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Selling scrap brass


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I went today to the metal scrap yard to sell about 100 lbs.of scrap brass,only to find out I need a permit from my local Sherrif dept.to sell it,,what next...

Is it that way every where???????

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seems a little odd to me.

any other place you can take the brass?

I think they were looking for an excuse to not deal with you.

here in baltimore, we have a problem with characters called 'ants'

they strip metal (wiring and plumbing) from vacant houses.

as far as I know there are no "see the sheriff first" rules here

and I can see the need for something like that.

so you may be looking at a non-written rule.

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In my trade, (Plumbing & Heating) I save my scrap. My scrap guy comes to the house with a truck, scale and check book. No permits needed.

Thanks for posting this. It reminds me I need to call him before snow comes. Probably have $700 out there now ;)

do I get sales com.for reminding you.

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In my trade, (Plumbing & Heating) I save my scrap. My scrap guy comes to the house with a truck, scale and check book. No permits needed.

Thanks for posting this. It reminds me I need to call him before snow comes. Probably have $700 out there now ;)

do I get sales com.for reminding you.

It all goes to the Corgi Eddie. He claims it is in his yard so the cash is his. If you want to talk to him, no problem :goof:

Edited by Round_Gun_Shooter
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good one Gary,I pass..

anyway--here in SC,,to sell brass,you must call sheriff dept.to get a 48 hour permit to sell brass,copper,unless you are a contractor,,or have state permit..so I called and they gave me a number to take to the scrap yard.I went gave them the number and sold all of it,,at $.60 per pound..all done,,it is a state law in SC..,,so said the sheriff dept

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About $2.15 in the the Denver market when I went in June.

Shop around. I found a huge difference in what salvage yards would pay.

The largest, Western Metals would NOT accept any cartridge brass for "fear of a live round".

Due to meth-heads & tweakers stealing copper pipes and wire and even bronze statues, the city passed a law several years ago that you must show a Photo ID when scrapping any "nonferrous metals". So a kid saving aluminum cans needs an ID to recycle them for a few bucks....

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Most scrap yards that buy brass will low ball you because they have to send it to a yard that has a "Popper", or a pressure tank smelter that they put the brass in to cook off any live rounds before it gets melted down. There are only a couple in the nation, or so I was told by the gal that runs the one in my area....

DougC

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I am in the Kansas City area and I take my .22 brass to a place on Prospect. The first time I went they took my drivers license and issued me a card. They pay about 20% less for firearm brass than standard brass. I assumed the card was to keep an eye on suspicious transactions like air conditioners ect. Thats interesting about the "Popper", I know I have probably got a few duds mixed in with the brass.

Edited by toothguy
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Having to show ID does slow copper thieves down to an extent, or at least make it easier to catch and prosecute them. They will destroy a $5,000 heat/air unit to get $100 worth of copper. And strip houses of wire, etc. The higher scrap prices get, the worse it gets. Once again we have to pay and/or are inconvenienced because of thieves.

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China is buying pretty much all the brass (Copper is really what it is after) it can get it's grubby hands on. Once brass is melted in 225lb ingots, no one knows where it came from. You can recover copper from brass by processing it with Nitric or Sulphuric acids, essentially the same as extracting the metal ore from the rocks, expensive but possible. Copper, Zinc and Tin (therefore Brass and Bronze) are cheaper to recycle than to dig out of the ground in the first place.

Copper especially. So extracting the copper is becoming more attractive as the price of virgin metal goes up, so does the cost of recycled materials, recycled copper is aprox 90% the price of virgin, and needs less energy to extract and it is already closer to it's likely market place.

The main idea of requiring ID is to prevent theft of non ferrous metals. We have the same problem here and some less moral dealers are not doing their part.

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