Practically being robbed, any ideas?

Hey all, this is my first post here but I have been lurking for quite a while now. I'm currently doing some scrapping in Helena, MT, and we have one scrap yard. Their prices are reeeeally bad, I'm talking $1.80 per pound for #1 copper bad. The next closest scrap yard is a 2 hr drive, and their prices are about the same or even a little worse after all the gas it takes to get there is paid for. Earlier this month I made a drive to Seattle to visit family and dropped some stuff off there while I had the chance, but I don't get out there often so it's not something I can work into a routine.

Anyone in a similar situation? Any ideas for making the most of this situation?

Thanks!

Consider getting into e-waste. The space needed is greatly reduced, and the payout per pound is at least equal to or more then what you are getting for your bare bright (#1) copper. There are a lot of buyers here from all over, and shipping costs are reasonable depending on the shipping location/rate. I would also recommend introducing yourself in another post as well. If you're not familiar with e-waste then there is a ton of old threads covering a wide range of topics, so sit back, do some reading and here's a warm welcome from TheDude in Ohio...

You are in a unique situation, the yard has to cover there freight costs and the way they can do that is by paying less for there goods.
I would guess that you do not have many Scrappers dumpster diving in your area just kidding,

Depends on what you want to scrap. My situation is similar. The local scrappie is pretty tight with his payouts and not worth even talking to.

I live in the sticks and accumulate copper/brass/higher valued scrap to take in about once a year. It is compact and a ton in a back of a pickup is easy to deal with.

With the lower-valued stuff, like shred, I have been considering a big truck's worth of stuff (50,000lbs or so) and then shopping it out to scrappies who have the self loaders and 20'/40' scrap boxes. Another alternative is to get a price from a trucking firm who would haul it for you to Seattle (or wherever). You might have to hire someone with a machine to load it, but something like an excavator with a thumb would do the job in short order and could punch the bulkier stuff down to size. Another idea for accumulation would be to stuff steel barrels with scrap, processing it with a zipcut to cut bulky stuff down to size. Then when time comes to load, you would have a bunch of barrels to load which would be a lot less messy. Barrels could potentially go on a flatdeck which is easier to find (less costly) than a big trailer with 4' sides.

I can get waste steel barrels from the local Esso bulk plant.

The downside is that you need some room to accumulate the stuff where no one is gonna b*tch about the "mess".

But, as 1956 suggested, you may be in a scrap "heaven" if you can come up with a way to get the volumes to ship cheaply!!

Jon.

Talk to the owner, if you bring in lots of stuff lots of times he may give you better prices. Is he busy? Lots of scrap sitting around? He needs you (hopefully) as much as you need him! LOL Can't hurt to ask...

This may be a weird suggestion, but many people get at least a dollar a pound more. What if you shipped it to someone on the forum? How much can you cram into a large flat rate box? If you can get at least 30 lbs in there, it would cost about 0.50/lb to ship.

look into scrap copper prices on eBay, you'd be surprised but some people pay WAY above copper spot price for craft materials. Even if selling for scrap you can get lucky and get really close to spot.. just a suggestion.
here is a link to a auction that ended. after shipping and fees you still come out at a nice price per pound. roughly 3.40 a pound on this lot of bare bright after shipping and fees, the buyer in this case paid around 4.60 per pound on June 21st
5 Pounds 7 Ounces 1 Bright Shiny Scrap Copper Wire Free Shipping | eBay

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

That's true that it's not entirely the fault of the scrap yard that the prices are low here. I'm sure shipping is fairly costly for them.

I already do e-waste scrapping, that's my favorite for sure. Very easy to ship out, and a nice payment. Plus sometimes I can find something worth reselling on eBay.

I will look into working a deal with the local scrap yard in the meantime, as I do bring them a lot of material quite often, and do some research on the cost effectiveness of shipping (whether by freight, or just seeing how much I can stuff in a flat rate box). I appreciate the help.

Originally Posted by carolinaecycle

look into scrap copper prices on eBay, you'd be surprised but some people pay WAY above copper spot price for craft materials. Even if selling for scrap you can get lucky and get really close to spot.. just a suggestion.
here is a link to a auction that ended. after shipping and fees you still come out at a nice price per pound. roughly 3.40 a pound on this lot of bare bright after shipping and fees, the buyer in this case paid around 4.60 per pound on June 21st
5 Pounds 7 Ounces 1 Bright Shiny Scrap Copper Wire Free Shipping | eBay

Wow, interesting, I didn't realize there was a market for plain old copper outside of scrap! Very cool, I will have to give that a try.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

Talk to the owner, if you bring in lots of stuff lots of times he may give you better prices. Is he busy? Lots of scrap sitting around? He needs you (hopefully) as much as you need him! LOL Can't hurt to ask...

I'd suggest this too.

My scrapmetal dealer asked me years ago. "If you are saving your metal up to ton amounts. Tell us when you have close to a ton or abouts.
Often us scrapmetal dealers sell in 'contracts' of tons. Like 20 tons of copper. If we only have 18 tons of copper, we call around to see if someone else has enough copper to sell to us so we can win the contract.
Because we wouldn't have won that lucritive contract without you, we may pay as much as a $1 extra a Kg (US$0.50 cents a Lb)
We may even make a loss on the metal we buy from you, just so we can make a extra profit on our 18 tons."

So, it might be worth talking to your scrapmetal buyer and letting him know what you have in stock.
With him knowing what you have in stock, its almost the same as him having it in his yard EXCEPT, he didn't have to fork out thousands of dollar$ 2 months ago, to buy it. And he dosn't have to borrow that money ftom the bank and pay intrest on his overdraft either.

The other thing is. If he can cart 20 tons in a truckload and he only has 19 tons. It won't cost him much to carry the extra ton of your copper.