Blue-collar detecting paying the bills like nobody business.

tigerbeetle

tigerbeetle

Full Member
Jan 2, 2009
166
275
Jersey Shore
Detector(s) used
Many -- Fisher, White's, Minelab, Cobra, others
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting

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Like all detectorists, I live for the finest finds – and I’ve scored some winners during my nearly 50 years of detecting. But, I now want to offer a video look at what finds are paying for my machines – many times over. This is my most recent load of detected blue-collar metals; pushing 150 pounds. I suspect I’m easily approaching $2,000 in scrap therein – and every single piece was found by my Fisher CZ-3D. I’ve already reached $4,000 in previous sales of my “highly mature” scrap. And there’s nobody doubting I got my metal fair and square. One look says there’s no funny business with this guy’s scrap.
 

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Upvote 10
says video is private. can not watch.
 

It all adds up! After a few years I turned in 30 lbs of bottle caps - lol
 

You aren't going to make to many friends putting a video in your message marked private that people can't watch.
 

I'm not directing referring directly to you, but when people accumulate that much aluminum, copper or silver in such a short time, you really have to wonder, I mean there is not that much "scrap copper" and aluminum just lying around in public places......You gotta love scrap medalists, twice in my life I've had all the copper wiring stripped out of vacant rental property for what I estimate to be about $50 worth of copper.....
On one modern home I had to spend
$3200 for a complete rewire and an additional $1000 plus 10 days repairing and replacing drywall....
Its amazing that these animals do so much, damage, so fast for so little......
 

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Yeah, I have absolutely NO compassion for the idiots you see on the news that are found electrocuted trying to steal electrical wiring. We had a rash of thieving SOB's here after the flood a couple years ago. To me, a thief is no better than a murderer or rapist and should have a little vigilante justice since our justice system seems to give them more rights than we home owners have.
 

That's awesome. I have about 50 pounds of assorted brass and copper that I need to sort. Lot's of people don't think of doing that but the bottom line is it's cash!
Thanks for posting!..HH!
 

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Even iron is worth cash I keep it all to one day cash in only been at it one year and I have a good size box of scrap going
 

Old Dude said:
Yeah, I have absolutely NO compassion for the idiots you see on the news that are found electrocuted trying to steal electrical wiring. We had a rash of thieving SOB's here after the flood a couple years ago. To me, a thief is no better than a murderer or rapist and should have a little vigilante justice since our justice system seems to give them more rights than we home owners have.
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Well said!

sent from a potato...
 

I like to keep like items. I have 5 lbs of pack studs. Almost positive they're copper because they read much better than brass.

Congrats,

Buck
 

I followed the link which took me to a Google sign in. I signed in my account. It said "no videos found". I just ended up going on You Tube and searching Blue Collar Metal detecting... found it.
 

Video played for me. Awesome job on the scrappin', I also scrap wire when I find it (not from MDng though), mostly lengths under a foot I find in the garbage. It took me an entire year to get a 5gal bucket 2/3 filled but I stripped it to get the #1, twisted them to make it compact and got just over $100 for it. Took it in and weighed it and the guy tipped the bucket to see if it was weighted LOL.

Its kinda like a 2nd hobby sitting in the garage sippin on beer with the radio on strippin wire - and it pays too LOL :headbang::headbang: :headbang:
 

I watched the video here on the TNET - worked fine for me. That's quite amazing. And yes, I recognize a lot of those items. I need to do a better job of separating my stuff though. Thanks for the tip!
 

Great work and advice. I've paid for all my detectors by recycling dug scrap. in digging season I average $150-200 per month :) HH to ya!
 

$2,000.oo for 150 pounds. Over $13.oo/pound Is very optimistic to say the least.

New metal prices.

Nickel $ 7.35
Copper $ 3.01
Lead, Zinc, Aluminum about $ 1.00 each
Kitco - Base Metals - Industrial metals - Copper, Aluminum, Nickel, Zinc, Lead - Charts, Prices, Graphs, Quotes, Cu, Ni, Zn, Al, Pb

Scrap dealers need a profit to stay in business, and pay less than that.
I'm sure some are better than others, but this would be "typical"
Scrap Metal Prices Per Pound- Rockaway Recycling

Clean copper is stated at $ 2.65, which would be a very reasonable by price as only 0.36 cents less than new.

And yes I do save copper, brass, lead. When I worked in a machine shop we always saved the brass chips, by the bucket fulls.
 

jeweler21 said:
You aren't going to make to many friends putting a video in your message marked private that people can't watch.
Click to expand...

Today, the video came up fine. Good job!
I used to save everything and sell it, but since getting back into metal detecting, the last year or two I had just been throwing it in the trash. After watching your video, I'll probably start keeping it again.
Thanks for sharing & HH
 

Rick, this video is ONLY my old "canned" stuff, vintage metal, so to speak. I have loads and loads more -- not old, but still found with a detector -- to go to the scrap guy. I recently found over 200 feet of maybe 10- gauge copper wire behind an abandoned garage. By the by, I can quote metal prices in a heartbeat. I'll show the receipt after my next sale. Maybe do a video of taking it in. The boys love looking through my weird stuff.
 

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