poor metal prices why?

I've learned that at my yard it's all about who is working at the scale. One guy always tells me to "leave it in the bin" and he's the one that screws me over. He's also the owner's son. Go figure. One day after taking a hit the previous visit, I splashed my copper onto the scale and got told "you could have just left it in the bin. Now he (helper) has to pick it all up!" I replied with "It's better than me 'losing' a pound of copper!" I haven't had any issues since then.