The scrapper's glossary

Metals & grades

Ferrous

Metal that contains iron and is magnetic — steel and cast iron. Ferrous is the lowest-value, highest-volume scrap category; a magnet sticking firmly is the quick test.

Non-ferrous

Metal that contains no iron and is not magnetic — copper, aluminum, brass, lead, and the precious metals. Non-ferrous scrap is where most of the money is.

Bare bright copper

The top copper grade: clean, uncoated, shiny copper wire thicker than 16 gauge, with no tarnish, coating, or corrosion. Commands the highest per-pound copper price.

#1 copper

Clean, unalloyed copper — tubing, bus bar, thick wire — that is uncoated and unattached but may be lightly tarnished. Pays just below bare bright.

#2 copper

Copper that is dirty, painted, tinned, or soldered, or thinner-gauge wire. Pays less than #1 because it needs more processing.

ICW (insulated copper wire)

Copper wire still inside its plastic or rubber insulation, priced by the copper percentage it yields. Graded #1, #2, or low-grade by recovery.

HMS (heavy melting steel)

Thick steel scrap, generally 1/4 inch or thicker (plate, beams, heavy pipe), graded #1 and #2. Pays above light iron and is often required to be cut to size ("prepared").

Light iron

Thin ferrous scrap — appliance cabinets, sheet metal, car panels. The default, lowest-paying steel grade, and the bulk of what a household scrapper hauls.

Cast iron

Brittle, grainy grey iron used for brake rotors, radiators, cookware, and engine blocks. Graded separately, usually a little above light iron.

Irony

A prefix meaning steel is attached or mixed in — "irony aluminum," "irony brass." Irony material is downgraded because the buyer has to discount the worthless steel.

Tin (white goods)

In scrap terms, thin tin-plated or coated steel, and by extension whole appliances ("white goods"). Not the element tin.

Precious metals & microscrapping

Troy ounce

The unit precious metals are weighed in, equal to 31.1035 grams — heavier than a standard (avoirdupois) ounce of 28.35 grams.

Pennyweight (dwt)

A precious-metal weight equal to 1.555 grams, or 1/20 of a troy ounce. Gold buyers often quote in dwt because sellers struggle to check the math in their heads.

Karat

A measure of gold purity in 24ths: 24K is pure gold, 18K is 75% gold, 14K is 58.3%, 10K is 41.7%.

Fineness (millesimal)

Purity in parts per thousand: "925" is 92.5% pure (sterling silver), "750" is 75% (18K gold).

Sterling silver

A silver alloy that is 92.5% pure silver, marked "925" or "STERLING." The standard for quality flatware and jewelry.

Junk silver

Common pre-1965 US dimes, quarters, and half dollars made of 90% silver with no collector premium. Valued for silver content — roughly 0.715 troy ounces per $1 of face value.

Melt value

An item's raw metal worth: weight times purity times spot price. It is the ceiling a buyer's offer is measured against, not the price actually paid.

Spot price

The current live market price of a metal — per troy ounce for gold and silver, per pound or tonne for base metals. Scrap offers are a percentage of spot.

PGM (platinum group metals)

Platinum, palladium, and rhodium — the valuable metals inside catalytic converters and some electronics.

Gold fingers

The gold-plated edge connectors on RAM sticks and expansion cards, trimmed and sold separately by weight for their gold content.

Microscrapping

Recovering small amounts of precious metals from electronic components by sorting and selling them to a refiner, rather than by dangerous DIY chemistry.

XRF

X-ray fluorescence — a handheld scanner that instantly reads a metal's exact composition. The tool professional buyers use to grade and verify scrap.

At the scrap yard

Tare weight

The empty weight of a container or vehicle, subtracted from the full weight to find the net weight of scrap. A dishonest tare is a classic way to shortchange sellers.

Prepared

Steel cut to a maximum size so it fits a furnace charge box. Prepared heavy steel pays more than the same steel left oversized.

Breakage

Scrap that must be broken down to separate its metals — most commonly electric motors ("motor breakage") — often paid as its own grade.

Shred steel

Steel destined for the shredder, and the low grade it is paid at. Most mixed light ferrous ends up here.

Core charge

A deposit-style value on an intact, rebuildable unit — a car battery, a catalytic converter — separate from its scrap-metal weight.

Downgrade

When a buyer pays a lower grade than a metal's best potential because it is dirty, mixed, coated, or attached to another material.

Want to put these terms to work? Start with the Getting Started guides, sort a pile with the magnet test, or price your haul with the calculators.