Scrap prices Vs Sale Prices

I was told that scrap price on a car is $500.00 at a local yard. The 1985 Ford in the driveway needs a brake line and may bring $500.00 if the right tire kicker stops by. The car could have been on the Hershey show field Saturday, anyone else look at cars this way? :confused:

I think the scrap price declined slightly along with the gallon price of go juice but at its peak plain steel was up to 15 cents per pound, that translates to $600 on a two ton car. you can't get close to that at a car junkyard. You're supposed to drain all fluids and remove tires but some yards take them as is. It cracks me up to see the ads offering to remove scrap cars for you for free or a slight charge. you can get more if you remove the converter and battery and sell them separately. Like the $700 per car pollution credits of a few years ago it will have a serious impact on future collector car availability.

There is a auto junk yard near the campground where we stay for the Bristol races, and the meet that was held in Bristol, near Bluff City, TN.

In March there were quite a few antique vehicles, many in restorable shape.

When we went back by there in August there was a crusher sitting by the road and they had cleared out a lot of the vehicles. It looked like they might be trying to save the older ones.

So if anyone is close by there interested let me know and I will forward directions on how to find the place.

I recently junked a 1994 Olds in Los Angeles. The sedan had a blown engine, the junk yard paid me $400 and towed away the car at no charge

At the moment, California is giving up to $1,500.00 for junkers. My daughter just turned in a Daewoo for that amount!

At the moment, California is giving up to $1,500.00 for junkers. My daughter just turned in a Daewoo for that amount!

This is incredible. Do they have some kind of state sponsored subsidy? When California is broke? Or why are they paying 3X what they are worth?

This is incredible. Do they have some kind of state sponsored subsidy? When California is broke? Or why are they paying 3X what they are worth?

I have not figured that one out, yet.

My experience was when I bought a new Ford F150.

Last Xmas the deals were such that Ford gave me 3500 for my 1994 GMC truck under a Cash for Clinkers Program. With almost 200,000 miles, needing a valve job (V6) and with wheel well and cab corner body work it was time to let her go. I would have been lucky to get 400 bucks on the open market.

Hope I get my monies work on the new one!

Thanks for the above info, looks like the '85 will get cubed if that $500. if that is the real scrap value. Sure beats the cost of trying to sell it.

Sometimes it's just not worth the hassle of advertising if you can get a price from a wrecking yard you're happy with.

Last year I bought a 96 Ford Explorer for the 5.0L engine, it took me some time to get around to stripping it. I cut the front end off, pulled the engine, rearend & tires, took it to the scrap yard and got $330.00, then sold the rims and tires for $125.00. I bought the thing for $250.00......

I keep resisting the urge to take all the metal car parts I get so tired of hauling back and forth to Hershey and Macungie to the scrap yard and just be done with the whole thing. That would be the smart thing to do as I'm no spring chicken or even a summer chicken, more like a late fall / early winter variety. My wife would be happy but if we all did that what would be left for the younguns?

Maybe you could just donate the parts to a youngun of the really spring chicken type and make their day and your day with the look on their face of pure joy?

Ron

Around the North Dallas area - the two local yards crush any and everything that is over 10 years old. They give $300.00 for it and the title and put directly into the crusher - no parts - no exceptions to the age. They do not even pull the wheels and tires unless it is a new set.

There is a metal smelter south of Dallas and they are melting then as fast as they can. Seems that all that flammable stuff cuts down on the electricity they need to melt everything. They have taps that draw off the various metals like steel, copper and aluminum. The rest is slag and is used as road bed material.

The scrap metal dealer is packaging his stuff in containers for ships. He gives 8 cents a pound and China/Japan pay him 50 cents a pound and they give him the containers and pick them up when full. He takes his entire employee staff to Hawaii for 2 weeks starting before Xmas til after new years.

Ron

There really isn't much worth saving that's less than 30 years old these days. I'm sure that yard might pause a little and look something over that's older than 30 or so.

I checked with both yards since they are next to each other back in May. I was wanting some 500 Caddy parts. He said he had no demand for the old stuff so it is crushed. I should have left my number and said buzz me if you have anything old, but I did not. I think I will drop by there and do that - at least it shows demand.

Ron

Happens all the time, prices bottom around 20 years and trash cars drag good car prices down with them.

In the 70s-80s we got plastic cars and trim pieces were unobtanium. If it was not popular enough (read "muscle car") for things to be repopped, they could not be restored.

80's-90's add in the special electronics and with ubiquitous a/c, good ventilation went away. Just about anything related to the a/c will set you back near $1k unless you do it yourself.

This is particularly true in warm climates which is something of a double whammy: in cold climates rust is an issue, warm ones you need an a/c (all of my cars have a/c and need it).

