A lot of people tune in to our weekly reports and we get hundreds of questions about where we learn about our scrap ideas, knowledge, etc…so we wanted to share some different ideas and concepts that we have to find scrap news and piece things together.
There are so many news sources out there so we tend to stick to more of the mainstream stations like Bloomberg, The New York Times or articles by Reuters. These companies/publications have media reporters all over the world and they also contract out news stories to different media outlets as well for more local knowledge.
We also know what NOT to look at and what not to get information from, and that often becomes even more important than knowing where to go to sometimes. We will go over a few different ideas and we will even tell you about ourselves and how we look at a lot of our information and data that we put out about the scrap metals markets and pricing.
Where to Look & Read
Looking up normal news stories on common websites like CNN, Fox News, and going through news feeds like Google and Yahoo will often publish articles about scrap and metal prices. Many of these stories and articles will talk about gas prices, oil markets, steel and other metal demands, and these will help you.
Your Local Scrap Yard
This is always an easy answer because when you are working with one or more local yards on a daily or weekly basis you are able to develop a relationship with the staff and even with the owner. Ask them where they think the prices are going or see what they have seen over the last few months. Because they are completely engaged in the scrap markets daily it makes it so they should be able to guide you.
iScrap App
Well, you have to know that we cannot write an article about knowing where to go for scrap metal information without mentioning ourselves, so we will keep it short. We pride ourselves on doing market research and putting out the best and most useful information that will help you make more money on your scrap. Sometimes we may learn a tip, a piece of news, or another piece of information that will help you longterm to make more money…ok let’s go back to other sources.
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Where Not to Look
We know that we may be blogging right now, but we have been around and are around the scrap metal world daily and tend to get information from larger scrap yards that are buying and selling material and more or less have boots on the ground in the scrap world. We have seen people post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even their own blogs about the scrap metal prices and a lot of that tends to be opinion based information.
With opinions, you get some information, but often times it can be construed one way or another…similar to tuning into different news channels that may be more left or right wing based. Those news channels will give you their ideas that support whatever party that that side with, thus changing how some of the data will be put out there. Like they said with stories, there is their side, your side, and the truth and sorting through all of the different stories to get to the truth tends to be one of the hardest parts.
Be careful when reading or watching YouTube videos on peoples opinions on scrap prices, how to take things apart, or anything else that they like or dislike.
Example on what to look for: Let’s say someone is talking about striping cable and says that they always strip CAT 5/6 cable as well as other data wire for the copper…there is no way that they are telling the truth because it is such a hard task and almost always has to go to a wire chopper or a copper smelter to get the copper out of it correctly.
Where iScrap Gets Its Data/Ideas
Many of your have seen Tom on the Weekly Report videos and read the updates, so we know that you are a little familiar with him. His scrap yard, Rockaway Recycling, has been in the scrap business since 1977 and has connections throughout the Tri-State NYC area which is one of the busier scrap areas in the whole country. Because of that, he has been able to talk to many people who are shredding material, shipping material directly to India, China, Pakistan, and other large nations that are consuming copper, steel, aluminum, and other grades of scrap. Talking to regular overseas and domestic buyers give him an instant “feel,” on the directions of the scrap markets and that is where a large number of his ideas come from.
Online knowledge. There are many publications that have market reports and there is another company called the American Metal Market (AMM) that regularly publishes scrap news, directions of scrap flows, as well as pricing alerts that are predicted in the coming months. This is an expensive subscription and a lot of the data will not apply to the everyday scrapper, but as a scrap yard owner, the data is very important and useful.
