Pretty sure I got swindled and pimped by a local scrap buyer today. Took the alternator and starter off the parts comanche and got a $2 bill for them. I'm not sure how much they were worth in scrap but I don't think I'll be going back to him again. Anyone have a similar experience or know the rough scrap value of these?

 

With scrap, you get two prices. Clean and unclean. Let's use steel as an example. It's 12.00 per 100lbs right now for clean meaning all aluminum, fixtures, etc are removed and its in 5' or less pieces. Unclean is 10.25 per 100lbs right now. Unclean would be finding an old engine with aluminum heads or such and not seperating the metals. Aluminum doesn't pay anything unless you have a lot of it. So two bucks for an alternator is about right.

 

$2 for an alternator and a starter though? Thought there was a bit of copper in them.

 

OK, so he ripped you off for 15 cents. Seriously, scrapping stuff isnt work jack unless you have a whole vehicle, a house full of cast iron radiators (did that a few years back myself), etc. Scrapping an alternator and starter isnt going to pay for the gas to get there.

 

i woulda got $.25 a lb for those.

 

Copper is like $4/lb. If you had pulled the copper out and sold it separate you probably could have made maybe $10 or $15 for everything depending on how much copper was in there and if it was clean or not. As everyone else said, it's not worth it unless you have a ****load of it.