How To Sell Your Scrap Metal and Make Some Extra Cash

Salvaging metals can be either a lucrative proposition or an exercise in futility. Many factors play into the profitability, including how difficult it is to dismantle and load the material, and the going rate when you sell it at the yard. In our quick guide to selling scrap, we kept it simple: We chose a tightly packed pallet of obsolete steel shelving that easily loaded onto our truck. But these tips apply no matter what you decide to scrap.

You can use any sort of vehicle to haul scrap to the yard, even a bicycle. Though, for the heavy loads that will make you some more serious cash, we suggest a good sturdy pickup like this GMC Sierra Denali 2500HD, because an open pickup bed allows easy unloading by crane. If you take your scrap in a closed vehicle, like an SUV or hatchback, unloading is on you.

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Next, identify what you’re going to send to scrap. On this trip, we’re loading steel shelves that can only be used on an obsolete store display system, making them the perfect candidate for scrapping. Steel is one of the most common but least lucrative metals you can scrap.

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By contrast, alloys like brass can fetch upward of $1 to $2 per pound. Brass is used in applications requiring low friction—gears, locks, valves, and ammunition. Brass is also used extensively in musical instruments because of its durability and its bright shine when polished.

Copper is one of today’s most-wanted metals. Any yard dealing in metal recycling will accept it, and it returns values of $2 to $4 or more per pound, depending on condition. Copper has such a high value as scrap because the processing required to convert raw copper ore into usable copper is extremely energy intensive. By contrast, recycling used copper is a lossless process, meaning 100 percent of the material is recovered, and the process uses far less energy than using raw ore. You can scrap any copper-containing product, including motors, wiring, and bare copper.

Once you’ve got your material, search terms like “scrap yard” or “metals recycler” on the web to find a buyer. Do your research: Different yards have different specialties and buy different materials. If you know the composition of the material you’re trying to sell for scrap, you can call around to find the best price—buy rates can vary wildly between yards. Our preferred yard, H&H Metals in Inkster, Michigan, accepts most ferrous (iron, steel) and nonferrous (aluminum, brass, copper) metals.

With your scrap material onboard, pull your vehicle onto the marked inbound scale. When the attendant gives you the thumbs-up, that’s the signal that he or she has recorded your weight. Yards use a large, accurate, pressure-sensitive plate to weigh your vehicle loaded and then unloaded when you’re on your way out. The difference in weight is your scrap total.

If you’re selling a ferrous material, such as iron or steel, the yard will unload your vehicle with a mag crane. These incredible machines are large excavators modified to wield a powerful electromagnet. A skilled operator will pluck the material from your vehicle and place it in their ferrous storage pile for later processing. If you’re selling a nonferrous material, it won’t be affected by the magnet, so the yard will unload your truck with a forklift.

Skid steer loaders are the backbone of any high-traffic scrapyard. Their attachments include the versatile claw bucket seen here, extended forks, high-power steel shears and even an electromagnet. The humble skid steer’s adaptability makes it indispensable to any material-handling operation.

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Once the loaders place our shelves in the ferrous storage pile, our scrap will wait to be processed for shipping with other similar material. The yard will either compact the shelves into a standard bale or shred the material into very fine pieces. Either way, the metal will be fed to a blast furnace at an off-site smelter. From there, our scrap could be recycled and processed into any steel product imaginable, from cars to household appliances, to another store shelving unit.

Just like with the inbound scale, you pull forward onto the scale, wait until the attendant gives you an affirmative signal, and then pull forward and park. The attendant inside will give you a weight ticket, showing you your inbound (loaded) weight and your outbound (unloaded) weight, with the difference between the two deciding how much you’ll get paid.

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Some scrap metals, especially copper, have become so valuable that the government is rolling out new security systems to catch those who try to steal scrap. The federal government has begun requiring all people selling material to register in a database that links a photo and description of the material with the seller’s personal information and thumbprint. If the authorities hear about material theft, they can check the local scrapyards electronically to see if it has been sold as scrap anywhere. Remember: You’re legally responsible for anything you sell to the yard.