Copper scrap grades explained
Copper is the most valuable common scrap, and the grade decides how much of that value you keep. Here's how yards sort it.
#1 Bare Bright
Clean, shiny, stripped copper wire with no insulation, no tarnish, no solder and no coating, about 16 gauge or thicker. It's the top copper grade. Tinned wire (silver-colored) does not count.
#1 Copper
Clean copper pipe, tubing, bus bar and thick wire that's unpainted and unsoldered, with only light oxidation. Fittings must be cut off.
#2 Copper
Copper with solder, paint, heavy tarnish or corrosion, or small fittings still attached. Still good money, but less than #1.
Insulated copper wire
Priced by how much copper is inside. Thick single-strand wire recovers a lot; thin cords and Christmas lights recover little. Yards often grade it by recovery percentage.
Move up a grade
- Strip clean, thick wire to bare bright when the price gap is worth your time.
- Cut soldered ends and brass fittings off pipe to turn #2 into #1.
- Keep grades in separate buckets. Mixed copper sells at the lowest grade in the bucket.
Let MetalMint do the sortingSnap a photo, tap your magnet and scratch results, and MetalMint gives you the grade, the weight and today's price. Free to start, in English and Spanish.Try MetalMint free