To hoard or not to hoard

^^^Young, I believe that questions for me so.... I usually take 2 or 3 loads of scrap each Monday to that yard. On that day when I took all that copper I had already made one other drop off and still had one more to bring in but when he handed me the money for that second load which included the copper he told me not to come back again that day. Thats why I had wondered if there was a payout limit per day as nothing was posted as such. Not sure why he told me that but there you have it. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if because I'm small time he just wanted to make sure it wasn't stolen or anything? Its the only thing I can think of. But.....they can tell that my copper comes from the ''junk'' I break down so that really doesn't make much sense either. *Shrugs*

I think i would have asked him why not?

It's way too late now, but I thought about this one a lot too, and the only explanation I can think of is that the guy was kidding.....making some kind of attempt at humor and you misinterpreted....possible ??

I just dont know what to do at this point, but I am only selling enough to be buy hoarding the rest. I am selling my Iron and tin, the price seems to be holding, the e scrap and copper I am holding in hopes the market goes back up. the factories (China) has already gotten their Christmas products stock piled so it may be months before we see prices go back up.

I "hoard" whatevers down at the moment but that said, I always sell bulky less valuable items first. I haul steel every week, sell aluminum & SS when the market goes up (or it's just in my way) and the copper goes in 55 gallon drums to be sold on that one day I think it's as high as it will go. I've been through a couple of the long buisness cycles and will probably sell all my copper next time it peaks.

http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/copper.html

The past few days have shown a slight move in the right direction!

scratch that ^^^^^^^^ spoke to soon

right now since green board or high grade board prices are down in this area, we are hoarding these, I also have about 200 or so hard drive3 platinum recovery disks and have no idea what they are worth, so that pile keeps growing. We are saving wire too at this time. The only thing trhat we have been turning in thus far is steel.

honestly i have been hoarding copper and red brass...if you sell those before say february you shouldnt be in this business anyways as a full time job...copper prices are down..and usually around xmas and the beginning of the first snow the part time scrapper quits because they dont have the equipment to mess with the snow..and heres a little secret..china is going to make copper the next gold...copper prices will skyrocket in the near future..everyone complains that china makes everything...but when china needs copper for building and steel remelted and made to rebuild and our scrap prices go up they are gods gift to the world lol...im not going to give my credentials or how i know this..although any serious scrapper knows this happens every year metal prices go down around winter time...then rocket first of year...but just say i have it on good authority...and my warehouse is packed with wire....whoops :P

Hey bcoop,

Seem like you got quite the variety of responses ;-)

Anyway, yes, we continually "horde" bb copper, no 1 copper, gold and silver stuff etc. until the time is "right". That said, if we always knew the "right" time, I would not be on this forum and instead on my 10 million dollar yacht with my supermodels. Anyway...

We also have a space issue occasionally. We have a decent size yard, but when we get too much good stuff, it can get lost, stolen, mixed in with other, cheaper stuff etc. That said, we are talking about total volumes of a couple hundred tons or so, but I feel the same applies to smaller quantities. If the qty gets too much to manage, get rid of some of it. For other items like SS, iron, Cast and Profile Alu, space is a HUGE issue and if we got 95 tons of iron coming out our a**es, well then... it's as good a time as any to sell :-)

All in all, try to get the best price possible, but make sure you can manage your stock.

Again... just my 2 cents. Hope it helps!

USG

With my scrap I just save up until I have a half bucket to full bucket of said item and I bring it to the yard