scrap i took in today 1/23/18

i found some interesting things out today was not impressed with some of them=(

1 truck battery 10.00
1 car battery 8.00
9lbs bare bright 2.05 18.45
2lbs elec motor .10 .20
4lbs cast ali .35 1.40
10lbs breakage(ali fin steel tubes radiator from a furnace) .07 .70
2lbs ss .25 .50
4lbs red brass 1.30 5.20
2lbs #1 copper 1.90 3.80
12lbs #2 copper 1.85 22.20
6lbs y brass 1.15 6.90
14lbs old sheet ali .30 4.20
10lbs mlc .40 4.00
88lbs ali extrusion .50 44.00

in total got 133.15

ok so on to the things i learned today that i didnt like was the wire harness i striped the guy said if i had left it whole it was a better price thats strange because i thought it was always better to break things down to get more money not leave them whole and get more money. what was considered #2 insulated from estension cords and other common things is now .30 a lb so does that mean i should strip all the wires i get? they counted my ali ladder as mlc its painted ali extrusion i guess. also apparently if you have ali with steel its considered breakage thats what he said the heater radiator from a house was ali fins with steel tubes. are any of you getting told these things to? what prices are you gettting? whats the smallest gauge wire you would strip? i was thinking of stripping 16g and lower not that i get anything higher than 16 lol not with what i take appart it being a/c's hardly ever get romex=( what kind of wires are easiest to strip with a utility knife? prices looked a little low at the yard compared to what i saw on the internet=(
things i learned today that were good if you have a boat battery its worth 10$ they call it a truck battery he could have gave me 8$ and i would not have known i just thought a lead battery was a lead battery besides the small ones from ups or a riding mower. prices looked a little low at the yard compared to what i saw on the internet=( found out that the silver colered wire is counted as #2 so that helps with confusion i had on that=)

wow I hauled bare bright a week ago and got paid over 2.90 a pound

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Originally Posted by JnJunk

wow I hauled bare bright a week ago and got paid over 2.90 a pound

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WHAT?? where you at?

Yeah here in Vegas we are mostly on the low end for scrap prices but $2.05 for bare bright is *very* low. Never seen it here less than $2.65

Yikes! Those copper prices are terrible. $2.70 for bare bright here

Don't take copper to that yard ever again!

2.65 for bare bright in Crowley Louisiana

wow i didnt know the price was that bad=( when i first started going there it was 2.90 or something then it went to what you see now not sure why. i went to some other yards before and they were rude and one yard stiffed me on a battery! this yard writes down everything by hand and is friendly and its close and uses less gas so it cuts less into profits. what i figure is correct me if im wrong but when something goes down something else has to go up right? doesn't the price just transfer over to something else?

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Originally Posted by mike1

WHAT?? where you at?

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Not sure about the other fella but I got 2.85 for #1 copper in Calgary AB last week. Also 80 cent for cast Aluminum.

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Originally Posted by mike1

WHAT?? where you at?

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Sorry bout the delay. I'm in Illinois just west of Chicago.

One thing to remember with selling small weights of scrap metal, like under 10 Kgs/Lbs.
Is that on average every sale you make is X lbs + 1/2 lb.... (Or Kgs... Yes its worse for us guys in 'Metric land'. :-) )

So 3 lbs is actually 3 & 1/2 Lbs. In two sales of 3 lbs, you are giving them not 6lbs, but 7lbs... You just lost 1lb by selling smaller in weights.
And it took you and the scrap buyer twice as much time to do the transaction(s).

I try and save up as much of any one metal class before selling it.
What really matters after that is that you get the best price for each class of metal you sell.

Looking at what you have done above is good really, you learnt a lot and that means $$ to you, its also called 'Experience' and we all go thru that.
The amount of money I didn't get because when I first started I was not removing and selling the fridge compressors, ....... = $$$.
And now I cut them open for the Copper $$ (its legal to do that here) more $$ for me.

The wiring looms puzzle that you have found might be because if you cut the plugs off (I'm guessing you just cut the plugs off and stripped the outer layers of tape/plastic off) the plugs contain Brass, it adds up.
The wiring looms also use Brass where they ttach wires to other main wires in the loom.
So maybe what you sold them has to go thru the same chopping machine anyway and since you cut the plugs off, it cvost you time and a loss by weight.

The other funny thing, is that in China where they chop up shipping container loads of car looms every day, they actually make money from selling the chopped up insulation.

I have a choice of 3 Scrapyard's to sell to here. I sell to the big name scrapyard.
Its not worth their time to try and 'rip me off'. They will end up with fudged figures and somebody in accounting is going to notice it if its happening.

Truck, 4WD and Boat battery's are made differently than car battery's. They are made stronger because they take much more physical abuse in their work environments. They also don't last as long...
The internal plates are heavier and stronger.
My yard buys them all at the same price per Kg. Its actually a lower price than elsewhere in NZ because they have to travel further and get processed at least twice more before being shipped overseas. Plus the environmental cost factor for each processing.