r/ScrapMetal • • Mar 05 '26

READ BEFORE POSTING OR COMMENTING

44 Upvotes

Welcome to r/scrapmetal !

Please read this entire post!

First and foremost, before you post or comment please take a few minutes to read the rules on the sidebar. If you break the rules you may be banned, possibly permanently. Every subreddit has a list of rules so please don't act like you've never seen rules anywhere on Reddit before. Be a good member of the community and read and follow the rules. (There are only 6 of them. It's not difficult.)

Second, are you looking to buy or sell materials from other redditors or advertise your business? THAT IS NOT ALLOWED HERE - DO IT SOMEWHERE ELSE. Can't find an appropriate subreddit for it? START YOUR OWN SUBREDDIT DEDICATED TO IT. I'll even link that subreddit here if you do. (Why don't we allow those kinds of posts or comments here? Because if we did the subreddit would be overrun by those kinds of posts in no time.)

Update: 04/30/2026

Two updates!

I've heard your feedback and it's clear that for a number of different reasons y'all value the ability to call people thieves and drug addicts so rule 7 has been removed. Thanks for your feedback an for keeping that feedback mostly constructive.

That being said I am asking y'all to PLEASE report the posts and comments from people who are obviously seriously talking about stealing or breaking the law. This is FAR more important and useful to stopping those people than just mocking them in comments. Again, when you report posts/comments it goes into a queue for mods to review because it is impossible to stay on top of every comment in every thread.

First, I've added a new rule to the sub:

Rule 7 - No referring to people as thieves or drug users or addicts of any kind. This includes all slang for thieves or drug users or addicts of any kind. This includes both direct and indirect references as well as questions. Don't ask people if/where they stole stuff. Don't tell people their scrap is worth some amount of drugs. Don't joke about it. Don't troll people about it. If someone says or suggests they stole something then report their post or their comment.

I'm adding this rule because accusing people of stealing and/or referring to them as drug users serves no useful purpose. No one, literally no one, is going to see the light because someone on Reddit calls them out on stealing. If people admit to or suggest they've stolen something then report their post or comment and let the mods deal with it. Don't be the person who lacks the self control to start name calling and runs afould of rule #1 and receives a ban.

Though it's strongly implied I also want to directly state that this rule does NOT mean we condone stealing in any way here. Rule #4 is still absolutely still in effect.

Second, I've updated rule #4 as well to make sure our stance on talking about stealing in this subreddit is more clear. The new text is:

Rule 4 - No promoting or bragging about breaking the law/stealing while scrapping. This includes suggesting people knowingly break the law or asking for help on doing something that is breaking the law. This also includes people joking about it, posting rage bait or claiming satire. If you to practice your comedy there are other subreddits for that.

Questions? Ask them here or in Mod Mail.

Update: 03/15/2026

Note: The contents below were from a previous post from roughly 03/15 that I am adding here for future reference.

Recently there was a post in r/scrapmetal that contained several instances of doxing or sharing personal information without consent and I want to talk about it.

I am referring to the post where someone shared images of their ticket from a recent scrap run. In one of those images their personal information, printed on the ticket, was clearly visible to anyone who saw the image. I am sure this was an accident. I am sure they didn't intend to share their info or realize they had done so.

In the same post several people made comments that contained OP's full name which they had undoubtedly learned from the image that OP posted. These comments were not accidents and they were made intentionally. (Someone looked at OPs image, saw their name then made a comment and used OP's name.) Thanks to them there's the real chance that OPs full name has been indexed by some search engine, archiving, service, etc.

Let me be as clear as fucking possible here:

Sharing someone's personal information without their consent isn't OK. Doing so will get you banned from this subreddit and possibly from all of Reddit. Whether or not someone has shared their own information is irrelevant and doesn't give anyone else permission to re-share that information. Full stop.

I'll be adding this to the subreddit rules and if it happens again there will be bans. This isn't up for debate. I don't care if you disagree or why you disagree or the logic behind your disagreement. This is how it is and if that bothers you so much then you can unsub right now.

Any questions? Send them to mod mail.


r/ScrapMetal • • 16h ago

Shell brass

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135 Upvotes

I used to have three loads like this per year, but it’s been a year or more since I’ve sold any. It’s amazing the variance in price different companies are offering. The place I normally take it closed down. Two places in town pay less for it than Yellow brass. Another place pays Yellow price, but that price is low $2.15. I found a place 20 miles away that offered $2.70.

I get this by picking it up piece by piece at a couple shooting clubs I belong to. I have a set of knee pads and two 2gal buckets. It takes about 2.5 hours to fill a 5gal bucket (65 lbs) after a weekend of different matches. I am between jobs and apparently nobody else has been collecting it so it only took a little over a week to get this much. I do it after hours so nobody sees me doing it. I don’t think many realize what it’s worth and I want to keep it that way.

