Seller guide
Scrap Value vs Resale Value
Two numbers, described in similar language, that can differ by several multiples.
- Paid before removal
- No testing required
- Dismantling and rigging on us
- Freight always covered
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What a scrap quote actually is
A scrap price is arithmetic: estimated copper and aluminum weight, multiplied by a commodity rate, minus the yard's cost to process the material and separate the metals from the steel and the insulation. It is a legitimate number and it is the floor under any piece of electrical equipment.
What it deliberately ignores is function. A scrap yard has no mechanism to care whether the handle throws or which busway line the unit fits, because their buyer is a smelter. Every characteristic that makes your equipment useful to another plant is invisible in that calculation.
What a resale offer is
A resale price starts from what a facility still operating your busway line will pay for a serviceable plug. That figure is set by their alternatives, which on a discontinued line means replacing the whole distribution system. It is not related to metal weight and can be several multiples of it.
We pay resale value on equipment with a resale market and recovery value on equipment without one, and we tell you which category yours falls into before you commit to anything.
Why the gap is unusually wide on busway
Most electrical equipment has some degree of interchangeability, which caps how far resale value can drift above metal value. Plug-in units have almost none. That absence of substitutes is exactly what produces large spreads, and it is specific to this category in a way that does not apply to generic wire or common breakers.
The corollary is that the spread is not uniform. On a current-production line with easy availability, resale and scrap can sit close together. The nameplate is what tells you which situation you are in.
How to tell which one you are being offered
Ask two questions. First: do you resell this equipment, or do you recover metal from it? Second: is your price based on weight or on the specific units? A buyer quoting weight will say so when asked directly.
Be alert to language that sounds like resale but is not. Phrases about paying above scrap or paying top dollar are entirely compatible with a weight-based quote. The distinguishing question is whether the busway line affects the number.
The cost of guessing wrong
Scrapping resale-grade equipment is irreversible and the money is simply gone. Getting a resale opinion first costs a photograph and a phone call, and because we buy in both categories there is no scenario where asking leaves you worse off.
The equipment most often scrapped by mistake is exactly the equipment worth the most: old units from discontinued lines that look like junk and are not.
What we do with recovery-grade material
We buy it, at recovery value, as part of the same lot. You are not left sorting the good from the bad or arranging separate disposal for the remainder.
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Other seller guides
Everything worth knowing before you sell
Funds change hands before a single section leaves your property. There is no consignment and no waiting on a downstream resale.
Our own crew takes the run down. You are not sourcing riggers, renting lifts or chasing a carrier who has never handled busway before.
You are never asked to test, megger or certify anything. We grade from physical condition and the nameplate. That is the entire process.
Fusible plugs, breaker units, bus duct, tap boxes, panelboards and starters all on one job is the normal case rather than the exception.
Scrap Value vs Resale Value: quick answers
Straight answers
Will you match a scrap quote I already have?
We will tell you honestly whether we can beat it, and on resale-grade equipment we usually can by a wide margin.
Do you pay less because you cover the removal?
The removal cost is already in our numbers. Compare our net figure against a scrap figure minus what you would pay to get the equipment down.
Is there any equipment you will not buy?
Very little. Tell us what you have and we will be direct about it.
Questions about your own equipment?
Call or text photos and we will tell you what you have.
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