a much tighter ratio. How do these ratios vary depending on the metal?

I Cant speak for every operation but light iron plus 50 cents a hundred is pretty common for the higher volume peddlers. copper and brass, add a nickel per pound. And as far as wholesale works certain items that a peddler would make 12 cents on the big guys get 19 and a half when they bring their semi's. most of the time they only pay out 3-5 cents a pound to get those items and then rip them out of a bigger item with their excavators. sometimes to get an increase in pricing you may not need to have the biggest loads if you go to the same place day in and day out with consistent loads the yards may be willing to work with you. And yeah shredded steel may pay more but I can tell you first hand that running a shredder is not cheap. electric for the size I'm familiar with is rumored to cost $2000 a day and multi thousand dollar breakdowns happen quite often. they are also extremely dangerous if you don't have the proper guarding up. Ive already taken an alternator to the face before we put up some more guards. and Im not the only one thats been hit there.