Hi all, I want to start off by saying. I'm new to the forum and thanks for any advice you all may be able to provide. I have several questions that I will ask here for input if you're willing and of course I'll ask any potential scrap yard prior to taking my items to them as I'm sure most yards do some things slightly different. Thanks for any advice/knowledge anyone can lend.

I have a salvage type business that's been in operation for many years. With that being said. I have several thousand pounds of various scrap laying around (probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k lbs of aluminum and another 10k of various cast engine blocks, different types of metal etc. I'm a bit of a pack-rat and haven't scrapped anything in MANY years so I've got quite the accumulation, "never know, I might need a little piece off that one of these days, better keep it" type thing. But I'm looking to expand my operation this year and honestly I've got 3300 square feet of building space that's filled and probably half of it needs to just be scrapped BUT I want to extract every last dollar from it prior to the yard getting it. Meaning I want to completely break everything down myself (for the items that are feasible). Here are the questions.



1. Are cast engine blocks worth stripping down to bare blocks? I have 15 or so and add a few a year (expected to increase with the expansion).
2. Is it worth stripping aluminum pistons all the way down and what are they classified as after doing so? The 2 local yards don't appear to have a classification for pistons on their price sheets.
3. If I decide to scrap some of the priceless treasures I have here. I will buy a dump trailer to haul with (I've been needing one for various things anyway. Hauling firewood, mulch, etc). If I haul say 2000lbs of clean cast aluminum in 1 load. Would I be wrong to attempt to negotiate a higher price than the next guy who hauls in 30lbs and if I wouldn't be out of line to do so. How much of a premium should I expect?

I'm not green to doing business and I've been a wheeler and dealer all my life. I can negotiate with the best of them but I like to be well informed prior to going into a negotiation and scrap classification etc. isn't something that I'm super well versed in. I will try to add a few pictures and maybe that will help aid you folks in giving me advice or answering questions. Please don't hesitate to criticize if you feel it's warranted and don't hesitate to point out or offer advice on a better way to do it or tell me to quit wasting my time and just start piling it all in a trailer and hauling! Suffice to say, FEEL FREE TO SPEAK YOUR MIND!