Selling Scrap Metal??

[jseals728]

have washer and drier plus assorted metals chain screws and assorted hard ware need to be picked up but want to get some cash out of it

[Badfish740]

Originally Posted by icibiu

We have one of those huge total body gym machines that the previous owner left in our house (at my husbands request ) in almost three years it hasn't been used once and I'm ready to be rid of it. Someone suggusted I sell it for scrap metal and I was wondering if this is worth the hassle it's very very heavy (duh) and it won't fit in my car so I'd either have to go in two cars or ask a neighbor to borrow a truck but I'm not going to bother with all that if all I end up fetching is $25 you know what I mean?

A little context here. The type of metal you are selling (iron, steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, etc...) has a huge effect on prices-some metals are simply worth much more than others. In the early to mid-2000s when China and India began to rapidly industrialize, they began to consume massive amounts of raw materials which drove up demand globally, which caused the price of copper to hit nearly $4.00 per pound, and light steel to hit $0.13-0.14 a pound. Prices have come down now, but the type of metal is still the biggest factor (ie: copper is worth much more than steel). The machine you have is probably not worth more than $25 in scrap because it's what the scrap industry considers "light steel." Light steel is things like exercise machines, large appliances, sheet metal, cars, etc... Different types of steel and possibly some other metals (like the thin copper wiring in the washer or some aluminum trim on car) mixed in as well as non metals mixed in (plastics, fabrics, etc...). Light steel is tossed in a pile and then fed into a huge shredder which shreds the steel into chunks no bigger than 3/4" so that it can be loaded onto railcars for shipment. Basically, this is the most labor intensive type of metal for a scrap yard to process, and it's also the most common and ubiquitous metal, hence the low price.

Copper and aluminum, on the other hand, fetch higher prices because they are easier to handle (truckloads of aluminum wheels from a car can simply be melted down-no crushing or shredding needed), are rarer than steel, and are more expensive to mine, hence the higher price. The reason you hear of copper pipe being stolen out of basements in inner cities is because a crackhead can break into a basement, rip only as much pipe off the wall as he can carry, take it to the scrap yard and sell it for $3.00 a pound, and walk out with $20 cash. The machine that you have, since it's all light steel, is only going to go for about $0.10 a pound or $10 per hundred pounds. I would guess that with all of the weight plates it might weigh 500 pounds, which would net you about $50. I only take light steel to the scrap yard if I have other more valuable metals to bring with me as well like car batteries (the lead plates are recycled), copper pipe, aluminum wheels/gas grill parts, brass fixtures, etc... When I was home during the summer in college I did a lot of scrapping to supplement my income. My parents lived in a town where you could throw out anything on garbage day-no special cans, and no limit on the amount of cans you could put out. At the beginning and end of summer the curbsides would be loaded with gas grills, lawn mowers, beach chairs, patio furniture, and all kinds of other good stuff. That was during the high price years too so I made out pretty well.