Copper Pipe & Tubing
Old copper water pipe from a renovation, refrigeration line from a dead air conditioner, bus bar from a switchboard upgrade, it's easy to toss it in with general mixed scrap without realising it's a specific, higher-value grade on its own. Here's what Copper #1 actually covers, why it's graded the way it is, and how to make sure you're paid for it properly instead of as generic metal.
Copper #1 is clean, unalloyed copper tubing, bus bar, and wire at least 1/16 of an inch thick, without insulation or heavy oxidation. That thickness rule isn't arbitrary: thinner copper loses proportionally more material to oxidation and burn-off when it's melted down, so a buyer genuinely recovers less usable metal per kilogram from fine wire than from solid pipe or bar of the same purity. It's also allowed a bit more real-world wear than bare bright requires, which makes sense given most #1 material has actually been in service, not freshly stripped from a spool.
In practice, that means old copper water pipe pulled during a renovation or re-plumb, refrigeration and air-conditioning tubing, and bus bar from an electrical switchboard upgrade are the three forms sellers most commonly have. All three are genuinely valuable on their own, not just scrap-adjacent material worth tossing into a mixed load.
ScrapTrade's live-priced Copper #1 category matches this exactly: clean copper tubing, bus bar, and wire at 1/16 inch thickness or above, without insulation or heavy oxidation. Lighter or thinner wire, or material with solder, paint, or noticeable oxidation, is worth listing as bare bright or Copper #2 instead, an accurate grade gets a more confident offer than an optimistic one.
Check today's Copper #1 priceThe most common way people leave money on the table with this grade is selling a whole appliance intact. An old air conditioner or fridge is genuinely a mix of metals, copper refrigeration tubing, aluminium fins, a steel casing, and it's far easier for a buyer to weigh the whole thing and price it as generic mixed metal than to separate it themselves. That generic price is almost always lower than what the copper tubing alone is worth as Copper #1.
Pulling the copper tubing out yourself, when there's a meaningful length of it, and listing it separately from the casing and fins usually gets more total value than selling the unit as one lot. It's the same principle as sorting bare bright from insulated cable: a buyer pays for what they can identify and use directly, not for a mystery mix they have to sort out themselves. One more thing worth checking before you list: fittings and valves on copper pipe are often brass, not copper, and grade separately, see our Brass Scrap guide for that side of it. Cut or unscrew them off where practical rather than leaving them attached.
Copper pipe and tubing follows construction activity closely, which points to two South-East Queensland markets in particular. Brisbane has real, ongoing construction and infrastructure growth generating structural steel, copper wiring, and aluminium from demolition and new-build activity alike, copper plumbing and HVAC tubing included. Gold Coast carries an even more construction-heavy profile, a near-constant pipeline of high-rise and residential building that generates ongoing volumes of copper from fit-outs and demolitions, every new high-rise going up means fresh copper plumbing and air-conditioning tubing being installed, and every renovation nearby means old copper coming out.
Neither city is a requirement. Plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, and renovators pulling old copper out of a house generate this exact material anywhere in Australia, and ScrapTrade connects buyers and sellers nationally regardless of where a listing is posted from.
Copper doesn't lose performance when it's recycled, refined copper from scrap is chemically identical to newly mined copper, so clean, unalloyed material like pipe, bus bar, and thicker wire goes almost directly back into new tubing, cable, and electrical components with minimal reprocessing. That's exactly why grade matters as much as it does: the cleaner and more identifiable the copper, the less work a buyer has to do, and the more of that saved cost gets passed back to you as a seller.
Pipe and tubing pulled from a renovation or an old appliance is exactly the kind of material that gets undervalued as generic mixed metal, because separating and grading it properly takes more effort than weighing it as one lot. On ScrapTrade, you check a live reference price before you commit to anything, then list your correctly-graded Copper #1 at a fixed price, run it as a live auction so verified buyers compete for it, or negotiate directly, negotiation is on by default on every listing. Every listing is GPS-video verified before it goes live, and payment sits in escrow from the moment a deal is confirmed until pickup or delivery is done, so neither side is exposed first. The full case for why that beats a single yard quote is on Why Choose ScrapTrade and Trust & Safety.
Immaculateness, mostly. Bare bright has to be completely uncoated with zero oxidation at all. Copper #1 is also clean, unalloyed copper, but it's allowed some light oxidation, which is realistic for pipe and tubing that's been in service rather than freshly stripped wire. Both pay well; bare bright just sits a step above.
Thinner copper loses proportionally more material to oxidation and burn-off when it's melted down, so a buyer recovers less usable copper per kilogram from fine wire than from solid pipe or bus bar of the same purity. Thin wire still has real value, it just gets graded and priced separately rather than lumped in with #1.
Usually yes, if there's a meaningful length of tubing. A whole unit sold intact typically gets priced as generic mixed metal, which undervalues the copper specifically. Pulling the copper tubing out and listing it separately from the aluminium fins and steel casing will usually get more total value than selling it as one mixed lot.
No, brass is a different metal and grades and prices separately. Cut or unscrew fittings and valves off copper pipe where practical before you list it, mixing brass in with copper pipe will get it priced down as a lower-grade mixed lot instead of clean Copper #1.
Grade and photograph it clearly before you list, separated from any brass fittings or other metals. Check a live reference price first, then run it as a live auction so multiple verified buyers assess it, rather than accepting one buyer's first read on a mixed-looking load.
If you're the one paying for the upgrade, it's worth asking. Bus bar is solid copper and grades as Copper #1 in its own right, not something that needs stripping or processing first, so it holds real value on its own rather than being scrapped along with the rest of the old switchboard housing.
Check a live price, then sell at a fixed price, run an auction, or negotiate directly.
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