Cartridge Brass Scrap Prices

[dale2242]

I called 2 local scrap yards yesterday.
I am in southern Oregon.
They both said they will pay $.85 a pound for scrap cartridge brass.
I don`t recall exactly but I think it was over $1.00 this summer.
What is the price scrap yards are paying in your area?
Where are you located?....dale

[nun2kute]

The price of scrap iron just went UP a whopping 10$ a ton to a grand total of 85$ a ton. (No. Utah) I'll check brass prices today and report back later.

[reddog81]

Why are you selling cartridge brass to scrap dealers? Selling the brass to reloaders would net more money.

[Dusty Bannister]

Well, if the OP has a situation similar to me, the brass is corroded, stepped on, split, berdun, junk cartridge brass, worn out and cut off scraps. Not real likely of value for reloaders. If I have brass in a condition that I would not reload, I sure as heck would not sell it to someone else. I would junk it just like the OP. On the other hand, a recent thread did suggest that if you have excess brass, offer it for sale to the forum at scrap prices, as is, and let the buyer clean, sort and inspect for their own use. The survey will have value to many of us if we need the space more than the buckets of brass.

[rondog]

Why are you selling cartridge brass to scrap dealers? Selling the brass to reloaders would net more money.

Takes FAR longer, and there's far more hassles and pain. Scrapyards donxt complain, and you walk out with cash in minutes.

[rondog]

I've sold as high as $1.72/lb, usually around $1.50/lb. Right now it's around $1.30 in Denver area. So I just keep accumulating.

But I AM considering offering a bunch for sale here soon, all deprimed and polished. Have two SPF's for 10mm underway right now.

I figure if I can just get a little more than scrap price, then we'll both be happy. The USPS is the biggest problem for me, though. They love to lose and mangle flat rate boxes full of brass - jerks.

[popper]

Last time I scrapped some( 3 mo), there was a 10% adder for non-ferrous metals.

[Kraschenbirn]

About a year ago, both commercial recyclers here were offering $.60/lb for cartridge brass...and neither would accept it if cases were not deprimed. At the same time, scrapyard about 50 miles north was paying $.95 and didn't care about fired primers so I took what I had up there thinking I might find some wheel weights and, maybe, work a trade. No such luck; he had a couple 55 gal. drums of used WWs but almost all (95%?) Fe or Zn. Since then, haven't bothered picking up anything in a caliber I don't reload. Have heard much the same, from a couple other scroungers I know.

Bill

[rcslotcar]

My local yard won't take empty damaged brass cases. They call it ammunition and refuse it.

[Outpost75]

My local scrap yard pays $1/pound for empty cartridge brass. They dump your bucket onto the tipping floor, and hover an eletromagnet over the pile to remove any ferrous scrap, then do a quick visual to remove any loaded rounds and weigh the rest.

They pay the same for gilding metal jacket material skimmed from melting down range scrap and follow the same drill to remove any clad-steel jackets.

Current prices are based upon American Metal Market "yellow sheet" issued that week.

Prices are down compared to what they were a year or so ago.

[tomme boy]

$1.30-$0.50 here depending on which you go to. A few years ago I was getting $3/lb at the same places. One place would pay #1 copper for the jackets. Now they will not take them as someone else would not sort them for bullets that did not melt out the lead.

[RIHP]

In Rhode Island spent cases go for $1.50 lb for brass and $1.20 for nickel plated they cannot be mixed.
All must be steel and aluminum free.
The yard says the cases cannot be exported and must be sold domestically.
They will not even take aluminum cases for free since they export all aluminum scrap.
That's the story they tell.

[JimB..]

I get about $1.30 in NC, mixed brass and nickel. When I took in sorted buckets, including a bucket of spent primers, they just dumped it all into the same barrel.

[RogerDat]

I collect spent primers and failed brass in a coffee can. I always use a pair of pliers to crush the case mouth when I discard brass. I have no desire to accidentally get failed brass back in my own good brass and I have bought brass from scrap yard before. I would like to avoid someone thinking they are buying my discards as good brass after I take it into scrap yard. Crushed neck leaves no doubts.

