If you have some extra time on your hands and can locate a lot of free scrap metals, you could use your time to make extra cash by selling these metals to a local scrapyard. Scrap metals are valuable and come in many types. The lowest paying type is steel, while one of the most common highest paying types is copper. If you can find old copper items, you could make a lot of money by selling them; however, it's important to understand how to get the most money for the copper items you have. Here are a few tips to help you with this.
Know That All Copper Is Not The Same
Copper is a strong type of metal that is commonly used to make plumbing pipes, parts, and other types of construction materials. Some of the items made with copper are made with pure copper, which means that nothing else was mixed with the copper when the materials were made. This form of copper is typically worth the most money.
Copper can also be mixed with other types of metals, and this results in products that are made from copper alloys. These items are still valuable, because they contain copper, but they are typically worth less than items made of pure copper. This is primarily because the other materials used in copper alloy products are not worth as much as pure copper.
This one principle can help you get the most for your scrap copper if you know how to separate your scrap copper items.
There Are Three Main Categories
Most scrapyards have several different categories of copper scrap, and each category pays a different rate per pound. The rates on all scrap items can vary daily, weekly, or monthly, and this occurs because scrap metals are commodities. The three main categories of scrap copper are #1 copper (also called clean or pure copper), #2 copper, and insulated copper wire. In addition, there might be other categories as well, but most copper you find will fall into one of these categories.
#1 copper is the purest and cleanest copper you can find. It does not contain any other metals, and it does not have any contaminants on it. Any scrap copper that contains contaminants on it will typically fall into the category of #2 copper. When copper has any type of coating over it, it is considered insulated copper wire. The scrapyard you visit may also have a rate for copper alloys you have.
How To Use This Information To Your Advantage
The best way to get the most money for your scrap copper is to try to sell the majority of it as #1 copper. To do this, you should begin by separating all the copper you have. Keep the clean, pure copper in one pile, and place the other items in another pile. If you have some copper scrap that contains contaminants on it, cut the contaminants off so you can place the good parts in the clean copper pile. Contaminants could be anything found on the copper that is not actually copper.
If you have any insulated copper, remove the insulation from it. You could then sell the copper as clean copper, and you could throw the insulation away. Cutting the insulation off with a knife is one option for removing it. There are also tools called wire strippers you can purchase that are designed for removing the insulation from copper wire.
Spending time sorting and preparing your copper scrap could help you earn more money when you sell it. To learn more about this, or to find out what the going rates are, contact a scrapyard, such as Big Daddy Scrap, today.
