Four steps cover it, in order: know what you actually have, know what it's worth, choose the right way to sell it, and get paid without taking a stranger's word for it. Everything else on this topic is a variation of one of these four.
Start with a magnet: it sticks to ferrous metal (steel, iron), not to non-ferrous metal (copper, aluminium, brass). Condition matters too, clean, sorted, and uncontaminated material grades up and pays more than the same metal mixed with other materials.
Reference prices shift with global commodity markets, London Metal Exchange copper alone has moved by thousands of dollars per tonne within a single year. Checking a live calculator before you sell, or before you accept the first quote you're offered, means you're negotiating from actual knowledge instead of guessing.
A local yard for a small, urgent load. A fixed-price or auction listing when you want it visible to multiple buyers. A Wanted Board post or RFQ if you're the one sourcing material instead. Each fits a different situation, not a universal best option.
A verified buyer, a deposit required before a listing is confirmed, and payment processed through Stripe rather than handled informally. The mechanics that make an online sale to a stranger as safe as one at a counter you can see.
Scrap prices aren't fixed the way a retail price tag is, they track global commodity exchanges that move constantly. Copper alone reached an all-time high on the London Metal Exchange in late January 2026, and has traded across a wide range since. A seller who checks a live reference price before a sale is negotiating from a completely different position than one relying on what a friend got quoted six months ago, or what feels roughly right.
That gap compounds at volume. On a 500-kilogram load, a difference of even a few cents per kilogram between an outdated assumption and the actual current price adds up to real money, and it's the single most common way sellers leave value on the table without ever realising it. Checking first costs thirty seconds. Not checking costs whatever the gap happens to be.
Step 3 is where most sellers get stuck, because there isn't one right answer. See fixed price vs. auction vs. Wanted Board for a full comparison of the three core mechanisms, and Quick Sale vs. regular listing for the choice between speed and price discovery on a specific load.
Accepting the first quote without checking a reference price is the single most common mistake, and the easiest to fix, a live calculator takes thirty seconds to check and puts you in a genuinely different negotiating position. Not sorting ferrous from non-ferrous before selling is the second, mixed loads get graded and priced conservatively by default, since separating them afterward becomes the buyer's cost, not yours, if you hand it over already mixed.
Underestimating a large or ongoing source is the third, treating every load as a one-off sale rather than recognising a repeatable pattern, a renovation business's offcuts, a workshop's consistent scrap stream, means missing the case for a standing arrangement instead of starting from scratch each time. And relying on a single buyer relationship indefinitely is the fourth, comfortable in the short term, but it leaves you with no leverage and no comparison point the moment that relationship changes or ends.
Grading and pricing specifics differ by material, steel and aluminium aren't sold the same way copper or e-waste are. Copper's value gap between bare bright wire and insulated cable is large enough that stripping it yourself before selling can genuinely change the outcome. Aluminium splits sharply by form, extrusion, cans, and sheet all trade differently because remelt cost varies by grade. Steel is the most forgiving of the common metals, mixed or painted material still processes reasonably well, which is part of why it's usually the easiest starting point for a first-time seller. Check the full materials guide for links to every dedicated material page, or jump straight to a live reference price for what you actually have.
Sort it by type, ferrous vs non-ferrous, with a simple magnet test, and separate anything contaminated (attached plastic, rubber, or other metals) from clean material. Grading up before you sell is usually worth more than the time it takes.
Check a live reference price for your material and grade before accepting anything. A single quote with nothing to compare it to is the most common way sellers end up underpaid, not because anyone lied, but because there was no second data point in the room.
More than most first-time sellers expect. As a live reference point, aluminium has recently traded around $3,293 per tonne and copper around $14,408 per tonne on global exchanges, and both figures shift regularly with industrial demand, currency movements, and supply disruptions. That volatility is exactly why checking a current price before you sell matters more than remembering what scrap fetched last time.
Depends on the load. A small, urgent amount often makes more sense taken to a local yard. Anything with real value benefits from being listed, where multiple buyers can see it and compete, rather than accepting the first number you're offered.
Both can sell. Individuals and registered businesses can list on ScrapTrade, completing a quick verification step during registration. A one-off personal sale generally isn't taxable income in Australia; regular selling for profit is treated differently.
Verification and payment structure, not trust alone. Every buyer completes identity and business verification before they can bid, and a deposit is required before a listing is confirmed, processed through Stripe and refundable per ScrapTrade's cancellation terms, so payment isn't just an informal promise.
Depends on the mechanism. Quick Sale can move within days once photos and details are up. A standard listing or auction typically runs for a set window to let multiple buyers see and bid on it. An RFQ posted with a firm deadline usually gets responses fastest, since interested buyers already know exactly what's needed.
An accurate weight, or a close estimate, makes a real difference to how seriously a listing is taken and how precisely it can be priced. A bathroom scale works for smaller loads; larger volumes are usually weighed at the point of pickup or delivery as part of finalising the sale.
Mainly tax treatment and volume. A genuine one-off personal sale generally isn't taxable income in Australia, while regular selling for profit is treated differently by the ATO. Businesses also more commonly benefit from a standing sourcing relationship, a Wanted Board post or recurring RFQ, rather than repeating a one-off listing each time.
Check a live reference price, then list when you're ready.
Open the Scrap Metal Calculator