The first thing you need to learn when you are in the “junk” business is how to identify each metal. Some are easy such as copper because it is red and iron because it rusts, but others are not so easy.
One is stainless steel which is shiny silver in color and heavy as it is based on steel. In the scrap business there is more than one kind of stainless which are magnetic and non-magnetic. The non-magnetic is the one that is worth by far the most as it reaches as high as 40 cents or thereabouts. But magnetic stainless is only worth that of iron which is 4 or 5 cents per pound. Differentiating between them is as easy as it sounds which requires the simple use of a magnet but there are other ways which goes into how a piece of stainless was used. Stainless finds its commonest usage in and around kitchens because it is easy to keep clean and yet retains an attractiveness. But be careful not to make the assumption that because it was in a kitchen it is not necessarily non-magnetic stainless. But as a rule of thumb if it is a sink it is non-magnetic stainless. But if it was used as a kitchen top or most anything else it is most likely magnetic stainless.
These days most automobiles are built with stainless steel exhaust systems because they don’t rust out. Be careful again because this is a very low grade of stainless which is closer to tin and will fetch on the price of tin as scrap.
Another metal which needs some explanation is brass. Not all brass is really brass as it were and here is why: brass in its true form is an alloy of copper and zinc and is used in faucets, doorknobs, etc. In scrap metal terms this is correctly termed “yellow brass”. The other variety of brass is bronze otherwise known as “red brass” which is an alloy of copper and tin. Bronze has a bit more coppery color and is stronger than ordinary brass. It is used in applications requiring strength for high pressures such as fire hose couplings and valves. The fact of this is that bronze is a higher price than brass of between 10 and 15 cents per pound. In today’s market almost no one separates bronze from brass and accordingly they get the price of brass so if you have access to a lot of these metals it would pay you separate them, provided you know how. It also is important to inquire at your scrap yard if they actually pay the different price because they often don’t want to be bothered to check your load to see if you have identified them correctly. But if you hold your ground most scrap dealers will respect your position.
Even aluminum has different varieties. For instance, tire rims are the highest price of all aluminum grades so keep an eye out for these. Also high is extruded which is window frames and the like. But dealers are very strict about this because if they see a few screws remaining they will only give you the price for light aluminum (which are sheet, gutters, crushed beverage cans, etc.) so it is often not worth the effort to dismantle them. One aluminum product which varies from dealer to dealer is aluminum screen mesh. It is very lightweight but it is aluminum nonetheless. Some will not even accept it and require you to remove it from window and doors you bring them while others don’t care at all. Therefore you must inquire with your dealer what his policy is. A suggestion that always works is if you roll it up and stuff it into aluminum downspouts and bend over the pipe ends, it always goes through without question. So here is another case where a little bit of work is rewarding.
A final point I’ll make is that aluminum has a sometimes look alike. This is die cast or cast zinc. It is commonly found as valves for barbecue grills and often as extruded wheels for lawn mowers, tractors, and similar applications. It looks very much like cast aluminum except when you compare them directly then the difference in weight and shade of gray is apparent. Some scrap dealers will become annoyed if they find several pieces of die cast among cast aluminum and they will think you might be trying to put one over on them when it is an honest mistake. But this is not to say that die cast is worthless because it ranges between 8 and 12 cents per pound which is more than tin or iron and about that of lead so don’t throw it away.