Five Common Mistakes That Could Cause You To Make Less When Recycling Scrap Metal
There's big money in scrap metal, but you need to know what you're doing to maximize your profits. Unfortunately, a lot of scrap metal sellers don't come away from the yard with all of the profits that they could have made with a bit of awareness and knowledge.
The following are five mistakes you need to avoid if you want to maximize the amount of money you make when you sell scrap:
Failing to remove solder and brass from copper pipes
If you're in the metal recycling business, you're probably already aware of the fact that copper is one of the most valuable scrap metals out there.
Your copper pipes can be worth more if you remove solder and and brass fittings from it before turning it in. This simple task can qualify your copper pipes as a more valuable grade of copper.
Not knowing how to use a magnet
Magnets are invaluable tools to scrap metal recyclers because they help distinguish ferrous from non-ferrous metals. Non-ferrous metals tend to be worth more than ferrous metals because they are more durable and handle the recycling process a little better.
While ferrous metals are attracted to a magnet, non-ferrous metals are not. Carry a magnet with you when you're hunting for scrap metal and try to find metal parts that don't show any attraction to your magnet because they tend to be more valuable.
Leaving motors mixed in
Motors contain a lot of metal, but they may be worth more whole than they are when broken down and sold as scrap. Scrapping motors separately is a good idea because motors tend to be very heavy and may be payed for separately by the scrap yard for a higher rate than general scrap.
Leaving computer equipment mixed in
Computer parts including motherboards, CUPs, RAM boards, and hard drives should also be separated because they may go for higher rates at the yard than general scrap.
Trying to sort metal after arriving at the yard
Scrap yards tend to be crowded and busy so that they are not the best environment for carrying out tasks that require time and concentration. If you're trying to do your sorting once you reach the scrap yard, you're complicating the sorting task and risking lost profits.
Sorting metal before you arrive means you'll have more time and space to do a thorough job and carefully look through what you have to maximize your profits.
