You should be a scrap metal dealer not a scraper

Well I am going to share a little secret with you guys and gals. As some of you know I was a scrap yard owner and this little bit of information should help you get a dealer price for your goods. Now if you don't already know this most yards have a few lets call it teir pricing, so this is how it works the first is cash customer or walkin they are paid the lowest prices because of there low volumes of material or that they just happened to come in once in six mounths, there pricing should be the pricing that is advertised or published on there price list, most yards do have prices posted.



The second pricing is for small scrapers that are regulars, they just do not bring in any real weight of any thing, I think this is the area of most of the scrapers that are here, now is know its hard not to sell every thing you collect in your day I un stand that but let me just say that selling let's say three pounds of number two wire is not going to make or brake your day, so if you did not sell it and you brought it back home a and did that for a couple of weeks now you would have say 30 lbs of number two wire, now I am just using these small numbers to make my point you have to understand that in order to get paid the higher or right price you must bring in weight plain and simple, even being a regular some yards will not pay you more than the posted prices if you do not ask or the scale master feels you are not a important customer meaning you always bring in little amounts of every thing.

The third teir of pricing is called DEALER PRICING and that's where you want to get to, now the way to do that is simple bring in weight now, I am not saying that every dealer brings in lots of weight of every ITEAM but they do bring in good weights of a few ITEAMS. Now if this means that you sell your goods twice a mounth rather than 20 times well that's what you should do. I understand that it might be a little hard to do money wise, but you will have a lot of let's say bargaining power when you go sell your goods it will be a substanchial difference when you are known as a dealer not a scraper, now we are all dealers here it's just the smart ones that capitalize on it. You know I have all was pushed for you to deal with a few yards and that is the BiBle in the scrap game, The easy way to do this is sell if you have to your tin or shred for your cash flow hold your nonferrous metals until you have a good load so that you will be a dealer and not a scraper, I would not sell my tin or shread to the same yard that you sell your nonferrous to, trust me this will propell your bottom line it might be a little tough the first time but once you get that big bank roll togeather there is no looking back. Happy Scraping 1956 I just wanted to post a picture of one load on my flat bed not to boast just to show you how I am a dealer and not a scraper.

Just so you know that is a old phone number

Well there goes my plan to tell you how awesome you are.

Guess I'll just have to say it here...Your awesome 56. Nice to get inside the mind of a former yard owner.

Thanks for the info, not just this post but all the others to.

An folks this is why I don't run to the yard every day. I wait till I have a good size load. Helps I mostly focus on ewaste anyhow, but still! Silly for me to make the drive if I don't have weight.

Sirscrapalot - Saluting 56 with a nice frosty glass of beverage.

Excellent information. I take my non ferrous in monthly and do get higher tiered pricing on select items.

From your experience, as a yard owner, what kind of volumes are they looking for, per category, to get a raise on your items.

Thanks

Well let's just say a dealer should have a good amount of goods, I am not trying to be vague but that's a loaded question if you are talking copper asst grades let's say 300 lbs and up if your total ticket is say 1,500.00 and up you should be able to get the higher prices, keep in mind different yards are stronger on different ITEAMS meaning they might have a order that they need to fill and are will ing to pay you high to help fill there order. I does not hurt to neg for higher prices With in reason, because that's what they do when they book there orders, hope I helped you.

Well the reason for that is because of the high theft rate so all the higher ups could come up with was regulating certain ITEAMS, I wanted to touch on a thing you brought up, being licensed does not get you dealer prices in the scrap yard it's what you bring in. I personally do not do much with e-waste, but I will tell you one thing when the time comes and you want that big account you being not licensed will not help you, one thing that can separate you from the rest is having the words LICENSED AND INSURED ON YOUR BUSINESS STATIONARY AND CARDS, TWO HUNDRED BUCKS NOT SPENT GETTING LICENSED WILL DEFINITELY HELP YOUR COMPETITION just my .02.

