Believe it not, weather and your scrap have an interesting relationship..nothing to do with rust or production, really social environment and pricing. Huh? Let’s take a quick look without getting to deep into whether you should sell now or wait a month or two.
Weather and Your Scrap
Let’s face it. If every scrap dealer had the same price for your scrap, you would merely use something like Google Maps to make the determination on where you would sell your goods. The reality is, many different things go into the the where you sell. First is of course location. Burning gas is a key contributor of profit and loss on any transaction for scrap metal or any other commodity. Previous relationship is another key factor. Having someone you have worked with and knows you and you trust them..is a big part. Let us not forget the biggest of them all–pricing! It goes without saying, pricing is one of , if not the biggest factor..depending on your frequency of trips and type of metals you sell.
Pricing metals is not just about spot price that day. It sometimes, on a local basis, have much to do with supply and demand..and not in the everyday sense either. So, where does weather come in? So think about it this way, how may people in the southwest live here in the summer months (snowbirds)..about 20% less than in winter. Now, seasonal travelers make up a smallish group who scrap, so maybe it is insignificant. Maybe not, either way, shipping does slow down in the winter months, creating a glut in the amount of new projects starting, thus old projects going to the scrap yard. So when there is a demand in the overall market, and a local dealer has no supply to resell, that is a problem, that is why they are in business.
So luckily Spring is approaching, and so is the ability to get out there and find scrap metal worth selling.