Might mention that even when I lived in Indiana-Michigan, I always looked for cars with a/c but then it was because they also had heavy-duty cooling and charging systems (55A instead of a 37A alternator).

I like Reattas but when a new windshield is over $1k, a crack will often send it to the recycling center particularly if the a/c does not work (and by now most have needed a compressor). Today even convertables (around 2,000 built) langush but then they are pushed down by Allantes (100% convertible) on top.

This is nothing new and unlikely to change, there is a whole crop of 90's-00's about to become obsoleted by fuel prices and technology changes, Sameol-sameol.

A you-pull yard I frequent has been paying $240-$250 a ton for non-catalytic converter cars all summer. Here in town the smash it all places are paying up to $325 a ton. I junked most of a rough '75 Trans Am last week and got $400 for it with the rearend, column, and some loose bits pulled off. A '58 Imperial shell (sans motor, trans, rearend, dash, deck lid and some other parts) with some other junk loaded in brought $450. A '93 Chevy van brought $560 - I couldn't get anyone to even look at it, so I brought it in and literally drove it to the spot where they picked it up with the loader.

Seen in the yard - '87 Monte Carlo Aero Coupe (should have been an easy $2500 car on eBay, it wasn't in bad shape), '72 Skylark coupe that had NO rust and probably was a driver, '77 El Camino, '65 Corvair ragtop with no rust, '60 Chevy Bel Air post, '51 Chevy 2dr, '52 Chevy 2dr that was solid enough I cut all the body mounts and things out of to the tune of what would cost over $1000 repro; a '32 Studebaker Rockne; a '55 GMC big truck with Pontiac V8 and manual trans setup; '50 Plymouth 4-door; a '51 Mercury coupe (!!) that I saved the roof, doors and quarters off from; and just recently a '52 Olds 98 and a '56 Packard Clipper which though rusty was complete coming in. I cut off, bought and just sold just the taillights off that car for more than half what it must have brought over the scale. The '52 Olds had the clock steering wheel in it and I have that here. I also managed to get just about the whole body from the Stude, but they scrapped a complete rolling chassis before I could get any more of it.

And that's just one yard, I've been almost afraid to even go anywhere else and look.

I'm a young guy very into old cars, a yard that I frequent actually has a few old cars come in occasionally and alot of abandoned project cars. The oldest I've seen was 40s. The yard owner has a friend that he gives all the old cars to to take home and try and sell whatever will sell on craigslist,ebay,etc. I think its awsome cause they have sold whole cars. If any of you guys are gonna scrap any 1948 Buick parts let me know. Also looking for any stright 8 buick era buick parts.

There really isn't much worth saving that's less than 30 years old these days. I'm sure that yard might pause a little and look something over that's older than 30 or so.

If this were 1970 and you asked a collector he might have said the same thing - "those 40's, 50's and 60's car's aren't worth saving, just the pre '40's."

And look what always happens? Even as a dumb kid in the early 70's, I knew I should fill a warehouse with '57 Chevies, just didn't have the money. At that time 50 of them might have cost me under 10K. The good running 4 door HT I had in '73 cost me $150.

I've often thought , what would I fill a warehouse with today? Probably 78 Sevilles and Caprice Classics, Allantes, Deloreans , Vettes, etc.

Perhaps a few RWD body on frame types might be worth saving. Who knows what electrical nightmares will be waiting when the wiring and computers rot to a point to render them totally inoperable.

If this were 1970 and you asked a collector he might have said the same thing - "those 40's, 50's and 60's car's aren't worth saving, just the pre '40's."

And look what always happens? Even as a dumb kid in the early 70's, I knew I should fill a warehouse with '57 Chevies, just didn't have the money. At that time 50 of them might have cost me under 10K. The good running 4 door HT I had in '73 cost me $150.

I've often thought , what would I fill a warehouse with today? Probably 78 Sevilles and Caprice Classics, Allantes, Deloreans , Vettes, etc.

Reading from the beginning of this thread I saw this same post and felt the same as you. An aquaintance of mine has a small British car from 1913 - it goes much better than most of that time - which was restored in the mid 1950s. The owner at that time had enough parts to build up about 5 of them but he chose to do only one and scrapped the rest.

Bout 3 years ago I had to beg the local yard to come take a 55 Olds with no engine or trans.........Bob

Perhaps a few RWD body on frame types might be worth saving. Who knows what electrical nightmares will be waiting when the wiring and computers rot to a point to render them totally inoperable.

