Scrap prices are so low it makes little sense to even mess with it

I am a very popular scrapper in my area. As a retiree I do this for the excercize and for spending money. I do pick up for free having scrapped the idea of charging long ago. Basically when I did ask for a nominal fee I went for a long time without any calls. I have a limited pick up area and restrictions on what I go after. There are lots of haulers around here. I get really big loads of shred and other metals that average about 1500 pounds. Today I sold 1508 pounds of shred. It paid 2.5 cents a pound. I balked at it so the guy paid me more but said he would have to stick with the 2.5 cents a pound on the next load. I am considering scrapping my free hauling for a while and get in to some other venture. I have a limited pick up area and my overhead is low. Even though I am not dependent on scrapping for income it's a drag to do all the work involved for little return. I do have regular customers who call me for all their commercial scrap hauling. I will keep hauling for them but I will be stopping my advertising. How about you?

That's $50/ton. I wouldn't put much time or effort into hauling it for that price. Take care of the regular customers and let the rest sit.

Good advice.

Have you considered scrapping old computers?
I took 1100 pounds of computer and phone system cases to the yard a few weeks ago and got 44 dollars. I still have about 200 pounds of good circuit boards that need to be boxed up and sold.

Yes I have. First where do I obtain the stuff? The local university auctions off it's scrap monthly by the container full. I tried once to bid but a dumpster load of just plain steel I get 3 cents a pound for went through the roof selling for over a hundred bucks. The computer waste is sky high in price. I have found that most places around here that would have e-waste already either sell to out of state companies that ship it to their recycling centers or locals already have the pick up locked in. The Phoenix area is a hotbed of recyclers for just about everything. Some good haulers and lots of scammers. We have a huge illegal alien population from south of the border that has no reported income except what's obtained by standing around the local Home depot for day labor that pays cash. They supplement that by hauling scrap and taking everything that is not nailed down after responding to Craigslist ads. People everyday list free stuff on the site and give an address which is a recipe for disaster. People actually say in their listing they won't be home putting people on the honor system. Then when they do come home it's discovered whomever took the freebies also took their patio furniture and dog plus they broke in to the home. Then the people complain about it by compaosing another CL ad demanding it all back. All I can say is suckers!. The illegals will literally walk up in your garage if it's open and help themselves to your garage fridge full of beer. It has happened. Back to e-waste I will check that out further. I don't know of a buyer for the boards around here. I have heard some of it sells on Ebay becuase of the gold fingers. Thanks for the suggestion though.

strangely, im not getting as many calls for scrap as i used to when the prices were decent.
but still, ive had to turn down offers of free scrap metal bcos the fuel it will cost me to go pick it up seemed to be more than what i would make out of it.

the majority of my steel/shred scrap comes from computer cases as i now pick up mostly ewaste


anything from Socket 775 boards & DDR2 RAM upwards can still be sold on Gumtree here in South Africa
so i try to sell anything that works before breaking it down

i sell my stuff cheap but when i get a customer for anything, im still making much more than what i would by scrapping the item

It definitely sucks. Didn't even get a Benjamin for this load.

Yes, Prices are Low as ever right now! I personally don't mess with steel. However, All my scrap I hold onto until the price goes up. As long as you have a place to store it until that time I would recommend doing that. I just figure What goes up must come down and Vice Versa.

I stopped 90% all scrap and now into junk cars....still profitable with cores and resale. This car made 200 selling tires, rims, and cat. Gave motor/trans for free to buddy for his fiero. Only paid 100 for it and got 125 across scale minus those goodies. Fine by me. Gas to run it free since wrecker runs drain gas being its a carbed 460 gas engine and buick full. I get 10-12mpg and doesnt matter...most I put in wrecker is 50 bucks a month when the drain gas runs out.

Yes my 12k harbor fright winch on wrecker can pick the car that high if not higher.

So 200 profit and free motor/trans for fiero build. So money is there if you know what your doing. I will keep running crap till the cores are not worth anything.

And yes transported motr/trans right to my buddies just like that. Total time 2.5 hours to strip and gone. Not bad considering I have blown discs in my neck from rolling a tractor trailer on black ice.

I'm finding things at auction to resell. Picked up this car for $500. Another $200 into battery, fuel to go get it, title, etc.

Sold it today for $2,500.

Nice to see you back ozzy214!!! I always enjoy hearing your demo projects. Looks like you have some country space around you. Nice not to have people looking over your shoulder from 40 feet watching what you're doing...

Nice score I.S.!!! That Merc looks in great shape. Any reason why they sold it to you so low...??

Originally Posted by DakotaRog

Nice to see you back ozzy214!!! I always enjoy hearing your demo projects. Looks like you have some country space around you. Nice not to have people looking over your shoulder from 40 feet watching what you're doing...

Nice score I.S.!!! That Merc looks in great shape. Any reason why they sold it to you so low...??

Goober...I mean government auction

1985 chevy van c30 1 ton...no drive train. Bought for 100. Made 150 across scale. Not only that guy who sold it to me bought the rear back for 150 since his buddy just blew his rear. So he gave me 150 and charged his buddy 300, so he essentially made 150 himself. Literally a hour after I got home, sold rear. Have leafs for sale for 200 obo. Guy also threw in cores like batteries, ac compressor, etc. Rotors he tossed in was 20 bucks. Firgure core bats and ac compressors and such......another 25.

So just made double what I could make at Mcdonalds in 6 hours and too boot.....van full of gas. Filled my caravan up....and got a half tank for wrecker. So 50 mile ride to pick van free.....50 mile ride to drop rear off free.

Only the strong and smart who use their brain will survive, thats the true meaning of a scrapper. Not me Igor, me throw metal in truck and then throw off at yard....me made 20 bucks dont.....

And im retired pretty much, permanently disabled from rolling a tractor trailer. Damage to c5 and c6...as well as stenosis and pinched nerves in neck.

Thats how you survive in these bad times, resale. Rant over.

P.s I stared with a 4x6 trailer and a dakota compact truck in 2011 give or take. Now have a full blown wrecker and 3 trailers i never use. And still make money. And i only do this part time. I bought the wrecker with all resale online. This is not including i have a gambling habit and probaly blew 10 grand in the last year. Right now im workign on a down payment on a house. NNot bad for a cripple.

Even no title vehicles profitable. Technically you need a salvor license in pa, wait 30 days, obtain a salvage cert and junk. Well if you have friends they will take whole and worry about the paperwork for you. Or as most of the yards around here, cut car in thirds or quarters. One yard requires 3 separate trips in with thirds. Other yard can cut it into thirds on trailer and truck in all 3 pieces at once. At that point the yard considers it "auto parts". Since it costs the seller 75 to reissue a title..99% of the yards will not touch. Nor will the customer obtain the title for a 100 scrap car. So makes the wise old man like me money since I can buy them even cheap or free cause of this. Plus sell parts of course. Last car I did we cut in thirds in a hour with sawzall and truck it in .....car free. Made 175 doing that last year when prices a bit higher. There is legal means to make money with what most consider illegal, grey, or sketchy.

Of course run the vin or have friends in leos like i do to insure no liens or stolen. I also obtain drivers license of seller just in case they scamming me. Never had a issue yet.