Selling or keeping your copper stash?

As we all know, copper is the most valuable of the non-precious, non-ferrous metals we normally scrap. I have been hoarding it like many others here, and have accumulated a couple of hundred pounds over the past few months(small by standards of a few folks here, but I scrap on a smaller scale). What I would like to do is start a discussion on if you are hoarding or if you are selling copper as you get it, and if you are hoarding at what point would you be looking at selling. I would like to keep this thread going to the point that if one of the hoarders hears something that is causing him/her to sell their stash, they could post what they have heard so we could determine whether we might need to liquidate our own hoard. Which way do you see copper going in the future?

I've been "hoarding" copper for the past year. I think copper will continue to rise, but not as fast as it has the past few months. Copper price at my local yard went from $2.80/lb in July '08 to 0.80 in Jan to Feb '09. Then started rising and hit $2.50 in Jan '10 and $3.00 in Jan '11. I expect Spring to bring some increase which is normal as the yards get geared up. That's when I intend to sell.

Now, looking at world-wide supply, you see a sharp drop for the past year but it has started increasing (supply) for the past couple months. I think I read that they only had a two-week supply of copper at one point. There are several old copper mines being reopened at great expense and some new ones, which will also add to the copper supply. You will see the overall economy (world-wide) improving which will lead to more copper demand for construction.

Overall, my guess is that copper prices will increase with inflation, but not to the extent we've seen. Of course, this is all out the window if the world sees another recession like we just came through. If we do, prices will tank (again) and you'll wish you'd have sold when they were high - as you take your hoard to the yard to sell for 0.25/lb just to try to put some food on the table.

In the spirit of "full disclosure" - I've also been hoarding iron and most other metals since last fall when the yard dropped to "winter prices".

I lack the paitence to hoard i scrap my copper every monday

I was thinking about hoarding mine at least until spring when the prices start going up (hopefully).

I'm with Scrap man. I will hoard mine until spring. I still have alot to strip. Plus I think the price at my yard will go up a little by then. I took a load on 11-30-10 and was getting 3.45 for bare bright and 3.05 for #2. So it may creep up some right around 3.70 to 3.90 by spring I hope.

I would hoard, but don't have the space to do so. I cash out every week on everything.

RCA987 do you have alot weekly?

I guess you guys dont remember when copper was only 60 cents for bare bright!...why hoard it now when its worth 3.50?

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Originally Posted by Ace

RCA987 do you have alot weekly?

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By the end of each day, my truck bed is loaded again, and I could have just gone to the store. I usually have 1500-2500 lbs of mixed scrap a week. Most of what I find is on the sides of roads, bulk trash days, and those off the beaten path "dump spots".

I tend to sell when I get enough to worry about. 1 income form work with a family of 4, the extra money is nice when it comes in.

For me, I wait until I have at least 15-20 pounds to take in.... sometimes every week, sometimes I have to wait a couple weeks.. this is all tubing and such... like plumbing, a/c unit lines, etc.......... I have a 500? gallon fiberglass water tank that is 3/4 full of aluminum and copper wire..... I have been looking for a easy, relatively inexpensive way to strip the wire and i am hoping the prices hold... hoping to cash in by spring with $500 or better

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Originally Posted by Thejapster

I lack the paitence to hoard i scrap my copper every monday

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hahah +1 same here maybe every 2nd monday lol

It drives me nuts looking at all my copper and thinking how much i have if i had a scale i could wait maybe another week lol

I sell. Last year avg price of #2 was 2.48 I just got 3.15. Take advantage of these higher prices while you can.

It's tempting to hold out. If I would have held my last copper stash, I'd be $1,286 dollars ahead. (then VS now pricing)

In my area copper is always high, I just fill one or two 5gal buckets and sell it for 50-65 bucks

I decided to sell it all and got $245.00 for 70 lbs of #1, 369.60 for 112 lbs of #2 (it was mostly windings from electric motors from compressors) and $37.40 for 34 lbs of #2 insulated. Time to start accumulating again.

One thing i've never figured out, was the difference between #1 and #2 copper. Anyone care to explain? I always get #2 copper at the yard.

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Originally Posted by rca987

One thing i've never figured out, was the difference between #1 and #2 copper. Anyone care to explain? I always get #2 copper at the yard.

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#1 Copper - stripped wire strands there are bigger than a number two pencil lead.
#2 Copper - does not meet criteria for #1 Copper. Is free of any alloy such as soldering.
Light Copper - miscellaneous Copper scrap.

