Guess the price - 28 Lbs Sealed Unit

Long story short I usually open and drain my sealed units and then I recover the copper myself, but today I had to sell a single 28 lbs sealed unit in a yard owned by a nationwide corporation. I didn't had the opportunity to shop the best prices around neither. Let's play The price is right and guess how much they paid me? Currency doesn't really matter in this case.

Well at today's prices I woulda paid USD $6.44 so I'll guess....6.44

$5.60

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I believe that there are two main lessons to be learned from this experience: dealing with a larger yard does not guarantee a better price and above all this is what happens when you do not check the prices beforehand. It's pretty much shred price and I almost posted this thread in the ethics / rip off section, but I also take some responsibility since I didn't checked the prices beforehand as I usually do (although I usually cut them open rather than selling them sealed).

You don't check prices before?

Originally Posted by CopperMiner

dealing with a larger yard does not guarantee a better price

I learned from a guy that the bigger yards dont always pay the most. i use to think they did. He also said that yards in the "cities" pay less for stuff because of the poverty levels and can get away with it cause the people are ganna sell it at what ever the price cause they need the cash.

Like i sold my S. units the other week, Smaller yard was at .15/lb and the bigger yard that has 4 locations in the area was paying .08/lb

Originally Posted by jimicrk

You don't check prices before?

As I wrote above, I usually do, but not that time.

Originally Posted by greytruck

I learned from a guy that the bigger yards dont always pay the most. i use to think they did. He also said that yards in the "cities" pay less for stuff because of the poverty levels and can get away with it cause the people are ganna sell it at what ever the price cause they need the cash.

Like i sold my S. units the other week, Smaller yard was at .15/lb and the bigger yard that has 4 locations in the area was paying .08/lb

Also, inner cities yards are more expensive to run (land, wages, taxes, fuel used to move everything out of town...) and it is reflected on the prices. Up here, that's true for smaller downtown yards. On the other hand, major yards in the city are located off expressways in large industrial parks and generally pay more, because they want the volume and there's more competition between them. I don't like to go there, because they're always very busy, they're located far from me and traffic/road construction/bridge/tunnel is too time consuming. If I have an exceptional large quantity of extrusion aluminum or copper, I can go there, but it needs to definitely cover the difference in gas and time.

In my case, I was in the suburbs and in the area I usually operate in/from. IHMO, their price was just pure corporate greed. Anyway, as I previously said, it was an one-shot deal and it is done. I will s*ck it up and move on to something else.

Originally Posted by CopperMiner

Also, inner cities yards are more expensive to run (land, wages, taxes, fuel used to move everything out of town...) and it is reflected on the prices. Up here, that's true for smaller downtown yards. On the other hand, major yards in the city are located off expressways in large industrial parks and generally pay more, because they want the volume and there's more competition between them. I don't like to go there, because they're always very busy, they're located far from me and traffic/road construction/bridge/tunnel is too time consuming. If I have an exceptional large quantity of extrusion aluminum or copper, I can go there, but it needs to definitely cover the difference in gas and time.

In my case, I was in the suburbs and in the area I usually operate in/from. IHMO, their price was just pure corporate greed. Anyway, as I previously said, it was an one-shot deal and it is done. I will s*ck it up and move on to something else.

Well what happened to me to get my attention on this subject was that pre Covid that the shredder yard always payed more for steel, not so much for copper, brass, ect. But the smaller yard started to pay more for shred than the shredder yard thats on the south side of chicago, the smaller yard is like 12 miles from the city limits and they are paying 20/ton more than the shredder yard? no brainer to go there plus its alot closer to home. It got to the point where the shredder yard was only paying more for cans and cast aluminum. But i rarely ever go there now cause im not hoarding a load of cast alum just to go there. Plus like you said the traffic sucks going there, the roads arnt very good and there are tons of trains that stop for hours at times. Huge hassle. Ive also been burned by the bigger yard cause i didnt check prices b4 i left. the Smaller yard has prices posted on line so i knew the price there and after going to Shredder yard i got all pissed at their prices. Example- bigger yard brass at $1/lb while the smaller yard was at $1.30/lb

Now that i think about it, at the shredder yard was mostly street scrappers with their trucks stacked to the moon and the bike, wagon, shopping cart people with a bag of cans, some tin foil and like 2 tv cords. The smaller yard usually has the better stuff coming in, like ac coils, copper, brass, aluminum. ive seen AC Coils there must been 10ft x 10ft and 8 in thick. Ive even seen them cutting up a locomotive there. how it got there? who knows lol. But anyways.... Lots of trade guys selling there goods there. Ive seen 2 of the trash companys dropping stuff off there, roll offs full of Stainless, aluminum and even steel. One truck comes there with a cage roll off full of gayloard box's full of Ac coils, cords and stuff. Also, Theres never really that many people at the shred pile there so its in and out quick. Plus the bigger yard pays with a check for over $100 in copper, wire, coils, motors, s.units. Even if you have $50 in copper and $25 of ins wire and $25 of motors you will get a check, not at the smaller yard, only if you go over $100 in copper.

Sorry if i was ranting, i dont really have any one to talk scrap too.

Wait, from where I'm from that's great. I don't really get the clamor.