Get scrap metal out of the humidity before it solders itself into one pile
AC change-outs in Brandon, salt-eaten aluminum in Clearwater, phosphate-town steel in Lakeland. Send a photo.
Live metal spot prices
Local prices vary by yard. Send a photo for a quote. The figures above are live market spot prices from gold-api, for reference only — not a local scale ticket.
Sorting is necessary
Gulf humidity corrodes bare copper and aluminum if they sit in the grass. Get non-ferrous up on a pallet, away from yard waste, or the grade falls before anyone weighs it.
What usually pays
How it works
Send us a message
We cover Tampa and the bay-area towns below. Bridges and storm debris change routes — name the city and whether the pile is still wet.
What Tampa Bay puts out for scrap
Slab houses, salt air, and constant air conditioning
Tampa Bay houses sit on slabs, so the scrap is not a basement full of cast iron. It is air conditioners, copper line sets, aluminum carports, and the metal of a kitchen that flooded or simply wore out. On the Pinellas side — St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo — salt air eats aluminum fascias, screen cages, and window frames until a remodel finally pulls them off.
Inland, Brandon, Riverview, and Wesley Chapel are newer. Their scrap is builder cutoffs and the first round of appliance and AC replacements, not a 1920s bungalow rewire.
Humidity, hurricanes, and a season you can feel in the pile
Moisture is the grading problem. A coil left in the grass after an afternoon storm looks like dirty scrap even when the copper is fine. Hurricane and tropical-storm cleanups add a second pattern: aluminum screen rooms, fence, and appliances that took on water. Those loads need an honest photo. Flood-soaked mixed junk is not a copper ticket.
Summer is also when cars fail and stay failed. A vehicle that flooded on a side street in Shore Acres or simply rusted out on a Lutz lot is a title-and-tow question, not a posted price.
Port, phosphate, and the inland warehouses
Tampa’s port and industrial edges produce steel and mixed commercial scrap that a residential page should not pretend to be. If you are clearing a warehouse or a shop, say so and photograph the scale of it. Lakeland’s inland warehouses and the region’s phosphate history show up as heavier steel and equipment, a longer drive from the bay.
Household gold and silver are the quiet third lane: estate jewelry from a Clearwater condo or coins from a Plant City farmhouse. They do not belong in the AC-coil pile.
Questions people ask
Are the live prices Tampa yard prices?
No. They are market spot prices. Local prices vary by yard. Send a photo for a quote.
Do you publish a street address?
No. A partner yard receives material under its own location and rules.
What about storm debris?
Photograph it. Aluminum from a screen cage and a flooded appliance pile are different loads, and the yard decides what it will take.
Towns around Tampa
A St. Petersburg bungalow and a Wesley Chapel spec house do not produce the same metal. Use the matching town page.