I apologize for the long response, but hopefully this will help other members.
You have received some great advice here, things I cannot disagree with. First each individual and business has unique situations and a one size fits all does not work. Example - turning your money to make more money works for most people, but not myself. I have the room to stock pile, the time to break things down, and reinvest my scrap money in more tools or toys. Therefore I use income averaging (advice given above) in the stock market, in scrap I am trying to time the market. As far as when the market will return, I am prepared to sit on non-ferrous for ten years, #1 steel for five years, #2 for five years, unprepared for two years and tin or shred goes in right away. This is based on twenty year cycles for oil which scrap has followed. If you cannot make this type of commitment, I would not try to time the market.
My timeline is prefaced by an additional factor. I have told my yard if they need to fulfill a contract and need help, I will negotiate a fair price. I am sitting on tons of steel and they know I can haul 30 + tons per week. That is my answer to your question about two different prices for the same item. I expect a better price because of the volume I can provide, the fact they can unload it directly from my trailer to a gondola with minimum investment, and my repeat business.
Your question about Britain leads to more questions. How will the presidential race, oil prices, Isis, terrorists, social security, stock market, etc. impact prices. As far as weight sheets, I will not deal with a yard that does not provide one before I leave the property. All of the yards I deal with not only provide a weight sheet, but also a check before I leave the property. The idea that a yard will strip wire for me for free is a new concept. Why would they invest the manpower to give me more money?
In summary, my advice would be to go to the yard and visit with them. The smartest thing I did was go to different yards and asked questions of the manager, foreman of the nonferrous warehouse, and the foreman of the steel yard. If you play stupid they will be more than willing to share their expertise. Then I asked for business prices. This built strong relationships that created situations where a load of tin/shred was called to the office as #2 prepared and when I went to the office the manager provided $ 5.00 per ton more than my business price. If you approach it as a metal broker instead of a scrapper you will see a different attitude from the yards. Remember scrap yards cannot survive without the scrapper and scrappers cannot survive without the yard. Good luck.
Bookmarks