My wife piles up scrap metal at the nursery from stuff at the jobs. When she gets a truckload she brings it up to the local metal recycler a couple of miles up the road. She gets between $40 and $140 for the metal. We also recycle aluminum cans. We usually wait till we get around 4 trash bags and bring it up with the other stuff. Recently I've been inclined to pick up the metal from piles, especially if it looks like a good haul. Am I nuts? At first I felt like I was too proud to pick scrap metal but if it brings in some extra coin, what the heck. That's money I could stuff into a slot machine or buy scratch off lottery tickets and hope for a good return. What's the general guru opinion on scrap metal? It doesn't take a lot of time and the return seems to be worth the effort.

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If I had the time I would do it. Rick supplements his income pretty well with scrap from his job at the auto shop. I knew of an old retired guy who scrapped a few hours in the morning every day and brought home $600 a week cash.

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That certainly could offset the pride issue.

We have a number of pickers here so a part time effort would be extremely competitive. But I come across piles that make me want to go grab one of the pick up trucks and load it up. I'm talking just the local stuff. I know some of those guys drive around all over the place looking for a score. Some guys have an inside with a contractor and the super gives them permission to haul off the scrap. That seems like a pretty good gig.

it's also recycling... I do it... it's all good.

Cash is good

Be careful with it. Last winter my niece's husband went to grab a piece of sheet metal that was partly buried in the snow, and it sprung and went right through his glove, severing a tendon in his finger.

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REALLY NICE TRAILER. BET I COULD GET MY ARGO IN THAT.

We pick up scrap stuff out in the fields which are mostly old iron off farm machinery over the years....I have a small but insignificant pile of scrap iron in the shop....

You REALLY need to go drive one of your cars......

Personnaly since you asked... I could care less about pride - money is money - if it's legal (mostly) and I don't get hurt and it pays good.... well, there's obviously boundaries but still...

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Radiators, dash clusters, stereo system replacements, fan control switches, relays, fuel pumps and a host of other parts all cost money. I do drive the cars. I drove the 928 and the 91 this week. I want money. That's what I want.

I told my wife I was going to quit my job, buy a beat up F250, and become a full time scrap collector...that didn't go over too well

Have a whole bunch of copper that I need to take back

should bring some $$$

copper and aluminum do pretty good here...

2 weeks a go #1 copper was $2.85 a pound price is going down, was over $3.00 about 2 months a go