Metal Values

[Farbin Kaiber]

OK, I won't call...

[Jonathan M3]

I had a customer (Sheriff) that caught 3 guys in a pickup truck going into undeveloped neighborhoods where paving, curbs, and lightposts are in but no houses. These guys would go up to a light pole, open the access panel, hook the cable to a connector on their bumper tow hitch and drive down the street at night pulling massive ammounts of copper. They then got caught again with a uhaul full of it outside of city limits having a bonfire to burn off the insulation... they got prison terms last I heard.

Thats been going on here too. On the construction sites I'm on, they have gotten desperate enough that they are stealing the wiring for the lights off of 18 wheeler trailers that stay on site.

[marakka]

Whats brass going for now a days?

[mrsuburban]

I think Brass here is about a dollar a pound. It seems everone is about the same here. I know theres parts of the country that pay more though.

Wire theft is definatly on the rise. Reminds me of why victoria secret has to rip thier posters now. Supposedly there was two people dumpster diving and someone got stabbed. A good heidi cum poster gets almost $200 on ebay.

[Rigmaster]

A good heidi cum poster gets almost $200 on ebay.

Is she a new porn star?? Never heard of her, but with that name, she must be.


;)

[Farbin Kaiber]

Klum

[GaryE30]

Yeah, I've heard about all this crazy metal recycling stuff. I stole a few catalytic converters for the platinum ! :)

jk

[Farbin Kaiber]

I had an MPV come into the shop with an exhaust leak... got under the car, sawzall blade still half way thru the exhaust pipe, cat converter MIA...

[Jscotty]

Copper is all the rage in New Orleans too. When I was out there last month, several commerical buildings were being gutted and renovated and there were people who were rummaging through dumpters to get the old service entrance cable.

I think that cast iron and wrought iron is relatively valueable. We were gutting out one of my rental properties that was built circa 1950. It had this HUGE cast iron sink in the kitchen that took 4 of us to carry out to the curb. By the next morning that sink was GONE.

I don't know what it was worth but whoever took it did me a favor!

[PiercedE30]

When I was working industrial construction down in Port Lavaca, TX at Formosa, one of my buddies saw this 1/2 ton truck LOADED down with some of the industrial sized copper wire. This stuff is probably about 1-2" thick and in various lengths. My buddy got paid like 2000 by the construction company that we worked for for turning the guys in. Back then copper was going for like 3.50 a pound.

[Rigmaster]

Klum

No, he typed Cum, you know, that stuff that's always dribbling out of your asshole and through your lips....



;)

[rThor432]

We've had 16 catalytic converters stolen from vehicles around the shop. Only two of my dad's were stolen. The shops on either side of us have a bunch of new diesel trucks, and apparently their cats are worth a lot.

Nobody has touched my E30 or E24 that have been sitting outside for the past 5 months or so. So far they have made a good decision in staying away from my shit.

So yes, idiots steal metal for scrap.

I actually had some random guy show up with a roll back offering to buy my '89 and '87 E30's. Said he parted and scrapped cars as a hobby.. Sold him my stripped '89 for $250. That car couldnt have weighed more than 1000 pounds.

I've got a few busted radiators, oil pans, and bent bottle caps. Is aluminum really worth the effort of taking it to a scrapper?

[Rigmaster]

We've had 16 catalytic converters stolen from vehicles around the shop. Only two of my dad's were stolen. The shops on either side of us have a bunch of new diesel trucks, and apparently their cats are worth a lot.

Nobody has touched my E30 or E24 that have been sitting outside for the past 5 months or so. So far they have made a good decision in staying away from my shit.

So yes, idiots steal metal for scrap.

I actually had some random guy show up with a roll back offering to buy my '89 and '87 E30's. Said he parted and scrapped cars as a hobby.. Sold him my stripped '89 for $250. That car couldnt have weighed more than 1000 pounds.

I've got a few busted radiators, oil pans, and bent bottle caps. Is aluminum really worth the effort of taking it to a scrapper?

Stealing catalytic converters has been in the news alot in the past 1-2 years. I don't think they are stealing the diesel cats because they're worth alot, it's probably because they're easy to get to- just shimmy under the truck with a battery-powered sawzall and go to work. The cats on your E30 and E24 are worth ALOT more than anything else around- unless you've got some Ferrari's sitting outside at night..... ;)

Aluminum is DEFINITELY worth selling for scrap. Around here, aluminum wheels are worth ~0.90 cents per lb, so a bottlecap is probably worth ~$13-14 in scrap alone... Funny thing is, the price per lb of oil pans and other quality aluminum is not usually as high as for wheels. Rads are definitely worth taking too. If you want to get top dollar for them, take a BFH and knock the plastic end caps off, and knock off anything that is not aluminum. You'll get the "clean" aluminum rad price vs. the "dirty" aluminum price- dirty basically means contaminated with other stuff- plastic, steel, etc.

Check the yellow pages for "scrap metal" or "metal recycling"- it pays to call around to make sure you get the best price, prices change daily at some places- most change at least weekly.



Bret.

[rThor432]

Yeah the diesels are a prime target for that reason. And the cuts are clean, so electric sawzalls it is.

I already removed all of the plastic from the radiators. They are pretty much ready to go whenever I have some time. There are two scrappers within a mile of the shop, so it's just a matter of me having nothing better to do.

[Jscotty]

Ok. That settles it- I am going to sawzall my parts car down piece by piece chunk by chunk. Forget the rollback guy. I am going to cart my E30 to the scrap dealer in the back of my pickup.