How do people make money from scrap metals

As in any business you got to know prices, where to go with the merchandise and what the demand is for the product. Deals are where you find them, I would go drive to Norfolk and go through the scrapyards and buy stuff I knew I could sell. I would spend about 1000 bucks on the trip, this was in the late 60's In three weeks I could easily triple my money. 5000 riv-nuts for 5 bucks each had a value of about

75 cents each. I discounted them to make a quick profit sold a bag of 50 for 20 bucks. Brand new Klixon circuit breakers bought for 2 bucks sold for 20 and a whole bunch of other stuff. I bid on a lot of MIL surplus stuff too. I bought brand new or overhauled OA 442 vhf amps out of tobehanna army depo for 125 and sold them for 350. I sorta of looked at the scrap dealing as a game something like going to the Casino but with the odds way much more in my favor. Not every buy will work well but the overall tally will be in your favor. I always had a good head for prices and estimating jobs and costs. Igor, you seem to be doing ok on your buys you should have no problem figuring out pricing. For metals there are tables to estimate weights as well as a couple of on line apps that will do it for you by just punching in some numbers. John

What I'm saying is that you'll need storage space of some kind to be in the scrap/salvage biz. I'm not in the "biz" but I do have a certain amount of "rodent of usual acquisition and retention" in my makeup. "Ooh, that could be useful..." I could use that, some day. (For what? I dunno, but some day I will.)

The other thing is recognizing what it is you have found. I've a magnetic clamp for a surface grinder - boss was tossing it and I grabbed it. And a number of other goodies along the years. My problem is, I may recognize something as "valuable" but often don't know where to go to convert it to cash, or other useful items.

I grew up a few blocks south of the North and Wolf intersection. That's the house I am working on.

I know where the Ferrellgas is though. When I was a kid that was a mobbed up nightclub.

Paul K. Dickman

Depends. Over here scrap steel/cast iron value is about 260usd/1000kg.. Electrical cabinets are hazardous waste nowadays, it is costly to get rid of them - scrap yards won't touch them. Of course, copper (wire, pipe etc.) is valuable, but it takes lots of hours of work to separate from rest..

Simple answer: more than 46000kg of scrap iron. :)