Anyone know what scrap steel is worth??

Yet another hassle we could well do without........

When we bought this property, over 7 years ago now, there was a large, old crane parked under the trees, down the back of the property.
We have tried several times over the years to track down the owner, but no such luck.
Therefore, we regard the crane as abandoned and now belongs to us.

Had a bloke knock on the door this morning. Seems the so-called owner of said crane has given it to him to demolish for scrap [:0][:0][:0]

I firstly suggested that anyone who "claims" to own the crane can approach us firstly, with proof of ownership and we will go from there.
I can then issue them with an invoice for storage of this item for the past 7.5 years, that we have owned this property.

Then I suggested that we were the actually owners of this crane as it has been abandoned on our property, with no contact from anyone about it in all the years we have been here.

I also mentioned "Lawyers" somewhere amongst this conversation.

This person then offered to take it away for us, should we like that to happen.
Seems he wants it for scrap, so I have suggested we may like to sell it to him to pay for its storage for all these years.

he also indicated that a person from down the road had been helping himself to parts off this crane. We had infact treated the missing parts as a burglary and had informed the police of such (this was a couple of years ago now).

Anyway, this person has now offered to buy it off us for scrap value. We have no idea what it is actually worth. I guess it would weigh several tonnes, so anyone know what the going rate for scrap steel is?????

Any other thoughts on this matter??

Would actually quite like to get this matter sorted before we on-sell the property.

Dealers around here are paying $100 a tonne and picking it up maybe worth a few phone calls to get prices

Would definitely get the scrap merchant out to have a look. I know of folk that are cheeky like that and offer local farmers to "clean up" their dumps and regularly get enough to pay the rent and other bills for the week. Put the money in your own pocket before you sell the farm.

moggie - before answering your questions, my first thoughts are how is he going to get it off your property? Is he planning to come in with welding gear and cut it up into removeable sized parts? A huge truck? Loader? What would be left behind under the spot it has been sitting on?

Just saw on TM a bulldozer and he was quoting scrap price offered,Its under farming. I don't know how to do the putting it on here thingys sorry:)

I'd take a bunch of photos and put it on trademe with a $95 a ton reserve, Specify sell price as per ton, not per item and sell as scrap. let the buyer come pick it up and insist on a weigh bridge receipt with payment.

We had it listed on Trademe as collectors item. we had a buyer from Dunedin came to look at it and he was very, very interested in restoring it.
When we took him out to look at it, it had been stripped of various parts - including 4 links off the track, which made it rather difficult to move the thing. Needless to say, our buyer declined and we got the Police involved. They could not prove anything, so the case was filed. One of the items taken was an enamel number plate - apparently worth plenty to those who restore these things. Luckily, I have heaps of photos of the number plate. I shall go to these crank up days and see if I can spot our plate and then get the cops involved again.

But back to our present dilema. Seems the radiator out of the crane is worth a few $$$ on its own.
Also seems someone has been over at its resting spot as OH found a very fresh, empty beer bottle there this morning. Could not have been thrown there from anywhere. The whole saga is getting very annoying.

I guess whoever takes it away will have to cut it up on site and remove it that way. Might just speak to a few of the scrap dealers and see what they say......

Heavy steel is getting $190 tonne in Christchurch yards so you should fly in at $95 tonne pick up

Would try T Me again. It is a shame to scrap an old machine that could be part of NZ's engineering heritage.

out of curiosity, any pics of the old machine you can share?

I agree with powerguy but thats because I love to collect old tractors and machines. Shame you are so far away but maybe just as well as I'm not allowed anymore I've been told LOL

Here are some pics of it. I agree, it is a shame to "scrap" it, but as some bits are now gone, it seems to be in the "too hard" basket for restorers.

Attached files

looks interesting, wish you weren't so far away, I'd be happy to deposit it under a tree here until i ever got around to doing it up but no money or time and already too many projects here right now...

Is the black and white plate on the front the plate that got stolen?

Love it but same as Kiwi, is it a crane or drag line they made both.

Is it an old Ruston Bucyrus 10 ? Probably still worth restoring to a Classic Collector