You know the expression “one man’s trash is another’s treasure”, right? Well, there’s never been a better example of that than with the concept of making money by selling scrap metal to us at JK Salvage. What you see as waste and nothing other than rusty pieces of varying kinds of metal, we see as valuable. As reputable metal recyclers, we are always looking for metal that we can use for our own purposes. So much so that we even pay for it! In fact, you can make a significant amount of cash just by working with scrap metal!
All metal is potential scrap metal
There’s always a lot of focus on pure silver and gold when it comes to earning some cash, but realistically speaking, you’ll be happy to learn that that’s not all you need to have. In fact, when it comes to a salvage yard such as outs, all metal is potential scrap metal and that makes it as valuable as those fine metals.
- Can collection: You’ve seen the sports teams collecting cans, but before you hand your own redeemable collection over, consider looking at it for its potential. From friends, family coworkers and anyone you can, collect cans yourself and then take them to your favorite metal scrap yard. They’ll offer you a substantial amount if you have enough cans and you’ll find that it really can pay off. If you’re in the mood, you can even start looking along the sides of road to do the same thing!
- Bring in old appliances: Whether they work or not, they’re still valuable. From ringer washers to dryers to fridges and even microwaves, you can get some serious cash value from them. While you will want to makes sure that you have a way to get them to and from a scrapyard without hurting yourself, it’s a great option if you know you’ve got a wide selection of broken appliances just sitting and taking up space!
- Take a look at your storage locker: Most of us are prone to putting half-functioning metal appliances and pieces in a storage locker to get to “later”, but not many of us actually get to the point where later ever comes! When you want to enjoy a little bit of extra cash, really take a look at that storage locker or basement with new eyes so that you can make the best profit possible off everything in there that, realistically, you’ll never fix up.
- Check with friends and family: You’ll also want to take a bit of time to get on touch with friends, family and co-workers to see if they have any scrap metal that they want to get rid of. While this may lead you to have to split the profit with them (or in-kind), it can be great to get your hands on valuable scrap metal.
- The same goes for your neighborhoods, even if they are spread out. Quite often, people will put out scrap appliances on the curb on garbage day. It may be worth your time to take a tour of your neighborhood and grab hold of anything you can move from the curb to your vehicle. Not only will the trash collectors appreciate it, so will the homeowners.
- Ask around at work sites, construction sites, and even stores: Sometimes stores, worksite, and construction sites will have some great scrap metal that is just kicking around and waiting for someone to take it away. Go around to those places that would most likely have them and you may be surprised how much they’ll simply load into your vehicle for you just to simply get rid of it!
Some tips to help make the most bang for your buck
Realistically, construction and commercial sites are filled with tonnes and tonnes of scrap metal. So, why aren’t they all rich and profitable? It takes time and effort to prepare scrap metal for retailers and most commercial sites don’t have enough interest in the profit to make it a priority. Take a look for yourself.
- Separate non-ferrous and ferrous pieces: Before you show up at a scrap yard, you’ll want to at least have the non-ferrous pieces separate from there ferrous pieces. Since the often are picked entirely differently to begin with, this is critical to do yourself to save time and stress.
- Organize all metals: Along those same lines, you’ll also want to organize your various kinds of metals into separate sections as well. Copper, brass steel, etc should also be separated out so that they can be priced easily and conveniently by scrap yards.
- Make sure you focus on clean scrap (or clean it yourself): This refers, of course to extra pieces such as plastic coating over copper wire or attachments to your pieces of brass. While it can be labor-intensive to clean your scrap, this is exactly why commercial sites aren’t profitable when it comes to those scrap pieces.
- Protect your scrap: There are wrong-doers everywhere and scavengers know how to see value in your scrap as much as you do. You’ll want to keep it under lock and key, especially if it’s sorted and cleaned, and make sure that you aren’t leaving it in the open for others to profit off of!
Scrap metal has some serious value to it if you can take the time to find it. When you need some cash that is convenient, safe, and focused on your own sourcing potential, scrap metal could just be your saving grace!
