Scrap metal

[Barry Digman]

Does anyone here trade in scrap metal? I have a couple of acres of the stuff that I'm going to have to dispose of, and I don't know much about it these days.

[BjornBee]

About 5 years ago, I had a car I ran into the ground. I just wanted someone to come and haul it away. I knew previously, I had seen advertisements for the service. I called about 5 local junk yards. Nobody even wanted to come and get it for the metal value, unless I paid for the gas or some fee. they all said the metal/scrap value was nothing at the time.

Now, 5 years later, I see many advertisements for free removal of junk or unwanted cars. They are eager again to pick up cars and many mention a payment of some sort.

Its one thing to have a company drive out for one car. But if you have a couple acres, I'd make sure I was getting fair value and a couple quotes. I'm not in the junk business, (unless one looks in my garage which my wife may say I very well am) but from all indications, scrap values have gone up considerably in the past couple years. We just had a new scrap center open here locally just right next door to the old place.

I think your timing is very good.

[honeyman46408]

Does anyone here trade in scrap metal? I have a couple of acres of the stuff that I'm going to have to dispose of, and I don't know much about it these days.

Around here they are paying 200 bux for juink cars

[Bodo]

The Price for scrap metal is insane right now. I'm sure that if you call around you'll have people beating your door down to take it off you hands

[Barry]

What kind of metal are you talking about? Primarily steel/iron? I do scrap out the common material I come in contact with through work (aluminum, copper, brass) and turn it in once a year. Copper has shot through the roof in recent times. You can set anything that out at the street that is mainly steel, and it will be gone within hours, around here. Seems to be a market for it now.

[tecumseh]

well Barry one of my friends makes a buck or so in the scrap market. it is quite interesting finding about the breadth of the market (scrap, cores and catalyics).

currently scrap price is maybe 3X what it was 6 years or so ago. and yes just about any old automobile will bring about 200 bucks. matter of fact one catalyic converter brought $85 and the car still broung $200 when it went over the scale.

[Barry Digman]

Here are some shots of parts of it. The pipe, fencing materials, sucker rod, etc. I can peddle without a problem. It's the steel girders and tons of valve bodies, cutoffs, truck tire rims, etc. that I need to get cleaned up.

I'm wondering whether it's worth sorting and cutting into sizes that will grade better at the dealer. I'm guessing somewhere in the range of 100 tons. It's about a 40 year collection.




http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c285/barrydigman/Junkyard%20Bees/

[Sprocket58]

Barry,
There's something called "Craig's List"...a quick post and you'll have em begging for it.

[MapMan]

Yeah - you might want to clean it up a bit. You got the gist from everyone else - thar's gold in 'em scrap hills. Don't get rid of the hives, they make their own form of gold.

MM

[dragonfly]

I know that as of 4 years ago, when steel prices were going up, you could call a metal scrap yard, and they would bring out equipment to haul it away and pay you a good sum for it. I would bet that in today's scrap metal market, it's even easier. Do you have any large scale metal scrappers in your area?

[okb]

I know that as of 4 years ago, when steel prices were going up, you could call a metal scrap yard, and they would bring out equipment to haul it away and pay you a good sum for it. I would bet that in today's scrap metal market, it's even easier. Do you have any large scale metal scrappers in your area?

They do the same here if you have a large amount.

Todays price here is - $8.50 per 100# for steel
- $1.40 per lb for copper A/C coils
and - $.075 per lb of cans.

[Mike Gillmore]

Call or stop by your local scrap yard and talk with them. Around here the price they pay for scrap steel varies tremendously depending on the "size" of the pieces. See if you can get that information out of them... they won't volunteer it unless you ask.

It may make sense to get a set of torches out there and cut everything down to the size that pays the most. The difference paid per ton/lb can be HUGE.

Also make certain you separate all aluminum, copper, stainless into different loads. You may be surprised what you get from "cleaning up". ;)

[bigeddie]

Get bids, You have a lot of dough laying there.

[riverrat]

scrap here in kansas was running 190 a ton for steel.
If you was closer I would be interested in scrapping it on shares. I noticed you have a lot of oil field scrap. Be careful when you bring in oil field scrap they will run a geyger counter over the load to check it for radiation. If it goes off they will reject the whole load.

[talkingamoeba]

As others have said, that is a considerable amount of coin laying there. For years my brother hauled in other's junk cars and motorcycles and lawnmowers that he got free. I just didn't understand why. Now he's hauling it out in his small Toyota pick-up and getting 300-600 for every load depending on whether it's aluminum or if there's 10 lbs of copper going too, considering he got all of it free, I now think I have a very shrewd little brother. He has collected many thousands from what he has sold the last year and a half. The pipe you have may sell for higher than scrap price to someone who needs it.