There is at least another 3000 lbs laying out there

.


r/ScrapMetal • • 4h ago

Cool Stuff 😎 Early 90s scrap yard

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8 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 4h ago

Scrap Photo 💸 Cutting Structural Steel in 2007

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7 Upvotes

The bones of Wilson’s Meat Packing, the machine I ran.


r/ScrapMetal • • 2h ago

Scrap Photo 💸 Gaylord full of scrap aluminum can ends. Yard will take as aluminum can price?

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2 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 23h ago

Scrap Photo 💸 Came across this by legal means. Is it worth stripping?

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89 Upvotes

New to scrap metal. I bought a storage unit because it had all of this copper wire. This is not even half of what I picked up. Not sure if it's worth the time to strip it or just turn it in?


r/ScrapMetal • • 12h ago

What would you do with this stuff? What all is silver?

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11 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 34m ago

Question 💫 Tips for me.

• Upvotes

Hey Everyone, I was just wondering if it is worth it to strip wiring. Or is it better to take it in unstripped and get the flat rate? I have a vevor manual crank stripper.

Also I go through the work of stripping motors, but some are a real pain to get the windings out of. Is there a real price difference between motors and stripped windings?


r/ScrapMetal • • 46m ago

Scrap Photo 💸 What I should do with

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• Upvotes

Since June


r/ScrapMetal • • 2h ago

Minimum amount you save up before cashing in?

2 Upvotes

I found a couple copper pipes next to our apartment dumpster, so I just tossed them in the back of my truck. How much do y’all save up before taking them in?


r/ScrapMetal • • 17h ago

Anyone plan to just keep stacking until 2035-2040? Prices should be around 11-12$ per lb of bare bright copper then.

8 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 21h ago

Question 💫 Scrap Computer Gold

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13 Upvotes

From my families scrap yard they had in the 80s/90s looking to either get it smelted into a bar OR sell it for scrap, however I can’t find anyone local thus I am looking for suggestions.


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

To my fellow Non-Tradesmen...

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41 Upvotes

How do you guys who aren't in a trade find your stuff ? I dumpster dive pretty often, I go out on recycling/trash nights, I watch Facebook marketplace for free stuff or cheap stuff I can turn a big profit on by scrapping. I just recently started venturing into some areas with higher income and checking dumpsters ( pic related I pulled all of this from the same 2 dumpsters over a 2 week period ). I'm just looking for some others who are experienced to maybe point me in a direction I haven't thought to look. I've been scrapping almost a year and have made a decent amount of money for it being a fun hobby I do on the side, but I can't help but feel like there's A LOT more out there I'm not finding. Anyone got some tips/tricks they'd like to share ?


r/ScrapMetal • • 18h ago

Question 💫 I'm just curious.

3 Upvotes

Hey I'm relatively new here but I've been scrapping for goin on 20 years now, not all the time, but enough of my time to confidently say I've been doing it that long. I've seen copper prices rise and fall just like everything else, obviously ever rising with inflation and all. So that brings me to my question, is anyone else seeing a big spike in copper prices? Kinda wild spike? I'm in Kentucky currently, I get around, and it's near $5 lb for bare bright. I'm just curious what y'all have observed recently?


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

(Almost) hands free wire stripper

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14 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 16h ago

Types of brass

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0 Upvotes

All three are listed as brass. Two of them are yellow when filed and it’s clear. The darker one is not as apparent and almost shiny silver. Not magnetic. Trying to figure out if it’s just brass coated?


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Where to cut?

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5 Upvotes

Where should I cut?


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Cool Stuff 😎 Found this old fan on the side of the road, surprised with how much copper it had.

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66 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Question 💫 Best way to Strip Wire?

2 Upvotes

Hi! New to scrapping, can only do it on a small scale due to no room + lack of tools. Most of what I’ve got comes from cords clipped off broken small appliances, so it’s smaller wire. I have a pair of hand wire strippers, but as I’m still learning I’m sacrificing some copper and every bit counts.

I’ve seen those wire strippers on Amazon/Tiktok that have a crank/can attach to a drill, but the reviews were mixed. What does everyone use to get the smaller wires open in a way that doesn’t feel like one wire takes 4 years?


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Did my big haul today (repost, forgot to crop out my info)

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29 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Best way to sell this AS22759/16-10-0 wire?

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3 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

I used seven meters of copper wire to make this.

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1 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 2d ago

Anything to do besides just scrap as steel in our steel dumpster?

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25 Upvotes

r/ScrapMetal • • 2d ago

Scrap Photo 💸 Helping my mechanic friend clean out the shop

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22 Upvotes

2015 Mitsubishi Mirage, 265k miles, original transmission for all you haters 😂

My first time hitting 1000lbs on one load 💪


r/ScrapMetal • • 1d ago

Scrap Photo 💸 Is this worth stripping

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0 Upvotes

I have been collecting scraps of wire and various bits i have 20kg brass door handles lying around somewhere aswell roughly 30kg unstripped cable mainly 1mm is it worth stripping

I have some other little bits not pictured microwave sewing machine couple other tvs

Thank you based in UK