Is it worth it?

Is it worth it to save copper scrap found MD'ing...will dealers still buy it?

  • No, GC, might as well through it away

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  • Maybe, if you find the right deler

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  • Yes, you'll rake in the money :)

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  • Total voters
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If you have the room to store it until you sell it.
There have been a lot of burglaries at construction sites on the news lately. The crooks are stealing copper pipe and then selling it out of state. I don't know why they have to sell it out of state unless some states are paying more for it. ???
 

Most likely it can be traced. The company's that buy it keep records of whom they buy from and how much.Hence there reason for selling out of State. But,yes cooper is a good turn in item to sell if it is legit.
Mike
 

Just be sure you "find" it MDing and not just take it because it's easy to take. Two guys just got arrested in Tulsa last week for stealing copper out of the City streetlights! Theft of copper is a seperate felony as opposed to just larceny in Oklahoma. I think the law goes back to WWII when copper was needed so bad by the troops.I don't know about you but it would take a hundred years for me to find enough copper MDing to make a profit from it. Monty
 

my brother is a plumber and makes an extra $1000 a month hauling off his scrap copper and turning it in. its well worth it.
 

I hope its worth it...I've been saving all my copper, brass and lead to scrap out, haven;t brought it in to sell yet but am sure it will be worthwhile....metals are scrap priced VERY high right now...do know they grade it out so you probably won;t get #1 value prices for it, but #2 is still high and well worth saving....besides, you're digging it up and carting it away, might as well save it and get something for it if you can...:)
 

Copper is definitely worth saving. I think if you bring a few pounds of mixed copper that has obviously been in the ground to a scrap dealer they won't even blink. They DO watch for large amounts of clean machining waste, though. And statues of Abraham Lincoln. The statue in Wilkinsburg, PA has been stolen several times, but no scrap dealer will touch it, so it always comes home.
 

ok. i'll save it

HH
-GC
 

about 15 yrs ago sold a 5 gallon bucket full of # 1 copper for $ 91.00...about 1996 sold alot of # 1 at $ .81 a pound at i think we got .47 a pound on the #2....i would imagine it has gone up a bit since....well worth bothering with.....gldhntr
 

I learned an expensive lesson when I took about half of the old copper found under my house to the recycling center. It's all considered scrap if you leave the fittings attached!
 

today copper closed at $3.08/pd.....worth saving? I;d say so...:):)
 

Mainedigger said:
today copper closed at $3.08/pd.....worth saving? I;d say so...:):)

great info!

HH
-GC
 

It sure is worth saving/selling. A couple of years ago I stocked up on several 250' rolls of #12/2 with ground electric cable, for jobs. I got a great deal on it. Normally was selling for close to $30.00 a roll and I got it for under $20.00 per roll. I was in the building supply store just yesterday and noticed there was no price stickers on the electric wire. I assumed the price was changing to often, so I asked what the price was today and was told it had just came down to about $96.00.
They have been stealing it all over this area and peddling it also. I also do plumbing and checked the price on copper pipe and fittings. WOW! out of site.
 

in 1986 while working as an electrician in daytona we had a theft....we were wiring new apartment complex..we had done 4 buildings and were just starting the fifth..came in on a monday and the theives had over 2 days taken out all the wire it had taken us near a month to install in all four buildings....they also stole our scrap pile that was to be used for an after the job party...even went as far as cutting out the copper fittings from the plastic plumbing pipes.....as hard as they had to work to accomplish all this they may as well had a full time job....... i also heard on the radio about theives stopping in broad daylight over several days along the median wall in charlotte on i-85 and stripping several miles of wire from the streetlights down the middle of the highway.....brazen..........and again, worked so hard they might as well fill out applications.................gldhntr
 

Many years ago, my parent's house burned down and I went in and cut, jerked and stripped all the copper wiring out of it. I took a whole pickup bed full of wire home, set it on fire and burned the plastic off. Two things happened.

1. I was paid a visit by the local authorities for burning in city limits without a permit ($50.00) fine and had to extinguish the left-over blaze.

2. When I finally get all the plastic stripped off, I haul it to the salvage yard and the worker tells me he can't take it because it's been burned? I finally get the owner, and he agreed to take the stuff off my hands "just this one time."

I think the plastic has to be stripped off and not burned off? That's my one and only experience dealing with copper. I don't know a whole lot about it - it was too much trouble for me...

Good Luck, Tim
 

Thanks everybody!

HH
-GC
 

I've been saving the wires from lamps,appliances,and even broken Christmas lights for the copper. I just started doing this last month but was wondering if anyone knew how to strip the plastic off of the copper wire. I'd like to be able to weigh the copper wire before taking it to the scrap yard.

How do you strip wire ???
 

Pennyworth, if you and I invent a wire stripper I think we would get rich.
 

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