Sealed Bid Camp Shelby

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

But what people here have to understand when people talk about "scrap value" they have to look beyond what the average guy here gets at his local scrap yard. There are several tiers of mark-up in scrap . If a large prcessor is bidding who deals directly with the end user ,you can count on them making at least double what they pay. Now if you figure them selling major componants for cores they make even more than that . The guy hauling in a couple ton of scrap at a time is the bottom of the scrap food chain . If you have 500 ton of scrap you can negotiate at much better price .

EXACTLY !

I worked 13 years ( 1986-1998 ) for a Gray Iron Foundry (end user of scrap). For the first several years there, we bought truckload quantities - 40,000-50,000lbs - at $80/ton ($0.04/Lb), while the local scrap guys were paying $0.015 to $0.020 per pound to the folks bringing in pieces to pick-up loads.

As the EPA and State Environmental laws shut down more and more little scrap yards, our rates climbed to $120-$125 per TON ($0.060-$0.0625/lb) HOWEVER, the local scrap guys didn't pass that increase along to the little guys. (Primarily due to the cost of compliance.)

CONCLUSION: If you want to get a good idea of the value of an MV as scrap, call a nearby foundry or smelter and simply ask them what their buyers are paying for steel and cast iron. Then do the math. Also consider that many melting facilities require that no piece be larger than 12" in any direction (we were able to handle up to 24" cast iron) so there would be considerable prep expense to these scrap buyers also. It's not cheap to shear, torch-cut, or break steel and cast iron down to those sizes in order to fit them into a furnace or cupola. For EPA, scrap must also be DRY and OIL (or petroleum residue) FREE, with absolutely NO contained water pockets (explosion risk).
*** The super-heating expansion of just 1-cup of liquid water "instantly" to 2800F results is an explosive force that would presurize a 55-Gallon drum to 30,000 PSI in less than 5 miliseconds!!! I've seen whole Cat Deisel Engine Blocks thrown 500ft (linear) by these forces. Additionally, with the super-heating, the H2O can break down into its component Hydrogen and Oxygen which, with the nearby high heat immediately ignites the hydrogen cloud (think HINDENBERG Disaster) thanks to the accompanying oxygen-rich environment. And this ALL happens within a fraction of a second because of just a little water going into a super-hot furnace. So, almost simultaneously, you have the expansive forces blowing things around and apart (from UNDER a bath of molten iron) while the gasses are creating a FIREBALL that rivals SATAN's home decorating.

So it all boils down to the simple thought:
"The SALE price of ANYTHING is exactly what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller."

 

[wreckerman893]

My scraper usually pays me a hair more that other folks because I bring him good quaility stuff.

MV's are made of good steel and bring premium prices when you bring in a big load.

It's basic economics......I held on to several thousand pounds of sheet metal parts (ovm boxes, battery boxes, steps, fuel tanks, bracktets, etc.) for a long time and had the devil selling them. I finally got tired of lugging them from rally to rally and scrapped them out when prices for scrapped spiked a while back.

I hated doing it because I occasionally get requests for stuff I scrapped (where were you when I needed you).

On the bright side the scrapping will eventually cause prices to go up for the surviving vehicles.

You can't save them all.