With wet polishing my old brass may look a lot newer and better than it is. Hate to have a reloader pay going rate for it only to get home and find it's at end of life. Haven't taken one of those coffee cans back in a while so not current on price. In the past I was getting over a buck a pound.

Some brass is just not valuable enough to sell and ship. Have seen 40 S&W offered for what the scrap yard would pay plus shipping with very slow sale if it sold at all. I think 9mm has similar pricing. There is just so much of it around, and people that shoot it tend to have it in quantity.... so there you go market price at or below scrap value. I think 45 acp tends to be worth a bit more but it too is brass in sufficient supply to depress market price.

Not sure how low the price is on those calibers of pistol brass for reloading but it wasn't enough to make it worth my while to sell a coffee can or two each of 45 acp, 40 S&W, and 9mm. Having the brass in case I ever had need of it to reload was worth more than anyone is paying for it. And I stopped collecting it. Even some of the necked 30 caliber and other common rifle brass is not commanding premium prices. I think a lot of us stocked up as it became available after the past shortage so people are stocked up. Might buy some .308 or .270 or 30-06 if the price is especially good but have a good supply already on hand. Plus enough to not worry about the next shortage or two. :-)

As a side note some scrap yards in the area will also not take brass cases unless they are crushed, as in flat. Another yard down the road would take them. Once walked in and saw about 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket of 38 & 357 brass. Police department had a revolver shoot. I left with a bucket of 38 special and some 357 magnum brass for about $2.70 a pound. Not bad as at the time $3.50 would have been half price of 1x fired 38's and the 357 mag cases were just bonus.

[nun2kute]

0.70$ per lb. - considered "Dirty" Yellow Brass because that's what the buyer calls it.

[Jniedbalski]

I have heard of places not taking primed brass but they do in se mo. Up north in St. Louis they pay more for any scrap metal. I know a local scrap dealer that for 30 or more years has bought scrap metal around here a few cents more a pound than the bigger scrapers and takes a truck load up to St. Louis and makes money doing it.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Last I sold here brought $1.67 a pound. I have tried to sell brass on this site and it goes begging. I am talking about all the magnum cases and as for the orphan 270, forget it. The only brass that sells has to have a rim on it, the bigger the case the better.

[Geezer in NH]

I take a bucket of old brass into my Junk Yard and can leave with 2 buckets of lead as long as I can lift them. Never asked for a price as we get along good.

Good clean lead comes in I get a phone call to come and get it a what they can get for it.

Also drink a couple cold ones with them and eat some peperoni pizza we bring them.

[Patrick L]

I scrap my old brass after it's been loaded too many times, plus all my .22 brass. I also raid the brass buckets at the range. I get approximately a gallon size box maybe twice a year. I take it to the scrap yard along with all of the zinc and steel wheelweights I cull out of the buckets. I usually have 6-7 boxes of wheelweights. I generally get as much for that one box of brass as I do for all the zinc and steel.

[Minerat]

Saw this today might be an option. Don't know anything about it other then they pay $1.40 per pound you pay shipping.

[Misery-Whip]

In my area, western Wa, there are no amazing deals on brass. Free brass is unheard of. Even the timber companies gravel pits used to be littered with brass. Not anymore. The gun range garbage / brass bins are always empy.:(

It all has to be bought even the 9mm and 223. So you fellas who are unable to sell it be paitent, a buyer will find you.

But if its no good, then scrap is the only option. Oh and the price nearest me is $0.65.

[Reverend Al]

Up here in Canada we're getting $1.55 per pound (Canadian) for scrap brass (cracked, squashed, berdan, or ruined cases). I was the volunteer for our local gun club who was running the brass recovery program for 3 years, but our local market has been holding at that price for nearly 5 years now ...

[472x1B/A]

Last time I checked at the nearest scrap yard to me was $.11 per pound. I think about a month ago. 2 or 3 years ago was $2.11 a pound. At an indoor range 12 miles west of me, you can buy 5 gal. buckets of range brass for about $60.00. Works out to a $1.00 a pound.

[lightman]

I usually save my worn out brass and the damaged/unuseable stuff that I find and sell it once a year. Usually in January. I also sell the steel and zinc weights that I get during the year. I have several scrap yards near me and I call around to check prices.

I'll post up whatever I find.

[dale2242]

lightman, That would be great.