Metal Scrapping question

Any scrappers on here? I occasionally do it but every time has been at a different place of business. By that I mean by the the next time I do it that business isn’t reputable anymore or are out of business. Sold $230.00 worth of copper and brass the other day. I’m on lay-off and thought it a good idea to trade it in and bought something and put rest in savings. A place here locally sold at auction and had been sold for awhile. I happened to pass by and thought about checking dumpster. I was met by owner and he said it was cool so I loaded up on some metal. Got a small electric motor, a couple of aluminum ladders and some other repurposing useful items. Came back to help a friend pick up some oak boards they tossed out and then saw it. It was a giant couldn’t pick it up electric motor. I arranged for trailer then called guy and asked if I could have it. He said that he couldn’t believe that it was still there. My question is this... scrap yard pays .09 a pound for electric motors and I guesstimated $27.00 for it as is. Is there any advantage of taking it a part? Would I gain that much more money? Watched youtube video about it and he got some copper obviously but some had aluminum windings. I figure maybe 15 pounds of Copper a little brass and steel. So copper is around $2.50 per pound so that’s more but is it worth it to tear it down... maybe a aluminum winding motor. Also watched a gold extraction video but that guy is working pretty hard to get enough. Some of these scrappers are probably gonna die from cancer by the looks of what they were doing to extract metal. Although disgusting old garbage disposals they have good copper and silver in small amounts... Catalytic converters are obviously valuable for platinum. Also microwaves, CRT’s, Pipe and fixtures have Brass/Copper but do you know of any other lucrative profit potential items?

 

Car batteries are the money maker around here. $5-$10 each.

Scrap prices are pretty low right now. Kind of hard to make any real money.

Stripping down that huge motor might make you an extra $10. Not sure if it's really worth the effort.

 

Time is money

if you aren’t busy, then you’re time is cheap

 

Also any idea when steel prices might go up? Or what has driven rise in past? Have a 91 Geo Prizm wifey is getting all upset about its existence in driveway. Gonna yank catalytic converter, battery, radiator out of it then sell car for steel scrap. Also wonder if those little 4 cylinders are worth anything? Saw on one forum that a guy built a fairly fast sand rail using one. It ran good but trans crapped out on mine. Maybe pull a few parts like tail lights, mirrors then junk it! Hope to break even with enough money to give friend money for hauling it away.

 

Oh and the microwaves yield some nice fender washer sized magnets that I guess I tossed without knowing about them. Estate sale last days are good for cheap metal buys. Getting close to retirement years and I plan on scrapping a lot more often in future. Good cash, plenty of time to do it then. Oh and thinking about taking my metal detector down to river where everyone shot guns to see if there is a lot of brass in a certain spot.