Scrap metal prices are bad, what can you do?

It seems like everyone thinks as prices have been so low that the scrap yard is out to screw them. I find that the yards are happy to get your metals as fewer people are brining them in stuff (due to low prices).

What can you do?
1) Call for prices. Just because you have dealt with a yard for years and think they have the best prices call around and check.
2) Separate your steel grades if your yard buys it at different grades. Only a few cents difference but it all adds up in the end.
3) Take advantage of customer appreciation days as some yards pay a little more on certain days. Or have a rewards program.
4) Sometimes it makes more sense to sell items as dirty and be done. Aluminum prices are down so check and see if it makes sense selling something as dirty aluminum.
5) Talk to the yard owner or buyer if you think you have enough of a product to earn a better price.
6) If you think the yard is downgrading your stuff ask why! Speak up, and if so pack up your items and leave! Just don't be a di*k!.
7) Scrap yards need metal to survive!

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Originally Posted by hobo finds

Scrap metal prices are bad, what can you do?

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As the price drops >> So does the amount I am willing to pay

8) Get a job that pays and scrap on the side

Where I sell the guy is pretty honest and gives me a little more than the going rate plus when I have a large load of heavy stuff they use their forklift to off load it for me. A great service I would gladly pay a few bucks for but they offer it for free. I scrap large loads usually 1500 pounds or more of shred and scrap iron. I am keeping the rest of the metals stored until the prices go back up. I have about 500 pounds of #1 and number #2 copper. At least that much and more in aluminum and at least that much and more insulated wire. I bought a nice wire stripper. The plan is to strip a lot of the insulated stuff I have stored. It is sad what I walk away with money wise knowing what I used to get not that long ago. I am a long time retiree (Retired at age 50 in 2006) with a pension and all the bennies so my scrap ventures are a hobby. My overhead is low and so are my expenses. If I tried to do this for a living with a huge dive in what they are paying I would find another way to make a living. I talk to people at the yard all the time that just squeak by selling ten ot twenty bucks a day. One guy brings his scrap to the yard in a grocery cart.

Key is resale...i still buy scrap cars and turn a profit...

That isnt me btw...a friend...im hiding behind the camera.

Since I do not depend on my scrapping to make a living (almost all my scrap income goes to buying gold and silver for my olden days to come), I am hoarding my non-ferrous waiting for better days (they will come, just a matter of when). The ferrous still goes as it accumulates too fast.

I am still buying a **** load of cars every week.There is still tons of money to be made.
I will say this if you are out running around going through peoples garbage or dumpster diving then yeah you probably are wasting your time!

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Originally Posted by Focker

I am still buying a **** load of cars every week.There is still tons of money to be made.

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There is a lot of money to be made with used parts ! The older the car, the more items that can be cut off and sold ( if the car is a semi popular 'restoration' project )!

I dont sell parts.I dont like dealing with idiots lol!

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Originally Posted by Focker

I dont sell parts.I dont like dealing with idiots lol!

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Roughly $280 for scrap, or an estimated $1,100 in parts for pre 1990's. * shrugs *
If I could get the all licensing for PA, I would not hesitate to run a heavy equipment yard ...

I use my fridges to store my ferrous in a 30x50 spot. Fill em up and stack em 2 high until I get sick of looking at them.

Oh well , low prices or not, I need to clean up and get rid of all my ferrous metal scrap( approx 1400 lbs) before the cold sets in. I also have batteries, drums of insulated copper, copper pipe, clean aluminum, al radiators but I think I am just loading the heavy and light ferrous and I'll hold on the other stuff in hopes of some market rebound. I can actually wait till spring if I need to on that . After that load goes then it's on to palletizing all the e-waste. That needs to go ASAP because that is where the payola is. The rest is just gravy. ( thin gravy)

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Originally Posted by Focker

I dont sell parts.I dont like dealing with idiots lol!

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What all do you take off of a scrap car? Alt, rad, start, battery, catvert, maybe aluminum rims, then whatever from its shred weight, anything else? Im trying to learn how to make a living with scrap vehicles as my bread and butter. But when this thread was made shred steel was down to $40 a ton in missouri. Unless a vehicle is a classic or sought after car I dont want to take parts off and sit on them untill they sell either, but Iim trying to understand how the vehicle guys are still making a living when steel gets that low. How much is made off of the average midsize four door car like say a mid 90s chevy lumina, without selling parts? Any help is much appreciated.

Find good buyers for your catalytic converters, sometimes they can be worth more than the car. You can pull the engines, trans, alts, power steering pumps, racks, wheels, AC compressors, key fobs, wiring, rads, oxygen sensors, computer modules. It just depends on how far you want to go and how much time you have.

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Originally Posted by rustbelt

What all do you take off of a scrap car? Alt, rad, start, battery, catvert, maybe aluminum rims, then whatever from its shred weight, anything else? Im trying to learn how to make a living with scrap vehicles as my bread and butter. But when this thread was made shred steel was down to $40 a ton in missouri. Unless a vehicle is a classic or sought after car I dont want to take parts off and sit on them untill they sell either, but Iim trying to understand how the vehicle guys are still making a living when steel gets that low. How much is made off of the average midsize four door car like say a mid 90s chevy lumina, without selling parts? Any help is much appreciated.

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Hate to burst your bubble... Selling parts is how the car guys survive. As for the average midsize car, 1 1/2 tons, your looking at $150 shred price, if your lucky. Around here, most car guys are paying $100 per car, and they travel to pick the vehicle up. Not much room for profit as straight scrap. But I will disclose I have never scrapped a car, so take my words for what you will...

The best money is being efficient selling parts and scrap second. Some people aren't set up to sell parts and scrapping is all they can do.

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Originally Posted by rustbelt

What all do you take off of a scrap car? Alt, rad, start, battery, catvert, maybe aluminum rims, then whatever from its shred weight, anything else? Im trying to learn how to make a living with scrap vehicles as my bread and butter. But when this thread was made shred steel was down to $40 a ton in missouri. Unless a vehicle is a classic or sought after car I dont want to take parts off and sit on them untill they sell either, but Iim trying to understand how the vehicle guys are still making a living when steel gets that low. How much is made off of the average midsize four door car like say a mid 90s chevy lumina, without selling parts? Any help is much appreciated.

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Luminas have more then scrap value for a demo car, gm w body cars, sell for decent money minus rims and cat to guys who build compact demo cars. Tons of cheap cars out there now, I've been buying up running driving, but not driver quality, cars left and right for under $200.

When scrap goes down around here no one else wants to go get it. Less money but more volume. Plus i found a yard that doesnt advertise much, that has a shredder on their property so they dont have to charge you for their transportation costs. $2 more than their neighbors prices currently.