Here is some current scrap copper and copper comprised materials for certain local areas of the US. These copper prices are only tallied from a few different scrap metal yards, so your pricing may be different
Eastern USA:
Bright Bare Copper – $3.65/lb
#1 Copper – $3.40/lb
#2 Copper – $3.20/lb.
Brass – $1.70/lb
Insulated Copper Wire – $1.20/lb
North USA:
#1 Copper – $3.45/lb
#2 Copper – $3.30/lb
Brass – $2.00/lb
Insulated Copper Wire – $1.45
If you are buying wire for electrical purposes these days, you have probably felt the pain of soaring copper prices…
Copper is a nice and profitable scrap metal to take to the local scrap yard, but you will quickly find that when the shoe is on the other foot, having to buy anything that has copper in it is going to cost you an arm and a leg!
Take copper wiring for example. Copper is one of the highest conductors of electricity, second only to silver. Can you even imagine if wire was made out of silver? Ouch! Copper is expensive enough.
If you are planning on rewiring your house, today may not be the right time to buy copper wiring. I have seen a roll of 12/2 250′ wire sell at Lowes for $24 bucks a roll a few years ago when copper was down. Today it is in the $70′s per roll. This adds up quickly for a major wire job. Also, the larger the wire (common sizes are 14/2, 14/3, 12/2, 12/3, 10/2 and 10/3), will increase in price strictly due to the amount of copper inside of it. You are looking at almost $200 for a roll of 10/3 copper wire…again..ouch!
Salvaging and scrapping out of copper wire can be very profitable, but buying new stuff on the other hand, will cost you a small fortune and is not something that most people readily understand when buying anything made out of copper.
Here is some current scrap copper and copper comprised materials for certain local areas of the US. These copper prices are only tallied from a few different scrap metal yards, so your pricing may be different
Eastern USA:
Bright Bare Copper – $3.60/lb
#1 Copper – $3.35/lb
#2 Copper – $3.15
Brass – $1.65/lb
Insulated Copper Wire – $1.30/lb
North USA:
#1 Copper – $3.45/lb
#2 Copper – $3.30/lb
Brass – $2.00/lb
Insulated Copper Wire – $1.45
The skyrocketing price of copper has apparently opened a whole new market in copper goods…copper bullions, copper art bars, copper rounds and copper ingots.
Although this is not something completely new, the way these products are being marketed and sold is completely overwhelming. I am seeing 1/4 ounce copper coins selling for a buck a piece on Ebay and 1 Pound copper art bars going for $10+!
This is hard to fathom, you would have to buy 64 of these copper coins to get one pound of copper, so at $1 each, it would cost you $64 for a pound. The current price for copper is around $4.25/lb, so $64/lb is a pretty good deal for the seller. Buying the copper art bars would be a little more better investment for a copper speculator, but at $10 a pound, you are still paying twice the current copper spot…
It seems to me that it is definately a good idea to start marketing copper bullion to collectors, but I am still not able to get my head around such a very volatile investment…
Maybe these people know something about the future value of copper? Who knows? But I could say that I would love to see copper at $10 a pound!
