Record Scrap Metal Prices Making Junk Valuable

SEBRING - A constant stream of men and women -- most driving dinged-up pickups with scarred hands and broken fingernails -- drove onto the scales Monday at Jim's Auto Salvage's scrap metal division.

They sold car batteries, major appliances, metal poles, air conditioners and even a 240-pound metal garage door.

The trucks were carrying mostly junk - items useless to most - but valuable as scrap metal destined for recycling.

A sign out front read that Jim's buys brass, batteries, copper and aluminum. The scrap metal yard does not accept propane tanks or fencing.

Scrap metal sale prices are at an all-time high. Jim's pays $7 for 100 pounds of scrap metal. Automobiles sell for $8 per 100 pounds.

Cars typically weigh from 2,500 to 3,500 pounds each, and command from $200 to $280, whether they run or not. A clothing washer regularly is worth $8 to $10, depending on weight. A car battery fetches $5.

Dale Reed, manager at Jim's, said the price paid for a scrap clothes dryer and abandoned lawn mowers jumped more than 400 percent during the past four years. Reed said the number of trucks hitting the scales has doubled in just a couple of years.

Tristan Heiss runs his own salvage business and pocketed a check Monday from Jim's. He attributed the boom to the increased price for gasoline, food and the current real estate market, combined with historic highs for scrap metal rates.

""Every time you look, you see pickup trucks full of junk," said Heiss. "People are hungry and picking up junk off the side of the road - you can't blame them."

Reed was busy writing checks and monitoring the scales, but still seemed amazed when he said "trash steel has real value."

"They clean up the sides of the roads," said Reed. "They even go through people's garbage. They're making it cleaner and keeping the landfills from filling with steel.

"Instead of paying at the dump (to discard), at least you get something for it."

Even with an increase of competitors, Heiss said the business can still be lucrative.

"It's hard work, dirty work, but honest work and I'm self-employed."
Heiss noted he has more motivation than just the bottom line.

"I'm a tree hugging environmentalist," he said.

Ara Nett, of Sebring, sold three bags of aluminum soda cans to Jim's on Monday. Six weeks of collecting from neighbors and personal use produced 12 pounds of aluminum. A pound of aluminum is worth 60 cents, and Nett sold 12 pounds for more than $7.

Stealing scrap is always a possibility and Reed said Jim's requires customers selling cars to produce a title and show a driver's license.

"For anything that's suspicious, we ask for IDs to protect ourselves," said Reed.

Lt. Bruce Crum, of the Sebring Police Department, said there has been an increase over the years in the theft of steel. He pointed to an April 23 theft of a three-ton air conditioner from the Democratic Headquarters on the Sebring Parkway as a possible scrap sale.