What this site is
A content-first authority site for the scrap-metal and recycling niche. We track live commodity pricing for the metals most sellers actually move, profile the major buyers, walk through the practical mechanics of grading and prepping each metal, and help readers find reputable yards in their area.
It's built for sellers, scrappers, yard operators, and recycling-center customers — anyone who wants to know what their material is worth before they hit the scale, and who buys from them after.
How the live pricing works
Live pricing on this site is fetched server-side and runs through a deterministic data chain so you can see exactly where every number comes from.
- Copper — primary source is Metals.dev when an API key is configured (LME-stamped spot, USD/lb directly). Falls back to Yahoo Finance's public chart endpoint for the COMEX
HG=Ffutures contract. - Aluminum — primary source is Metals.dev (USD/lb directly). Falls back to Yahoo Finance's
ALI=Fcontract, converted from USD/metric-ton to USD/lb. - Brass — derived from live copper × ~0.62, reflecting typical Cu/Zn alloy mass weighting. Inherits whichever provider was used for copper.
- Stainless steel and prepared steel — currently stub-priced. No free public ticker maps cleanly to scrap stainless; we'll wire Metals.dev's nickel feed (or upgrade to a dedicated stainless source) once it's justified.
Every payload is validated with Zod. If the upstream shape ever changes — or Metals.dev hits a quota or auth error — the affected metal silently falls through to the next source in the chain (Metals.dev → Yahoo → deterministic-jitter stub). The active source is tagged on each snapshot (source: "metals-dev" | "yahoo" | "derived" | "stub") so provenance is visible in DevTools and in the per-metal UI badges.
Discount factors
The numbers shown on this site are scrap payouts, not exchange spot. We apply standard discount factors to map COMEX spot into what a typical yard would pay:
- Copper: spot × 0.92
- Aluminum: spot × 0.70
Local yards quote tighter or wider depending on grade, region, and how full their inventory is. Treat our numbers as a baseline, not a quote.
Refresh cadence
- Server-side fetches are edge-cached for ~60 seconds.
- The browser polls the
/api/pricesroute every ~30 seconds and flashes any value that changed.
All prices are indicative — they are not buy or sell quotes, and we do not transact in metal.
What this site is NOT
We are not a buyer. We are not a yard. We are not affiliated with OmniSource, Weissman's, Schnitzer, SA Recycling, Sims Metal, or any other recycler. Vendor profiles on this site are informational write-ups, not endorsements or partnerships.
We do not collect material, issue payouts, broker shipments, or accept consignments. If a page on this site looks like a vendor we cover, that's a profile, not us.
Sources & disclaimers
- Pricing data: Metals.dev
/v1/latest(primary, when API key is set) and Yahoo Finance public chart endpoint (HG=F,ALI=F) as fallback. No warranty of accuracy. Yahoo can change or remove its public endpoints at any time; Metals.dev's free tier is rate-limited so we cache aggressively. - Editorial: written and maintained in-house. We update pages as the underlying market or grading conventions change.
- Always confirm with your local yard. Live numbers on this page are reference points. Before you load a truck, call ahead — yards quote net of grade, contamination, and current inventory.
Contact
For corrections or feedback, contact [TBD]. We do not collect emails on this site, run a newsletter, or operate user accounts.