Should I hold on to my aluminum and copper?

I need some advice on my scrap. I am not in a big hurry to sale and have the space to keep it. Here is what I have saved up. From saving wire from working on stuff for years and saving aluminum I probably will have 2 or 3 of the 55 gallon drums full of stripped copper. I probably will have around 250 to 300 pounds of aluminum. I want to purchase some type of small building, portable barn or shipping container for a side business.

With that said it would be nice to sale this summer so I could use the funds to help with the building purchase. But if the scrap will go up a lot in a year I can wait. I probably will sale the aluminum unless it would double or triple within a year but I doubt that. As far as the copper I can store 2 or 3 drums out of the way and wait.

I am not hurting for the money of the copper but it would be nice to sale. So does it look like copper will be still low for a while or does anyone think in the next 5 years it will go up?

Save the copper and sell the Alum. Alum sucks no matter what the price is. It takes up too much room for the amount it weighs. Thats just my opinion.....

Originally Posted by willy3486

I need some advice on my scrap. I am not in a big hurry to sale and have the space to keep it. Here is what I have saved up. From saving wire from working on stuff for years and saving aluminum I probably will have 2 or 3 of the 55 gallon drums full of stripped copper. I probably will have around 250 to 300 pounds of aluminum. I want to purchase some type of small building, portable barn or shipping container for a side business.

With that said it would be nice to sale this summer so I could use the funds to help with the building purchase. But if the scrap will go up a lot in a year I can wait. I probably will sale the aluminum unless it would double or triple within a year but I doubt that. As far as the copper I can store 2 or 3 drums out of the way and wait.

I am not hurting for the money of the copper but it would be nice to sale. So does it look like copper will be still low for a while or does anyone think in the next 5 years it will go up?

I would sell the alum to free up the space, I dont think its coming back up anytime soon, within 5 year like you said.... it might, no one knows. The copper I would wait, it has been heavily tanking recently.....

If you are buying buildings with the sale of aluminum, I am in the wrong universe or dimension or location on Earth.

I bought copper for $3 and $4 per lb almost 10 years ago thinking it’s going to “go way up” and I will sell it for a profit.
Well atleast I can have a copper tombstone when I die so people can know what I did with it.

Like others said. I’d sell the aluminum and keep the copper. I took a load of ferrous in this am cause I needed it off my trailer. Bare bright on the price board was at 1.50 ish I think.

Like others said. I’d sell the aluminum and keep the copper. I took a load of ferrous in this am cause I needed it off my trailer. Bare bright on the price board was at 1.50 ish I think.

My non-ferrous guy used to post this prices on-line but now they don't, I guess I could always call. If you're "bare bright" was about $1.50 then 32 Cu in your area is probably down another 20-30 cents...?

Been checking spot copper for a couple of months now. Given the overall picture .... it looks like copper and brass are down due to lack of demand. Imo ... this isn't a good time to sell unless you're hard up and really need the money.

I've been planning on stockpiling for at least a year .... maybe two or three.

It would be kool to have something like a bench top sized shredder. Shred all that copper into little 1/4" sized bits ... box it up and forget about it for awhile. Palletize it up all neat and tidy then ship it out of state for better prices.

~ Don't mind me ... just daydreaming. ~

If you're "bare bright" was about $1.50 then 32 Cu in your area is probably down another 20-30 cents...?

You all probably got the drift but my "32 CU" should have been "#2 CU"...

Originally Posted by hills

Been checking spot copper for a couple of months now. Given the overall picture .... it looks like copper and brass are down due to lack of demand. Imo ... this isn't a good time to sell unless you're hard up and really need the money.

I've been planning on stockpiling for at least a year .... maybe two or three.

It would be kool to have something like a bench top sized shredder. Shred all that copper into little 1/4" sized bits ... box it up and forget about it for awhile. Palletize it up all neat and tidy then ship it out of state for better prices.

~ Don't mind me ... just daydreaming. ~

Small smelter w/ crucible that has small holes on one side.... Pour into water and it makes BB's....... Store in 5 gallon pails with screw on tops..... Save for a rainy day. Can you tell I have been thinking about this for a while?

I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of my potential buyer. I think i would be okay buying copper in a form that i'm used to buying. Stuff like pipes and wire. It would probably be alright if it were shredded but i would have to grade it as # 2 just to be on the safe side. It's a problem when it's been melted though. That's a big trust. I would really have to know the gent that smelted it and then take his word that it's legit.

I have made some gain on on compressing my bare bright & brass. A 12" x 12" x 6" high cardboard box will hold 50lbs just right. I just tape them closed, mark the container weight, net weight, and what's inside the box on the outside. It seems like that kind of thing would be pretty agreeable to most any yard. They wouldn't have to put any work into it. I was thinking that i might be able to leverage a better price if i had a thousand pounds just sitting all neat and pretty on a pallet. Lol .... big dreams. I've either got to figure out how to source more material or be very patient and accumulate for my retirement over the next few years.

Alchemy is good too but i've done PM's before. The trick was to time the market just right. You buy low and sell high. I've done pretty well with it ... but honestly ... it probably had more to do with beginners luck than any skill in playing the market. I was pretty young at the time.

IDK ... it just feels like we ought to be getting more for our copper and brass. There's a fair amount of work involved in putting that stuff up.

Selling copper seems counter-intuitive right now. It's like the opposite of buy low sell high.

I have been selling cast aluminum scrap for over 40 years. Once I even sold 100 tons in a single year. In 2008 aluminum prices crashed relative to all other non-ferrous prices and aluminum prices have never recovered. Nor do I see any reason for them to recover in the for-see-able future. Therefore in most cases there really is no reason to sit on it.

For decades before 2008 I watched aluminum on the London Metal Exchange. During that time the normal amount on hand was something like 1 million tons. In 2008 it jumped to 5 million tons and stayed there for over a decade. Last time I looked it was around 3 million tons. No clue about today, but I doubt that it is any better. Bottom line is that there is SIMPLY TOO MUCH ALUMINUM AVAILABLE and has been for over a decade. No chance of that changing any time soon. And no chance of prices getting much better at all.

In the decades before 2008 I noticed a correlation between #2 steel scrap and aluminum. For over 25 years the ratio was 20:1 (if steel was $50 per ton aluminum was about 50 cents per pound). That ratio held for decades. In 2008 the ratio went to 6:1 ($250 per ton versus 75 cents per pound). Last January local steel was $125 ton and aluminum was at 35 cents per pound, a ratio of 5.6:1. No clue today since the lockdown. Regardless, with aluminum so low I am not even separating out the 50% dirty aluminum any more (and haven't been for over 4 years) - I am just throwing it in the steel scrap.

With so much aluminum available, I see no real upside to aluminum prices for DECADES. Yeah, they might go up some, but every thing else will go up faster.