Took a beating yesterday at the yard

Had a lot of scrap laying around that we were just holding on to and decided it would be a good day to haul it all in...We had temps in the low 50's yesterday so it was not bad.

we took in 350 pounds of #2 copper, 250 pounds of #2 insulated, aluminum, electric motors and batteries.

All said and done we were completely screwed with the prices. The yard we deal with is a smaller yard but they generally have higher prices but this was not true yesterday.

Prices across the board were down, really down. Went from .63 on alum to .51....2.90 on #2 copper to 2.60 and lost .10 a pound on motors and batteries.

I asked what the deal was and the owner said that he did not like the numbers he was getting from his buyer so he decided to drop his prices despite the fact that his prices he was getting had actually gone up.

I had been leaning towards keeping all of my scrap and hauling it into a place that is further away and that little trip made up my mind.

You get better prices then me. #2 copper goes for 2.50, clean Alum .43 lb, and iron runs 195 ton as of yesterday. I agree with going somewhere else to get a better price if it works for you. The only reason why I don't is my yard is 3 miles from my house and they are not picky. Fast to get you in and out and are friendly to boot.

Hope the other yard can give you a good price and have perks ;)

I'm hoarding my copper + Brass until I have a good load and then driving the hour to the seaport scrap yards, I'm tired of my local guys prices! I see other areas of the country and it amazes me that it's so different. I live an hour away from a major port, so It's not like these local guys have far to haul there scrap to the docks. It's like you said Computerscrapper, the guy is just looking for a bigger cut. I'm sure he will loss custom, vote with your feet buddy,that's what I do all the time round these parts :)

It's really amazing how different prices range from yard to yard. I have two within 15 mins of my house. One was offering for extruded Alum 55 cents a pound and the other was 45 cents a pound! 10 cents of a difference! Yet on light Iron they were the same at $200 a Tonne.

Yeah same here CS. Rochesters prices were WAY down compared to what they normally are.......... I felt screwed that day!

Just the winter prices, our's took a hit over here also, sit on the rest of it till spring and the prices should start creeping back up.

Winter Pricing. If you can, hold everything but your shred until the prices go back up in the spring.

those prices are pretty consistant to what we have been getting arround here for over a month. Im taking in about 20 lbs of copper as I need to for gas money and pocket change. hoarding the rest for better days, that is if there are any better days ahead. alu and lite iron are just a waste of time arround here with the cost of fuel for a 40 mile round trip to town.

I had been hoarding and decided to take a load in for some grocery money and jeebus did I take a hit on copper - $2.20 on #2 :(. Now, i didn't take much in, just enough to round out the haul and figured why not. Jeebus, learned why not lol, back to hoarding #2 copper anyways. Aluminum was down a nickel.

I am going to chalk it up to a lesson learned...I called a yard that is about forty five minutes away and they have much better prices. Furthermore, they agreed to give me even better prices if I bring in 50 or more pounds of any item. Sad, I really liked that yard I was dealing with but the owner seems bent on losing customers by taking a much larger piece of the pie. I guess this gives me a good excuse to use the box truck to go to the scrap yard though lol

we all look for the very best return we can get.

do you think the yard owner should be any different?

No, but it would be nice if the owner had a better head for business...If all his customers think like computerscrapper, that yard will lose some traffic.

I always call for pricing before loading up and going in. Of course sometimes you just want to get the stuff the heck out of the way.

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Originally Posted by ComputerScrapper

I am going to chalk it up to a lesson learned...I called a yard that is about forty five minutes away and they have much better prices. Furthermore, they agreed to give me even better prices if I bring in 50 or more pounds of any item. Sad, I really liked that yard I was dealing with but the owner seems bent on losing customers by taking a much larger piece of the pie. I guess this gives me a good excuse to use the box truck to go to the scrap yard though lol

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If you have a good history with him, I would let him know straight out that you like doing business with him, but with the difference in price, you can't afford to keep bringing him your scrap. Ask if he would be willing to match the price. Tell him that you're worried that he'll lose more scrappers to the competition and you don't want to see him hurt by the other yard. It may be that the other yard is is banking on too slim of a margin or that your yard is selling to a buyer that isn't paying enough. You may get him to rethink his pricing, if not for everyone, than maybe at least for you.

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Originally Posted by IronPirate

No, but it would be nice if the owner had a better head for business...If all his customers think like computerscrapper, that yard will lose some traffic.

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he probably will lose some business. but that may mean he makes a higher profit. he might make as much moving less volume with a higher profit margin as he did when he was paying more and running a larger volume. the yard owner is no different from all of us. if the yard owner gave one price on the phone and a different one after you had unloaded or was shorting on weight, that would be different.
the man is being honest. can't fault him for that.