You have to pay attention to the market even more with the scrap market’s latest drop-off. While frustrating to most scrappers, scrap yards, processors, and others involved in the industry, we all have one thing in common dropping prices hurt. When the markets are dropping or not performing well what are some good strategies to go about selling, hoarding, or collecting your scrap metal. Below we list some of the best options you have while the market sorts itself out.
1. Stay Informed
One of the most important things to do before you even start to touch your scrap metal is to get informed about the latest scrap market news and stay updated on current prices. Some places you can do that is start with the iScrap App YouTube Channel with Weekly What’s Update videos summarizing the latest trends and changes in the scrap market. You can also follow the iScrap App Blog for the latest news and updated scrap prices every week. If you are looking for more specific information on your regional prices you could always check the iScrap App for updates or you could contact your local yard and see what they are paying.
2. Be Picky With Materials
When the market is hurting it is important to reevaluate what metals and items you collect that are of greater value to you. When the markets are strong you focus effort on getting as much ferrous weight as possible, but when the markets are dropping you focus more effort on collecting valuable metals like copper, brass, stainless steel, or aluminum. Using your scrapping knowledge is good so that you can better define what materials can help you make the maximum payout at the scrap yard.
Suggested Reading: Top 25 Most Common Scrap Metals
3. Be Patient
While we would all like the markets to continually rise things happen in the economy that plays into the factors of scrap metal pricing and we have to be patient and wait it out. We don’t like waiting around to hear the news either but being patient during rough market times is a good time to work on some other projects or catch up on your marketing for you scrap metal pickup services.
4. Take Time, To Take Apart
While you’re being patient (we know it’s hard!), you can take a look at what materials or items you have already collected and start to take them apart. There are some great advantages of taking apart some items like computers, motherboards, electric motors, and other appliances for metals like copper, aluminum, transformers, brass, and more.
Suggested Reading: Rating Scrap Items To Take Apart
5. Start Hoarding
A very common strategy for scrappers when the market is crashing is to hoard your materials and wait for the prices to get back up to a decent selling price. While the idea is easy you could be risking more by hoarding everything if you don’t have the room or the security to prevent others from stealing your scrap. You also are hoping that the market soon returns to better pricing but if you land up hoarding a large amount of scrap to only find out that the prices didn’t recover at all, you could lose a lot of money. So hoard wisely and make sure you have the right situation so you don’t lose your scrap or money.
Suggested Reading: Scrap Metal Thieves Give Industry A Bad Name
6. Sell NOW!
The complete opposite of hoarding is to sell you scrap metal NOW while the markets are still at consistent levels. If you hear rumors that the markets are only going to continue to fall it may be in your best interest to sell now if you don’t have room to store your materials. Check with your scrap yard on a daily basis and see where their prices are going. If they are dropping and dropping fast, it could be worth selling what you have now.
None of us in the industry look forward to the off-season or market drops, it is something that we have to deal with as a part of the whole picture. With these different strategies, you can take a step back and really get a sense for the best solution to your situation. Be sure to check back with the iScrap App for the latest market news as we get it updated.
What do you do when markets are dropping?
