Lets say I saved copper I get until I have 500-600#. 400#'s of #2 copper and 200#'s of #1 copper. What would be the best way to sell to get the best price?
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Lets say I saved copper I get until I have 500-600#. 400#'s of #2 copper and 200#'s of #1 copper. What would be the best way to sell to get the best price?
The prices are so low for scrap. I'm trying to find ways to get the best price. Like listing on ebay/craigslist. Maybe asking $100 for 50#
what are your local prices? how many yards withing 50 miles?
Not to hard Mech, we need you around here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
With that much weight higher prices can be negotiated. If you had 400# of Gold and say, 200# of silver to sell, what would you do with it ? The answer. The same thing you would do with 600# of anything.
I know it's a dumb question. But I underbid on a demo job and I'm trying to make up some of the difference with the scrap. I'm busting' my ass trying to get the job done so I can move on to the next. And wasting my time on the interwebs.
Call all the yards within 30-50 miles, and get pricing. DO NOT mention how much you have.
Call back later and ask for the non ferrous buyer, this is when you talk about weight, and are already armed with their normal pricing, and that of their competitors. Be sure to tell that you are the owner of "xyz demolition" and are looking to make scrap a larger part of your business model.
compare pricing, fuel costs, etc on your favorite quotes. Call back your chosen buyer. Set an appointment and deal with them directly.
If you are an experienced ebay seller then you can do the research and figure out if it works for you. If you are not an experienced ebay seller then this will likely not be a quick turn around and likely you will not make enough more profit to make it worth while.
Often in business you will loose money. Recoup what you can from the deal and move on. The sooner you move on to the next opportunity the sooner you will make a profit.
Learn to add in the extra percentage to cover the unexpected things that come up.
Some customers want you to do the job as cheaply as possible even if you loose money. The type of customer you should want to business with wants a long term relationship. In order to make it a long term relationship you have to remain in business.
You are selling a service, think of other types of service businesses and what they charge. They charge as much for their knowledge than of the actions they perform. Good luck, Mike
I am not an ebay seller. I'm doing ok just sticking to my area. But I do get things that would not sell around here. So I will be on ebay eventually. And I did bid low in part to get the next job from the same person. He is trying to retire from his job and just flip houses. So I am hoping he will make money on this house and move to the next, and hire me again. I mentioned in the first post I am saving, don't have, that much weight. But I will call around. I know I can't work out a price today and sell a month later for said price. I'm super busy and sometimes my mind is in other places.
All of the above.
If you have 600 pounds of copper you need to deal with the manager first, just don't rush to a yard and straight to the scale. If a manager won't talk to you with 600 pounds of copper find one that will!.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nutpie
A small piece of advice on your demo business. Never price your self low in order to get in the door thinking you will pick it up on the next job. If the contractor hires you based on a low price, as soon as your prices go up, they will find another demo guy. People who buy based on price alone are not loyal to who they buy from. They are only loyal to their money.
another thing Mike, the price you are offered today is today's price. the market fluctuates too much to lock in a price for more than say 48 hours if your lucky. sometimes that's a good thing. would say good luck but I don't believe in luck so may blessings come your way
Is 600 lbs really enough weight to throw around? I approximate I have 350~450 pounds of brass. I figured if I came into the yard looking for a higher price they would just laugh at that little number. Like I have a similar chance to buy ~3000lbs of lead acid batteries for 13 cents a pound. I think that is some weight I could throw around.
600 of copper may have some room to talk.
600 of aluminum is not so special.
The big thing here with having a nice weighty amount of Copper or Brass etc is contracts.
If a scrapmetal buyer has a contract to supply X amount of metal by a certain date, and they don't have enough to fulfull the contract, they will call up anybody, even their competition, to see how much metal they can buy from them, at a premium.
They might pay 10% more, they might pay 30% more, to get the last little amount they might even pay more than that!
But they have to know how much YOU have. And you have to know what THEY will pay. (And at that point you have to have the metal in a secure place..)
So If you have a 2-3 even 4 hundred kgs. Call them, tell them you have it and won't be selling until (whatever date) and if they want to pay a bit more than the book price. They might.
Even if they don't need it, some other scrapbuyer they know of might. That gets them a favour even if it didn't get them money.
Around here, the smaller yards do this a lot, even yards that are 500miles away call up to see whats around just so they can get enough for a contract.
And if they are getting paid for their metal on the 20th of the month, and moneys tight, and you can drop it off on the 18th and wait till the 22nd to get paid.
Well golly, they just made a bunch of profit for no capital expense and you just got paid a extra X% on book price and that was 3 weeks before you intended selling it anyway. Talk about elbow room.
