Tips To Help You Make More Money From Scrap Copper

If you are just getting started making money by selling scrap metals to a scrapyard, you might be wondering how to make more money. There are many ways to do this, but one option is to prepare your scrap copper in ways that will result in higher prices. Here are several tips to help you with this.

Remove Copper From Items

A lot of items you may come across could contain copper, and copper is one of the highest-paying scrap metals you can encounter. If you can remove the copper from items before scrapping them, you can sell the copper separately to make more money.

Appliances, for example, often contain copper. If you have an old refrigerator to scrap, you could remove the Freon lines that are attached to it. These are typically made of copper. Any power cords attached to appliances may also contain copper wires inside. In addition, old air conditioners often contain radiators that are made of copper.

After removing the copper from these items, you could sell the items as scrap steel. By separating the two different types of metals, you are likely to earn a lot more money than you would have selling the appliances as is.

Prepare Copper So It Is Clean

Scrapyards typically have different rate for different types of copper. The highest-paying type is often called clean copper, or #1 copper. This form of copper is completely pure. It does not contain any types of contaminants on it, such as paint or solder. If you come across some old copper piping that has solder or something else on it, cut it off. If you remove these parts and separate the clean copper from the contaminated copper, you could sell these items as two different types of copper.

The other type of copper you can sell to a scrapyard is insulated copper. This is copper wire that contains some type of coating on it. A refrigerator cord is a good example of this. You could sell this wire as it is and earn money; however, the scrapyard may pay you a higher rate if you first remove the coating from the wire. This is a time-consuming task, but it could help you increase your profits.

Selling scrap metals is good for the environment and offers a way to make some extra cash. If you would like to learn more about this, contact a scrap metal buyer.