Event Coverage Any of you guys "Dabble" in precious metals? Scrap

brass and copper are near record highs in my neck of the woods. Good time for folks with a pile to clean up. took in about 40 clean radiators last week, 1.80 per pound, slightly over 2k ! And, it went up again this week. Took in about 40 starters, in december they were .05 , got .28 this week. 680LB's, 191 bucks. #1 copper, 343 last week, went up again i believe. Time to clean house if you have a pile.

 

Stopped messing with scrap when I retired over a decade ago. I was a licensed journeyman electrician my whole life, and probably salvaged enough scrap over the years to buy a few cars. Especially towards the end when copper prices were higher than we'd ever seen at the time. Couldn't even guess what #1 bright copper price is today, as I haven't watched it.

 

I usually judge scrap prices by the number of "will buy your junk car for cash" adds on Craigslist and FB market place. Plus the number of truck loads of crushed cars I see going by the house on a given day headed to Portland Oregon. A few years ago I had two different guys by clunkers from me, load them on a tow dolly and head directly to Portland with them. There had to be some serious money in it then to pay 200 for the car and then tow it 170 miles to sell it.

 

Hmmmm, I’ve got 2. 5 gal. buckets of keys filled to over flowing. 3 buckets of brass plumbing.

 

Mr 48, about 6-7 years ago car body's were slightly over 200 a ton. most of my life they have been more like 25 to 75. I did a lot of scrap 30 years ago, cars were free, i had a wrecker, it was a good side job. then...the cool shit you got for free! case of oil in the trunk, new tires bought just before the tranny went south, tools, jacks, etc, the perks of the job. And, not that i was ever a real junk yard, in my younger days of spending too much time at the bar after work there was always a few parts sales, more free money, always cash. So, really its been 30 years since i behaved like that, but the remains of the debris is littering my 47 acres, i want to move, and it needs to go. One of the few times in life when being a procrastinator paid off! Anyway, if you got a pile laying around, its time to haul

 

nochop, here, last week, yellow brass 2.10, red brass 2.35, and i believe it all went up about 15 cents this week

 

I've only got one that I really need to get rid of right now. I've been putting off pulling the engine because I don't have anywhere to stash it. The mini panel van is a 35.00 storage shed that is secure.
It might be time to bag up my beer cans and haul them though.

 

I do not know if it is true or not. Rumors at my work, is that the demo derby guys are buying certain late 90's ford cars, selling the catalytic converters for up to $1000 per each car. Anyone here on the H.A.M.B. currently selling catalytic converters, to fund their car hobby?

 

I have been selling scrap metal for nearly 50 years. Part of my old job was to organize the scrap metals removal from a large organization, mostly obsolete medical and scientific equipment. With my own workshop and scrounging scrap, I reckon I have bought many cars and parts with the proceeds.

 

Seems like every "project car" posted up for sale needs a new radiator. And now a starter and probably an alternator as well as a new wiring harness. Just an observation.

 

Hear a lot of rumblings about catalyst thefts rampant around the country. Meth heads and other low lifes with portable battery saws-all can slice and dice the exhaust pipe and have them in seconds. Fleet vans are popular - like the kind favored by Churches. High clearance, easy in and easy out.

Two numb nuts around here got tagged for stealing about $4000 of fiber optic cable; they probably thought it was copper.

 

I Missouri you got to give a copy of picture ID and your social security number to peddle scrap. I am not willing to do that so they can keep their money.

 

@porknbeaner where I work we don't ask for a s.s. number. Not sure what thats about. The ID is because we have police come to us when things get stolen and they go over the books looking for their suspect. Or they'll ask if we've gotten a particular thing in. With prices up I hope we will get some more Model A and T radiators. Yep, the old stuff is still coming in.

 

Here is has to do with copper theft and taxes. More theft than taxes.

 

They ought to spank those recycling centers taking in cat. Converters from the public. You should have to show proof of origin

 

Here you need a driver's license on file with them to scrap anything except for aluminum cans at the bigger yards that pays the best. Aluminum cans can be brought in by anybody and you get a different slip for those that has no info about you but anything else you have a trail. .

A few years ago we had stuff stolen from us and it turned up in a yard I use and found out they were there 11 times with our stuff. Last time they called us and told us they were back in the yard and they were stalling them because they had the cops enroute. Yep, it turned out to be meth heads. They stoled $35,000 worth of our construction tooling that they had to pay us back for and they got a little over 2 grand for all 11 loads total. Scrap yard gave me back what they had from the last 2 or 3 loads but the other 8-9 loads was gone already.

good news is I have about 3,000 pounds of copper and a rough estimate of 100-120 tons of scrap behind my shed but the bad news is I am working a regular job now and wasn't planning on quitting until next year but that might change.

Yes, the price of cat's are way up but the ones that are bringing the best prices are the ones off of diesel trucks that use the def fluid stuff. Rhodium is at an all time high or was recently I should say. .

 

I've never seen any go for that much but I replaced them on four cars a couple weeks ago that were stolen on one weekend, and one of them was on a church van that was parked 50' from their church.

 

@porknbeaner , theft and taxes are pretty much the same thing, no ?

 

did a quick check and a gd3 cat scrap price from one dealer is paying $800 for them but I did see one sold on ebay for $1600 for the same gd3 recently so that dealer might be lowballing. Most of that dealers prices were ranging from $147-$400 depending on what cat.

Cat thief is up around here too. They are trying to change the laws here and I hope they come up with a better solution than what they are proposing right now. Right now they are trying to change it so the little guys cannot sell cat's unless they are still attached to the car and you scrap the whole car with them on.

 

Brass and copper are high here as well, but aluminum is terrible. Schnitzer was paying nine cents a pound for cookware with Teflon coating, they said they had to grind it off before melting!

If you produce identity documents to sell scrap, is it mandatory to declare the income when filing taxes?
This could be a real concern.

I haven't gotten paid for steel in years, I just bring it in to get rid of it.

I phoned around regarding Catalytic convertors, prices are different for each exact one. The buyer wants sellers to send pictures of the convertors beforehand for quoting on (and probably checking with the cops).

From the title of this thread I assumed the topic was particularly catalysts, as they use precious metals.