I think it is fairly safe to predict that any and all vehicles with computer controlled fuel injection and emission systems will eventually become so problematic that it will be impossible to keep them running. Parts availability will be a huge problem for two reasons. (1) Volume for new aftermarket parts will drop to where no parts stores will be stocking them and no one will be producing them. (2) Salvage yards cannot or will not strip and warehouse reusable parts and pay taxes on the inventory. Yes that is right salvage yards in many states are typically taxed on individual parts inventories just like any retail store pays taxes on their inventory on hand at the end of the year. Whole junk cars are typically not taxed but space to maintain a yard of hundreds of junk cars can make even that a problem and dictates the cruncher clear out those things they haven't sold anything from for perhaps years.

Cars of the mid 1980s and up will eventually become virtually impossible to restore to reliable running order not too many years from now. Probably okay, since there are not too many of those that fall into being defined as collectables beyond personal old memories. I know that I personally have no memories connected to any car of the period that would motivate me to tackle restoration of one already having issues. 1985 to 2011 can easily be described as the BLAH ERA in automobiles in my mind.

My 2 cents worth....

I agree with all of the above - many words far more poetically said than I can even repeat.

In looking back over my life (I am single, 62, declining health, poor (thanks greedy wall street)but with a wealth of info that will die with me) - as a collector - I am now seen as scourge of the earth for even having the "junk". As my sister told me not too many weeks ago - she will sell it as scrap and use the money to bury me.

I updated my will that an expert will look at my junk - sort into the two or three major areas of interest and sell it to bury me with.

We have raised a generation of buy it today and throw it away tomorrow people thanks to TV ads. Raised in the south my folks were poor - we had to make do with what we had and really use it up. Now I am slowly parting with it. Case in point - a piece of nos chrome I have had 40 years, I gave $20 bucks of 1970 money for it and people think I am being selfish for not taking a $100 for it to put on an old junker that is not even driver quality. Then what happens to the guy that needs it have that one car that needs it to be number 1 and will survive far into the future?

I did buy a couple of cars that had factory a/c back in the early 70's and still have them today. If I had the money to have bought the "junkers" of the 40's and 50's and place to store them - I would not be as poor today.

These cars of today will be tomorrows trail queens - that is the way it was 100 years ago and for the future. In the future - they will not even let you start one for fear of polluting something.

Ron

@dave, you are right the prices fluctuate pretty dramatically, I have been looking to scrap and the only place I saw with a cash number is planetjunkcars.com. You can also check the daily scrap value and calculate it with your wight. What condition is the car in? You may be be able to sell it organically?

Been trying to sell my 91 Grand Marquis but no takers even at $600, scrap yards offered the standard $300 for it so I've been holding on to it since its just too nice to scrap. If I end up in need of money it's going to the scrap yard.

Been trying to sell my 91 Grand Marquis but no takers even at $600, scrap yards offered the standard $300 for it so I've been holding on to it since its just too nice to scrap. If I end up in need of money it's going to the scrap yard.[/quote

The big Fords and Mercurys have a surprisingly large following. Try posting an ad here: www.crownvic.net I sold my '91 Vic through their for-sale forum several years ago after getting no response locally. If you need further assistance send me a PM.

Harold

Been there, tried that. Lots of comments about too nice to scrap, fix and drive, but the membership seems to be concentrated in the great lakes area and shipping is too much from southern California. Locally, there are just too many of these in nice condition and buyers won't go big car with $5.00 per gallon gasoline, one of the reasons I won't fix and drive.

I'm a young guy very into old cars, a yard that I frequent actually has a few old cars come in occasionally and alot of abandoned project cars. The oldest I've seen was 40s. The yard owner has a friend that he gives all the old cars to to take home and try and sell whatever will sell on craigslist,ebay,etc. I think its awsome cause they have sold whole cars. If any of you guys are gonna scrap any 1948 Buick parts let me know. Also looking for any stright 8 buick era buick parts.

I have 1930 Buick engine and trans for$700.00

Robert Kapteyn

studebaker(at)mac.com

If this were 1970 and you asked a collector he might have said the same thing - "those 40's, 50's and 60's car's aren't worth saving, just the pre '40's."

That's not entirely true, although there were many back than with a less than progressive attitude towards "newer classics". They were a minority, and (obviously) they were wrong.

Keep in mind that the Studebaker Avanti was on the cover of Hemming's Special Interest Autos when it was a seven year old car. The first 1960s car authenticity guides (Ford Road Series and Bookman Publishing's Source Books) were published in the early 1980s before many of the cars were 15 years old. Enthusiast books (Real Steel, the Consumer's Guide series {which led to Collectible Automobile in 1984}, etc.) came well before that. Heck, the movie American Graffiti (Where were you in '62?) was released in 1973!