Originally Posted by 1956

I would not sell my tin or shread to the same yard that you sell your nonferrous to,

Thanks for the great advice in the post! Could you explain why <not> sell everything to one yard? Doesn't that mean one yard seeing you bringing in more total weight to them (assuming equal pricing between yards).

I don't sell to one yard for a couple reasons. Much as I love my main yard, there is another yard that pays better for a few items.

I prefer variety myself. The not so favorite yard, usually has a higher price on one or two items, so I'll save it up for them, cause I know they pay more for it. My main yard gets just about everything else if it's not ewaste. I use the buyers here an other methods to move things I don't take to the yard.

Just my thoughts on why to use more then one yard.

YMMV

Sirscrapalot - Freeeeeeeeeddoooom! - Braveheart.

I sell 4 tons of shred to my yard every week-should they be paying me dealer pricing?

I wanted to add that for those of you that cant hold on to your scrap for long periods for any reason but you have friends or family that scraps. You can invest in a scale and combine and weigh your stuff together so you "doubled" your weight and may qualify for enough weight to appease a scrap yard's minimums for better pricing . I currently know a yard that is a direct exporter to china for non-ferrous and escrap and has some great prices. I by myself cant satisfy his weight requirements, but with my cousins escrap added to mine we get the best prices in the city for our escrap and we just weigh it mark down our weights make a run to the yard and divy up the cash afterwards. and like the OP said once that big cash starts rolling you are in there like swimwear!

Well just talking about tin shread, there is not the margins that nonferrous metals have but,,,,, they should be able to give you an additional $10.00-$15.00 a ton over the walk in pricing just have to talk to the right person at the yard, the owner if owner operated would be the best person to deal with, and if there is a yard manager there he could justify the higher tier price because of the weight you bring in.

Well the problem with selling every thing to one yard is simple, if I were checking you into my yard just by what you are selling I would know if you were selling me everything you have, now let's forget about the yards that are let's say not so forth coming with market changes, I am going to talk in scrap yard owner manager terms a little, ok I have a strong out for a ITEAM let's say I booked a order for three loads 120,000 lbs of electric motors and because of this order I got a higher price than the current market so in order to fill this order in the time frame I have I could pay more than my competition and make more, so I could put out some filers to the dealers that I need electric motors and this is my price. Now if you become coplaceint and sell every thing to one yard you would not know about this high price, now I am just using this as a example, I might have a strong out for let's say aluminum rims, or the guy on the other side of town needs some harness wire to fill his order, dealing with different yards will give you exposure to all the different prices for the same ITEAM. Let me also say that when a yard knows you are not selling them everything they will pay you the higher prices so that you keep bringing them material. Because they know you know the prices. But you have to have good weights of your material. Or it does not matter to them. The idea of seeing the guys at the scrap yard daily, and thinking that they are treating you good because of your loyalty well you are kidding yourself. Some times they just cannot pay you the higher prices because you will sell it to them anyway. We make our money on the sale of goods, do not become complacent, be informed and do not hesitate to get on the phone and find out that's going on in your neck of the woods. Happy Scraping 1956.

Originally Posted by Montymoose

Thanks for the great advice in the post! Could you explain why <not> sell everything to one yard? Doesn't that mean one yard seeing you bringing in more total weight to them (assuming equal pricing between yards).

The answer to your question is simple Monty, and I'm not saying that sarcastic or being a smart *@#. Both the yard and you are doing it to make money. Obviously scrap yards are on a much larger scale, but anyone who does scrapping even as a hobby, should always try to get the best price on their materials. Regardless of if you're a big or little fish, its all about the bottom line. In my opinion. I frequent a couple different yards and the reason being is that like other people on here, I get better pricing on certain materials at other yards. So, if you're bring in weight of a particular material, then the yard who pays more to begin with should also be the one who offers you the best pricing for bringing in x pounds of (lets say) #1 copper. I mainly deal with e-waste but I'm I also delve in appliances and other other scrap.