Ahh I see. I've always wondered. Google didn't give me much help either. Thanks Mick.

I load mine up and take it in every week. I'm a plumber so I get more copper and brass than anything. I haul my water heaters in every Saturday and I take the copper and brass along for the ride. I've got enough junk laying around I don't need anymore.

Well the way I see it is that with China and India as the two fastest world's growing economies, they wanna be number one but they're infrastructure is lagging behind, when I say infrastructure I mean, POWER LINES, all kinds of uses for copper and aluminum (which, by the way they are the top 2 buyers of YOURS and MINE copper and aluminum. Now those two countries haven't done us any big favors ....ever, so if we were to sit on our growing stashes and let them pay for it eventually, WE could see prices of $4.00 + per/lb. I have already been paid $3.75 per/lb. for a 200 pound load.
And as I sit here stripping out this beautiful No.1 wire and an almost equal amount of bright shiny large , braided, BBC which we all know gets the top dollar, I don't mind accumulating a large load for the yard. I shine up the occasional tarnished piece, and think of how this place I am scoring all this at still has a thousand pounds left at least. So, yeah I am sitting pretty for now, it beats collecting screen doors and window frames, and old aluminum siding, but what the hell, even that will go up, maybe not as much, but they still buy our aluminum too.
Happy hunting to all fellow scrappers, and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me, or ask me a question in the forum
Mike M

Well I'm keeping my stash until I finish stripping and cleaning the load I have now. Last weekend an eletrician called me up to clean off his 16' trailer of stuff after cleaning up his shop.. TONS of copper brass and aluminum I'm sorting through all this week.

I don't recommend anyone sitting on it, UNLESS you just happen to don't need the cash flow.
If you are using it to fund your business, you are losing money by letting your "inventory" sit.
In retail, it is called "turns", and simply put, it is the times your turn over your inventory per month/year.
You aren't making any money on something that is just "sitting there". Put it into cash and invest it into another load.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...bshgclr3ju.gif

My father-in-law and myself just took his stash of copper he's been saving. he's an electrician. we got a little over $2,400 for a 826 lbs

Did he strip the wire before he took it in? I am stripping every last piece just to squeeze every cent out of it, all different thicknesses. Of course the stuff I like the best is the cable inside the big 2" conduit, take it down, get the sawzall out and chop it into manageable size pieces, pull the cable through, and now I have 100' or so of Narragansett Navawire #4 600 volt THW machine wire, and it is gonna be heavy.:-)
I cut a piece about a foot long and took my trusty utility knife skinned one side, and peeled the rest off.clean.gonna take a while with all the other wire I have to strip, but it beats just about any other kind of work.
RCA congrats on your $$$

I have been saving mine for a couple months now, i am going to sell in late june. My dad works for waste management and has the key to the landfill so once a week i can go in and get what ever copper i find. I am jealous of my dad though because he could walk away with 100 pounds a day if he really wanted to.

Im hoarding, for now.

I have a 50 gallon drum about half full of non-stripped wire. Mainly from washing machines/dryers/dishwashers/tv's. I'm guessing around 60 pounds. NOTHING crazy, not as much as yall have haha. Clean, probably 15 pounds. Again, nothing worth bringing in yet.

I'm hoarding aluminum as well. My other 55 gallon barrel is full of that.

i bring mine back whenever i have enough steel or another type of metal to atleast make $100. sometimes ive only brought back 5 pounds, and sometimes ive brought back 100 pounds..

My dad has a crazy amount. many 55 gallon barells overlowing of copper and cans, im super jealous. One of the barells is full of pipes taller than 6 feet another full of wires and the firepit has wires all around it. He has such a great job

Found this quote last night about copper prices...."No consensus exists on specific numbers, but many forecasters, including the financial firm Goldman Sachs, say demand could rise fast enough to take the price to $5 a pound sometime between 2011 and 2013, compared with a range of $4.29 to $4.40 during the past week."
Lets keep our fingers crossed for $5.00 a pound, were not far off here in Pa.

Good. Thats what i've been holding off for. Once copper prices go up to at least $4.50 clean, i'm cashing in.

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Originally Posted by metalhead

Found this quote last night about copper prices...."No consensus exists on specific numbers, but many forecasters, including the financial firm Goldman Sachs, say demand could rise fast enough to take the price to $5 a pound sometime between 2011 and 2013, compared with a range of $4.29 to $4.40 during the past week."
Lets keep our fingers crossed for $5.00 a pound, were not far off here in Pa.

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