Copper

The copper price follows the stock exchange quotation and changes daily – therefore, there is no fixed number, only one daily price. Our verified purchase prices for each copper grade are shown in the table above, each with the date of its last change. What you get specifically depends on the grade: Between a blank Millberry wire and a plug cable with a low conductor content lie in the worlds of proceeds.

The copper price from the news is the listing for pure copper on the stock exchange. Waste copper lies below it: The scrap metal must be sorted, processed and transported, and hardly any delivery is chemically pure. The closer a grade approaches pure copper – for example, bare, insulation-free wire – the less distance to the listing.

Millberry is the trade name for blank, insulation-free copper wire with metallic shiny surface. It is the cleanest grade that regularly arrives in the farm and needs the least preparation – so it is at the top of the price table. Started, lacquered or tinned scrap metal does not count as a millberry, but runs one step below it.

Take the daily price of the grade times 100 – the table on this page calculates it for 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 kilograms. The amount shown shall be the best classification. If insulation, soldering tin or iron is still attached to it, it is evaluated according to the correspondingly lower grade. In the end, the calibrated weighing is decisive.

There is not one copper scrap price, but one per grade. Purity and conductor content are crucial: bare wire, pipes and collecting rails, mixed cables or plugs are classified differently. For each grade, those who separate pure grades get their own price instead of a mixed valuation according to the weakest proportion.

It's on the cross-section. With strong cables with a high conductor content, stripping is almost always expected, with fine plug cables with multiple sheathing rarely – the effort exceeds the difference there. The ladder portion decides which grade will reach at the end – you can read the distance between the grades on the daily price.

One kilogram brings the daily price of its grade – and the span is large: Blankes Millberry stands above, started or painted copper clearly below, cables are calculated according to their conductor share. The table above shows the copper price kg for each grade. It is important to know that for a single kilogram the journey is not worthwhile, because the proceeds for each copper grade are less than the minimum amount of 25 euros per process. It becomes meaningful from several kilograms or together with other scrap metal.

What is written on the weighing slip is the NETTO weight of the grade times daily price – not the gross weight of the scale. Insulation, iron parts, soldering tin and moisture do not pass as copper. Weighing on a calibrated scale, the weighing slip is yours, and will be paid out within 24 hours. You choose the grade yourself at the time of registration; it is calculated according to the actual grade on the scale.

In the case of cables, the copper content in the cross-section, not the weight, decides. A thick earth cable brings much more than an equally heavy roll of thin mantle line per kilogram – the difference lies in the proportion of the conductor alone. Therefore, there are several types of cables instead of one price, staggered by copper content. What grades we distinguish and what they bring today is under Copper cable purchase.

Half a kilo brings half the kilo price of its grade – and is therefore far below the minimum amount of 25 euros per process for each copper grade. This amount is not worth selling as a private sale. Put them to what else is involved: brass, aluminum and stainless steel are billed in the same process, each grade with its own price. So the amount comes together without you driving twice.

There is no fixed legal limit in kilograms or euros in Germany: As a private person, you are allowed to give out as much copper as you have. Three other points are crucial. First, the origin. You can only sell what belongs to you – for example from your own renovation or from pipes and pipes of your own house. Material from a construction site or the employer usually belongs to the customer or company; anyone who sells it privately risks the accusation of embezzlement. For larger quantities and for new cable we therefore ask about the origin. Secondly, frequency and scope. Those who occasionally give away their own household items or material from the renovation sell privately. Those who sell regularly and with the intention of profit, thus collect, buy or systematically take material from orders, can be classified as commercial by the tax office – with business registration and taxable income. There is no fixed limit to this, it depends on the individual case. Thirdly, the duties of purchase. Every purchase is documented, and in the event of major payments, the Money Laundering Act requires an ID card. In short: to give up your own old copper occasionally is unproblematic, even in larger quantities. Those who regularly sell or cannot safely prove their origin will better clarify this with a tax consultant in advance. This is not legal or tax advice.