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I tried to sell a 5 gal. bucket of flyback transformers at my non-ferrous yard about six weeks ago. I had never tried before, so it was the first time for this item for me. The man on the scale said we don't buy them anymore! Last week I wanted to talk to the manager about a large load of cast aluminum that I want to sell. I called him said I was going to stop buy show him some of the cast parts, I decided to bring a flyback transformer and ask about them again. Felix (manager) gave me a good price on the cast, but acted like he didn't know what a flyback transformer was! He told me to cut it in two places (half & quartered), so he could see "cross sections" of contents of the transformer. I will do this on my band-saw, curious now myself to see just how much copper. I know he knows what a flyback transformer is, he been in the business too long, not to. I know it's a bad market for all of us, the yards have really low margins right now, items with low base metal content, just not worth it right now!
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The yard I use is pretty good on prices on alot of things, are 7 minutes from me, and are friendly, but they don't accept e-waste at all. I don't have alot of volume yet, I just pick things up here and there. They give me 7c/lb for transformers as Copper Bearing (i took in a 5 lb transformer from a cheap component stereo, but would have needed a cut-off tool to break down), and 4.25c/lb on shred steel. Which makes me curious about if I should break down some of my transformers (I like to pull small ones off boards too, simple grip, twist, pull) into #2 copper and ferrite (I'm building up buckets of both). I haven't taken any wire in yet, but I have taken in copper sheet ( $1.61/lb) and copper pipe w/solder ($1.78/lb). I'm thinking the transformers that un-spool easily would be worth it, but the ones that have all that tape wrapped around it.. leave as copper bearing. Given these circumstances, what do you all think I should do with flybacks, and transformers in general?
