Green as Grass. Questions

I am new to this so cut me some slack if I sound Green, which I know I will. I have been saving metals and want to eventually get cash for them. However, I am having trouble differentiating the different metals apart. Obviously I can identify copper. But after taking apart household items I don't know if I have aluminum, steel or any other ferrous metal or non-ferrous metal. If I take all this stuff to the yard are they going to separate it and weight it? Is it one of those things where I drop it off and leave it to the experts? Or am I expected to know and is it up to me to make sure I don't throw aluminum into the steel pile? Don't want to get ripped off. Should I trust the yard? Please help

I'm pretty new to this as well, but the one tool you must have is a magnet. If the magnet sticks to the metal it goes in the shread pile. Granted you maybe able to break a ferrous piece off of a non-ferrous piece to maximize your return. If it looks like it is different metals on the piece just try your magnet on the different pieces. From the veterans if I said anything wrong please let me know.

My yard basically leaves it up to me to separate, like 1 time i just stacked all my radiators up (not thinking there were different kinds) and they just gave me the lowest fin price for them, even though some were Copper some brass some AL. But shred they just weigh you and no one follows you or really watches to see what you are unloading.

LOL. Last time I took a load in by myself the guy looks in back, drools and says "you can leave that all back here if you want"...back at the first stop to the shred pile.

I just laughed...and I gave him credit for trying...I may be a woman...and blonde, but I'm not that blonde.

Had a 5 gallon full of brass, 2 others full of copper, and a bunch of aluminum sorted.

Learn your metals, because most of the time they won't tell you.

You need to read the old threads that pertain to the diffrant metals. Too many kinds to tell you here in one post. You said you know what copper is but do you know the diffrant kinds/grades of copper? There is Bare Bright,#1,#2,#3 they all pay diffrant and the yard wants them seperated. Don't quote me on these prices I'm using them as examples Bare bright (BB) is 3.00 #1is 2.50 #2 is 2.40 #3(insulated) .95 If you mix them all together you will get the lower price because the yard will have to pay somebody to seperate them out. Aluminum is the same way Sheet,cast, extruted one price if it is clean of all other metals and a lesser price if it has other metals like steel screws in it. A magnet is a scrappers best friend, if you have a peice of metal that the magnet won't stick to take a grinder or a file and scratch the finish if it's yellow it's brass, if it's silver hit it with a grinder if it sparks it's stainless steel (SS) if no sparks then it's most likely aluminum. There's just to much to go into here but I hope this helps a little. When you go to the yard don't be afraid to ask questions but don't be a pain in the neck and ask 100 questions when other people are waiting to sell their scrap.

A couple things to add...Learn to distinguish whether your aluminum is cast, extruded (different alloys), sheet (siding painted/unpainted), because there is a price difference. Also, in regards to having a magnet, don't just rely on a regular magnet (those you use for your fridge pictures, or pulled from a motor), I always carry a neodymium (2 actually stuck together) on my utility knife. You can either A. Buy them on eBay or B. Take them from PC hard drives (the way I prefer). Just be careful when prying them from the nickel plated brackets (save those also!), because you want the magnets to maintain their own nickel cover....otherwise, they'll deteriorate over time. These magnets will allow you to determine pretty quickly if stainless is truly stainless or a lesser grade that a ferrous magnet won't stick to (again, there are different alloys of stainless). Just be caruful with them.....they are VERY strong when you have a bunch together.....and when they pinch if your messing around with them, they don't hold back.....that's just what I've been told.
Oh....1 more thing to learning, I concur With the posts above....Google is your friend when it comes to scrapping!