I don't know if it is the weather or the low prices

[CopperMiner]

I sent two loads today and I don't know if it is the weather, the moon cycle, the low prices or what else, but for different reasons the yard staff whined a lot today (for pretty much baseless reasons) at the two different yards I went.

At the first one (my usual non-ferrous yard), it was one of the regular buyers and he was unhappy that I bring a S/S 316 double sink (the one with the square black patches I am talking about in the other thread) and that I tried to sell as S/S. I tried to explain what's S/S 316, that's very slightly magnetic, that I frequently sell that to them and it was still impossible for them. Too late, too bad for you, I'll just bring elsewhere. They're also tried to round down my weights by saying a box is always at least 2 lbs without using the scale (and see that boxes can be lighter than 2 lbs). Finally, they didn't took my transformers and my flywheel transformers they're always buying from me for whatever reason and they were complaining about a potential presence of aluminum wires in the four or five electric motors I had. Whatever they're fully copper or they're contain some aluminum, before we go further in the deal, can you tell me how much do you pay for motors: less than shred price. Thanks, but no thanks, at that price, I'll dump it on the shred heap. It is also the same yard that sometime make a huge deal about painted and non-painted extrusion aluminum. Last time, they didn't wanted to buy my painted extrusion as extrusion aluminum, but as mixed aluminum due to the paint. When I dumped my box of clean extrusion today, the gaylord was mostly full of painted extrusion. The other time, the mixed aluminum container has a healthy share of UBC while they're always saying that they don't take cans and complain if I have one or two cans among 25 or 50 lbs of mixed alu.

At the second yard (my usual ferrous yard), one of the two non-ferrous scales was broken, but it was quiet when I was there. No big deal. They didn't say a word about the S/S 316 sink they other yard disliked, but they managed to complain about a very small piece of brass thread (smaller than a screw) stuck to a S/S drain piece. I kept telling them that I removed all I can, that it was not magnetic and S/S may already have some in it as S/S is an alloy, but nothing. Just take aside if it bothers you so much, but they took the remaining of my S/S box and dumped it in the yellow brass, except for 3 little pieces they called zinc. Okay. In my opinion, I am not sure to understand the matter of making such a deal of a tiny piece of brass attached to a bigger piece of S/S while you just contaminated your yellow brass with S/S. Anyway, brass pays 5 times what S/S is and the price difference covered more that the value lost by the price drop.



I understand that every yard has a different way to sort metals and sometime the same person won't sort it the same way each time, but today was beyond all records.

[mikeinreco]

As prices lower things get tighter and they may have been instructed to go thru items more thorough

[hills]

Everything went fairly well at the feeder yard yesterday. The shop was getting crowded up with the lower value stuff so i decided to make a road trip just to change things up a bit. It's been a busy summer and i needed some kind of a break from the daily grind.

About the only hitch was when it came to the white faucet metals. It was only a few pounds and the scale guy was certain it was cast ali. I would have preferred to take it back to the shop with me but he insisted on buying it as cast and tossing it into the cast ali gaylord.

* whatever * No sense in making problems and getting into an argument on a hot day. Heat makes folks cranky and they don't think clearly.

On box & bucket weights ... i usually just write the container (tare) weight on the outside with magic marker. Lightweight clear plastic recycling bags for some things works pretty well. They're so light that they probably don't register on the scale.

[hills]

At the second yard (my usual ferrous yard), one of the two non-ferrous scales was broken, but it was quiet when I was there. No big deal. They didn't say a word about the S/S 316 sink they other yard disliked, but they managed to complain about a very small piece of brass thread (smaller than a screw) stuck to a S/S drain piece. I kept telling them that I removed all I can, that it was not magnetic and S/S may already have some in it as S/S is an alloy, but nothing. Just take aside if it bothers you so much, but they took the remaining of my S/S box and dumped it in the yellow brass, except for 3 little pieces they called zinc. Okay. In my opinion, I am not sure to understand the matter of making such a deal of a tiny piece of brass attached to a bigger piece of S/S while you just contaminated your yellow brass with S/S. Anyway, brass pays 5 times what S/S is and the price difference covered more that the value lost by the price drop.

I understand that every yard has a different way to sort metals and sometime the same person won't sort it the same way each time, but today was beyond all records.

I was thinking about the brass thing. Maybe it was poor communication ?

You've got different metals happening with a stainless steel sink. Okay ... you've got the sink itself which is stainless. You've got the basket strainers.

You want to remove the basket strainers. Most of the time they are made of plated brass. The big nut underneath ... that holds the basket strainer assembly together is generally some kind of white metal. It's a PITA to undo those nuts because they rust in place. Cut them in two places with your grinder and knock the basket strainer out.

I think i can see why they might complain. It's extra processing work on their end to make it clean stainless. Maybe not so bad if things are slow, but not in the summer when there's a lot of material coming in.

Here's a video on how a plumber installs a basket strainer:

[CopperMiner]

Everything, including the basket strainers, was removed and it was just the actual main piece.

In hindsight, I am tempted to think that the first scale person at the non-ferreous yard may possibly had a bad day or anxious about something not in my control. I don't think that they got burned by customers, but one of their brokers may have gave them trouble or let them down (due to the price drop). Everything's plausible. They're paying a bit better, but they're weird at times. That time, it was S/S, but UBC was a absolute big no-no and their mixed alu is suddenly full of soda cans, then the painted extrusion... They're kind of a hockey referee. The rules varies from match to match or in other words, your mileage may vary.

At the feeder yard, I don't like to sell non-ferrous metals there. Prices are lower, it is often busier at the small scale, they're more nitpicking in general. I just find ridiculous how the first yard made such a deal with the S/S 316, but not the second one didn't cared at all. Also, if the S/S box is supposedly all mixed up and can't go in the S/S container, I will never understand why he thrown everything in the brass and contaminate it. At the end of the day, I dropped everything and I made more money, but some people always find a way to complicate things for no good reason.

By the way, the moon cycle thing was more or less serious, but it was actually the full moon yesterday...

[mikeinreco]

Currently just piling up aluminum and copper....will sell if it gets in my way....trying to figure out prices around town they all seem low to me

[hills]

I hear you on prices. They're not very good right now. It seems to be that way every year in the summer. More material coming in .... causes the prices to drop. I'm stockpiling till sometime next winter after scrapping activities slow way down because of the cold & snow. A really hard winter can shut down the copper mines and that shortens the supply up even more.

Covid is going around again. This pandemic messes up the supply chain. That can drive prices up too.

Prolly best to watch the London Metals Exchange. Copper prices usually go up when their warehouse levels drop.