[Barry Digman]

Thanks for all the replies. There are a couple of scrap dealers here, and I trust them about as far as I can throw a '58 Buick. I suppose I'll have to deal with one or the other, but they aren't the most reputable folks in the county. I think I'll begin by having someone sort the stuff by grade, and figuring out what's in some of it.

[Barry]

trust them about as far as I can throw a '58 Buick.

DON'T TRUST THEM! I drive a good distance to a scraper for my haul as my local guy is the biggest ripoff. I take the time to separate the metals and make sure they are clean and I get a premium for it where I take it. My local guy throws it all together and pays one price.

[Barry Digman]

It's kind of a bittersweet proposition. My father passed away last month, and this is stuff that he'd traded in for years and years. He was 94, so this is an accumulation of stuff that he had on hand when he stopped hustling several years ago. Some of it he kept for his own wells and property, but much of it is just trade bait that never got sold or disposed of. And a lot of it is pure scrap. (I'm just thankful that he stopped racing horses a while back so I don't have to deal with those critters.) I'm in no rush, but if I don't get started on it I'll never get it done.

[dcross]

Thanks for all the replies. There are a couple of scrap dealers here, and I trust them about as far as I can throw a '58 Buick. I suppose I'll have to deal with one or the other, but they aren't the most reputable folks in the county. I think I'll begin by having someone sort the stuff by grade, and figuring out what's in some of it.


Just get'em all there at the same time, and say "Gentleman, it all goes to the highest bidder."

[riverrat]

Sorry for your loss That always a tough one. I would take Dcross's advise. Call them tell them you are taking bids on the scrap let them give you a written bid then compare them.

[Barry Digman]

That was interesting...

I tossed 3 old steel milk cans in the back of my truck and brought them home to find out what they were paying for them on Ebay. $30/ea was the highest I saw. A nice lady spotted them and gave me $50 for all of them. One mans junk...

[drobbins]

when I got out of college I worked for one of my professors for a while in his research lab
it was a sweet gig, he did research for GM on NASCAR racing engines
they were writing software to design camshafts
we had a test rig which was a small block chevy engine with no pistons that was powered by a big electric motor so you could spin it whatever speed you wanted
we instrumented the crap out of the cylinder heads so you could measure the motion of the valves as the thing went up to 8-9000 rpm
we got these nice aluminum cylinder heads from GM and went through them pretty quick (we broke lot of stuff:))
at the end of the year we gathered all our scraps camshafts/valves/springs/cylinderheads/rocker arms etc to take to the scrap metal place to sell
all this stuff looked pretty new since it hadn't been in an actual engine burning fuel
you should have seen the workers in the yard jump on that stuff, you'd have thought we were dumping off gold:)
we got enough money for a keg of beer and a pig to roast:D

Dave

[RAlex]

Barry...last week I took two pick-up loads in a scrap yard and got 430.00 for 3400 pounds of short steel( length not more 3 feet) . With the stuff you got depending on the pipe sizes they may come pick it up and pay ya better prices. New Steel is close to 800/ per ton a friend of mine mentioned today .My step-dad hd a junk yard. After he passed my mom had it crushed and had over 225 tons. Prices are good now is the time to talk to the scrap yards.....G`luck Rick

[kensfarm]

Don't sell the good stuff for scrap prices.. talk to some local well drilling companies and some weld shops.. that's A1 stuff!

[Barry Digman]

Boy! That was a lesson in "If ya snooze, ya lose...".

I called the scrap dealers today to see what they were paying for scrap. $60/ton seems to be the going rate, unless you've got really good stuff, in which case it's $80/ton. Is it because we're so far from the smelters here and everything has to be hauled out by diesel fueled trucks? I even called Albuquerque, which is 180 miles from here and has rail service, and they quoted the same $60/ton. That blows.

[MichiganBee]

Copper and aluminum is whats fetching the best prices right now. I believe copper is going for like $2+ a pound and Aluminum around .83 for scrap that is not 100% clean paint ect.

If you have scrap laying around now is the time to get rid of it for sure. If it is just laying around might as well sell it : ). Some extra money for Bee stuff!

Last week I brought to scrap yard around 200lbs of old aluminum window frames that I had saved from a old remodel got a nice sum for some misc. beekeeping equipment!

Copper is like gold though. If you have a bunch of old copper tubing or any old copper for that matter you can quickly turn that into a few hundred bucks.

Prices can change daily being commodities so check some website on prices before you decide to bring it.

Good Luck!