Copper Price

[Goldenboy]

Well copper prices continue to climb. I think I've got about 50 pounds stripped right now. I think maybe I'll take it in. I think it's just under $4.00 a pound right now.

Does everyone else save copper? It's amazing if you pay attention how much is laying around. Just about every construction job I go to I find old street light wires,old romex, and ground wires stirred up daily when they grade.

[TheCableVine]

Excellent idea. I used to have some big wire cutters and I would cut the excess copper off of the ground wires on houses.

I haven't done it for a while. Maybe I should start again.

[underground quester]

Everywhere in the newer areas I work someone is stripping the copper out of scraps from new installations and leaving the empty jacket.

At $4.00 pound I guess I can understand why!!

[yahoo]

that is a subject that we can not even talk about down this way.......with all the illegal activity going on stealing cables etc etc.... etc.... we don't dare get involved with that type of activity

[Goldenboy]

that is a subject that we can not even talk about down this way.......with all the illegal activity going on stealing cables etc etc.... etc.... we don't dare get involved with that type of activity

I have seen on the news about people stealing ground wires right off poles and transormers. I'm just talking about abandoned lines found when they knock down buildings and grade for new bldgs. The old lines are normally just in the old parts of town. Normally old private lighting or private electric to old out bldgs.

[Wingfoot]

Kansas City, like many other cities, has been plagued with copper robbers for the last few years. Seems like it is getting worse every day. These events since August 2007:

Copper Phone Lines Stolen

Copper Theft Cuts Phone Service To Hundreds

Copper Theft Leaves City In Dark

Ammunition Plant Workers Accused Of Stealing More Than 8 Tons Of Bullet Cups

Air Conditioning Units Stolen - Thieves caused $25,000 in damage, stealing 700 pounds of copper

Burglars Steal Copper From Church Building

Suspects Arrested Following Copper Telephone Wire Heist

New legislation in Missouri has been passed May 14, 2008 that requires scrap metal dealers to get a copy of photo identification from people who are not regular customers and are selling more than $50 of copper or aluminum. Dealers would have to keep those records on file in case police want to inspect them.

The bill also limits what metal dealers can buy, barring the purchase or sale of manhole covers, guardrails or traffic lights.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt must sign the bill before it can go into effect.

[sprayandpray]

I wonder if it would pay to pick up rebar?

[underground quester]

We have a smelter here in Alberta that buys every piece of iron/steel and melt it down. They make various sizes of rebar with it.

So, you would have a real mixture of grades/carbon content so not sure how much it would be worth. However, I am sure there must be some kind of a market for it. Nobody seems to be in a hurry to pick it up though and lots of contractors just bury whats left over rather than try to salvage it.
Won't that be fun in the years ahead?

It is really a pain in the A** for me because the majority of my area is newer construction...Industrial, commercial and residential and that S**T is lying around everywhere!

[TBONE]

Hey you have to find ways to buy gas these days right

[locator_smbk]

North Carolina now has a law on the book dealing with some of the thefts of copper.

The law prohibits anyone from riding in a vehicle carrying or otherwise transporting more than 25 pounds of copper without a vaild reciept.

So answer me this....how does the telephone company's mainline contractor prove the full spool of 200 pair on their trailer is theirs or the phone company's?

[big boots mcghee]

During a road reconstruction project last year the electric company out here decided to abandon an underground transmission line, that was in conduit mind you, and simply cut it off at either end. That line just happened to be a three phase threaded copper transmission line (not just the outer concentric, each phase was entirely copper and about two inches thick) and ran for more than a half mile. As soon as the multiple contractors working the site saw the line was "available" they started in on it. We estimated there was somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 work of copper there, probably more, and it didn't stay in the ground two days after it was left for dead.

I find scraps here and there, and am hopeful it'll add up to a decent amount when I turn it in. Both of my adjoining neighbors collect it big time. One of them even had all of his stolen last summer, two garbage cans FULL of the stuff, right out of his garage. Crazy.

[TBONE]

Anyone ever see the powerpoint of the guy who got fried stealing copper from a sub station.....like ohh my god not me not worth it

[Goldenboy]

It's amazing what people will do for just a little copper. All the poles in my downtown area are missing the ground wires. The bums cut them off inbetween the staples that hold them to the pole.

[TBONE]

They soon will have to U gaurd the copper ground to try to keep them off of it

[USIC1]

Excellent idea. I used to have some big wire cutters and I would cut the excess copper off of the ground wires on houses.

I haven't done it for a while. Maybe I should start again.

Who cares about excess???

Maybe I ll keep my eyes open for gutters on old buildings and vacant houses with the fancy porch roofs...



"I saw the guy that took it...He had this paint all over his shoes...Thats all I know Mr Officer..."