There is a house I drive past where the owner fills a flat bed trailer with scrap and takes it in. I stopped to give him my phone number and ask him if he sees any lead I'll pay better than the scrap yard.
He tells me he has some and takes me into the garage. Has a handful of battery terminals and two bars of 40 Sn solder. He tells me just take them, he doesn't need any money for it.
Solder is nice, especially for free. I don't pick up battery terminals from scrap yard as a rule. Too little quantity to make a large consistent batch. These terminals will end up in my dross and skimming bucket that builds up and eventually it all gets melted as misc. lead. Say every couple of years I get a 10 pound slab from that metal bucket.
I will stop by his house with a half gallon of apple cider just to say thank you. Maybe all I will get from it was meeting a nice man who gave me a couple of bars of solder for free, maybe he will come across a bunch of lead pipe or flashing or linotype some day. Point is it never hurts to ask and build up your network of folks who might become a source.