#1 Copper? The guys at our yards start salivating when they hear those words. I don't know what it is about it but its like theres little $$ signs in their eyes and drooling at the same time.
Years ago, I sold a old welder to a scrapmetal buyer, and a bunch of other metal too. I was clearing out a workshop I had and fitting everything into a shipping container. My helper/friend suggested scrapping stuff I didn't need for a bit of ca$h and to save room.
I had just brought a Invertor welder so the 3 phase motor/generator welder was histroy. Metal off cuts, shelving, sinks, radiators etc, 20 gallon drum full of Brass swarf. But, the welding cables......
Big thick ropey soft rubber surrounded #1 Bright Copper. Almost too much to carry.
He went weak at the knees as he told me he was "Giving me domestic Copper prices for coated #1 Copper" and "Where did you get all this stuff??".
But the bit I remember the most was him shoving a bunch of $100 and $50 notes into my hands......
And then coming back with more....
That was my 'Scrap (its no longer scrap boy, its worth $$$) metal moment.'
It all depends on the yard. I have a few yards in my area and i know they wouldn't make a deal for 600 lbs, then I know some that would say you had 500lbs, and then I know some that would make you an honest deal. Be careful.
600 pounds of copper is a nice starting point to see the yard manager, he's not going to throw you a party, making you the mostus, bestus scrapper ever! More like like: I got 600 pounds of #1 copper maybe a little more than that, plus a couple hundred pounds of yellow brass, and a little more than that of #2 insulated. How's is everything going with everyone here, business looks like we are starting in the right direction finally, what's the best prices you can offer me, in my largest load this summer. Did I tell you, your the bestus yard in town I always like working with you guys!
That 600 pounds is not going to make or break any yard with a decent and profitable amount of business. You put together a respectful amount of the best metals a yard wants to broker to his buyers. That should get you a conversation with a yard manager that you want to do even more business with, he will understand that, he wants the same thing. Sell yourself and be honest in doing that, it's what a business relationship is all about.
Right now there isn't a lot of wiggle room to be throwing around ''poundage'' numbers. It's very simple, if WE only get, lets say, $2.40 a lb for #1 CU, we sure aren't going to pay you $2.35 a lb no matter how much you have. The difference is eaten up by costs like trucking, maybe a middle man. Todays market doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for negotiating.
It also may depend on how often you are going to supply that amount of material. If it's a once a year type thing then it may not pull as much as once a month. A lot of my daily customers bring 600# of #1 copper over a years time. yes it's nice to get all 600# at once but if your only gonna do it once a year if that then it may not make the buyer want to pay much of a premium.
Also, it may not be worth you saving the material to get your weight up to 600# if it is going to take you long. The market could drop .10+/- cents in a day or could go up .10+/- cents in a day. and like Newattitude said there isn't much wiggle room. Right now I would say there is a .15/lb difference from my biggest dealer.
If I were you, I would just sell what I have at the end of each week, or if you keep working and get stuff at each job then you may just want to do it once a month. Holding material is a finicky thing. It's kinda like playing craps. sometimes you will lose money and sometimes you will win.
You are correct, but I would still call several places and ask for prices....
I was selling any metal I had weekly for a year.
In that I was working on the fact that, as we weigh up metal in Kg amounts in NewZealand, I was loosing about a Lb, or just under a 1/2 Kg of Copper with every sale.
So thats 52 times 0.5Kg Cu = NZ$160 or US$140. Loss
Last year I saved up all my metal for the whole year and sold it all in one sale. 340Kg Cu#2 & 50Kg Domestic.
I lost a bit of money because of dropping prices, about NZ$200. or US$160. Loss.
So It was about the same except I really confused the scrapmetal buyer when I was not comming in every week. ("What did WE do????")
And I saved a lot of time from not carting it there every week.
I honestly don't know what advise to give.
Sell it as soon as you can?
Save it up and sell it in one go?
Save it up and sell it when you hit a targeted amount of $ or metal?
Sell of the Ferrous to pay for fuel and food? And to keep the volume of stored metal down?
Churn and burn? Sell it as soon as you get it and turn that money into more scrap investment.
Sell only one metal each visit? Decide by price or volume of metal?
Wait for higher prices or sell now to lock in the current price before it drops.
Overheads, space, goals, expenses, investments, returns, security, responsibilitys, time, tools. They all have their own factors in your decisions.
At the moment I am working on my house and need money for materials. This also affects my storage abilitys (I can't find my good wood router and bits!!!) for scrapmetal. And my working space for doing the house work. And Time. Thats a biggie factor.
Time I can use on the house, or scrap metal, which gives me money and space to do the work on the house, which takes money.... and time.
Oh, and the weather....