There was always (in my early lifetime) and enthusiasm for cars of the recent past. That seems to have died. We're on the brink, next year, of having antique Miatas! Even that VERY desirable car of 1990 doesn't have the following that Mustangs and Chargers did at that age. By 1990 you assemble a 1965 Mustang out of parts from catalogs. Miata catalogs exist, of course, but they're not nearly co comprehensive. Also nobody is fretting over correct firewall decals and date-coded parts like Mustang people used to. Can you even get vintage re-pop Mazda oil filters with correct era markings? I doubt it, but those re-pop Ford Rotunda filters are still around!

BTW, in November I scrapped my son's tiny 1986 Nissan Sentra. The scrap guy towed it away and paid $275 for it. It would have been $300 if the wheels were aluminum.

Last year I bought a 96 Ford Explorer for the 5.0L engine, it took me some time to get around to stripping it. I cut the front end off, pulled the engine, rearend & tires, took it to the scrap yard and got $330.00, then sold the rims and tires for $125.00. I bought the thing for $250.00......

Dave, you are putting those "cost of restoration" horror stories in a whole different light!

Over the winter I scrapped my 95 f150 beater truck,the frame was getting rusty and was thinking about fixing it but then the 5 speed lost 3rd and 4th and with a foot of snow on the ground it got scrapped,paid 800 for it 3 years ago and got 550.00 for it. Now I could use it since I know someone who needs a complete front suspension due to some Dukes of Hazard type driving.

If this were 1970 and you asked a collector he might have said the same thing - "those 40's, 50's and 60's car's aren't worth saving, just the pre '40's."

And look what always happens? Even as a dumb kid in the early 70's, I knew I should fill a warehouse with '57 Chevies, just didn't have the money. At that time 50 of them might have cost me under 10K. The good running 4 door HT I had in '73 cost me $150.

I've often thought , what would I fill a warehouse with today? Probably 78 Sevilles and Caprice Classics, Allantes, Deloreans , Vettes, etc.

I think that is a fallacy many, if not most, of us have entertained: "If only I had picked 10 or 20 or 50 of those up when they were selling for $50!" But most of us would also have struggled to tie up the first $50 that way, let alone buy numbers of them! Then reality sits in, and unless we were lucky enough to have free space somewhere, we would soon be in an unsustainable storage cost situation! Then to top it off, what often happened to the guy who actually did pull off this investment? He wound up with a field of old cars with flat tires, which the kids reckoned were for target practice, etc. For this reason, he necessarily scrapped the cars anyway, at rock bottom steel prices, to accomodate some pressing need he did not foresee! I used to think the upside of this was that the diminished remainder of the cars available would force the price up, if we did manage to save one or two. I no longer believe that, either! I believe scarcity of replacement parts might be a real factor in the soft market we have been discussing. It certainly is an understandable downside of purchasing many of the antiques.

I met an elderly gentleman in 1982 that owned the 1953 Packard Balboa and had it at a car show. We got to talking and he invited me to come by his place of business (he sold house trailers) and see his old cars. He unlocked the doors to a large metal building and I dug dirt away from in front of the door to get the door open far enough to walk in. He told me there was a light switch on the right and to stay as long as I wished. He had about 40 cars in there from about 1938 up to an early '60's Corvair. I asked him if he had been a car dealer; he said no, he just always liked cars and when he found one at a good price he'd buy it and put it in the building. He didn't live too long after that. I saw a photo of the Balboa recently either in Antique Automobile or Hemmings Classic Cars. It is in a collection in the New England states. The gentleman saved a lot of cars for someone and they were probably all driveable.

I just scrapped a couple of Corvair station wagons because I could not even get the scrap price for them. Only wanted to pay maybe $200.00 each. Away they went parts & all for $300.00 each.

I just scrapped a couple of Corvair station wagons because I could not even get the scrap price for them. Only wanted to pay maybe $200.00 each. Away they went parts & all for $300.00 each.

It is about time for a wake up call. If any of you want to preserve any of this stuff, you better be willing to pay out at least scrap price. We do it all the time with farm and construction equipment if it is worth saving. Scrap price has been an unwritten minimum rock bottom price for stuff for years. Get with the times, or leave it all behind. Dandy Dave!

I was told that scrap price on a car is $500.00 at a local yard. The 1985 Ford in the driveway needs a brake line and may bring $500.00 if the right tire kicker stops by. The car could have been on the Hershey show field Saturday, anyone else look at cars this way? :confused:

Answer;  1985 Ford equals 30 yrs old  plus a 5 dollar brake line !!

Price of scrap is way down. Was about .11/lb now .06/lb. Hardly worth hauling to the scrap yard these days.