If you are interested in making money out of trash, consider collecting and selling scrap metals. However, don’t expect things to be as easy as picking trash scattered around and going to a shop to sell it. There are things you need to know and steps you have to undertake.
You can easily find a scrap yard in Dudley or other towns, but it won’t be a walk in the park. For one, metals aren’t light things you can grab and carry around. If your goal is to earn as much cash as possible, you will have to collect as many scraps as you can possibly get. Also, take note of the following points.
Choosing the right metals
Before you head out and gather scrap metals to sell, you need to know that non-magnetic metals tend to cost higher compared to magnetic ones. As such, you need to equip yourself with a magnet. It does not have to be a brand-new bar or U magnet. You can take them from refrigerator magnets and old speakers or earphones. What’s important is that you can determine if a metal is magnetic or not.
Copper, lead, brass, and aluminium usually fetch prices at the higher end of the spectrum. This does not mean, though, that you need to ignore others. If you encounter large magnetic items, you can still make good cash out of them. The price of stainless steel, for example, can be similar to that of aluminium. You may also find discarded motors (made of magnetic metals) that you can sell for a decent price because of their overall weight.
In addition to choosing the right metal, it’s also advisable to target high-quality ones. Target bright copper wire, heavy copper, high-grade PVC wire, braziery copper, and copper tanks as they usually have higher prices. The better their condition is, the higher their buying price will be.
Cleaning and sorting
To maximum the cash you can get from selling scrap metals, it is also recommended cleaning and grouping them. Make sure that there are no non-metal objects attached to your scraps before they are weighed. At the same time, group metals of the same type and quality together. These cleaning and sorting steps are necessary as metal buying companies tend to price scraps based on the prevailing prices of the cheaper or lower quality metal in the mix. Hence, if you have heavy copper together with aluminium cable with copper, the price that will likely be set is the one used for the aluminium cable with copper.
This practice is not necessarily greed on the part of the scrap metal buyers. You can’t expect them to offer favourable rates when they have to go through the cleaning and sorting themselves. They are running a business after all. If you want to get the best prices, make sure you clean and sort.
It pays to know which metals fetch the best prices if you want to do junk metal collecting and selling. It is likewise beneficial if you try to understand how the business works. It can be a good business to start.
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