Been there, done that, don’t have time to look back

Sep 01, 2008 | 12:12 PM |

And so it came to pass that the last of the U.S. Big Three proclaimed that auto factory bundles would no longer be sold openly. And was there great wailing and moaning throughout the land?

Nope.

There were a few dealers and scrap buyers who wondered aloud, "How will we know what to sell or buy scrap for?" Then they went back to their usual monthly go-rounds of haggling and bargaining. That's the way the buying and selling of scrap metal has been done for decades. Sure, the auto bundles did provide a starting point for some, but it was never carved in stone that grades like No. 1 dealer bundles and No. 1 busheling would rise or fall by the same dollar amount.

There have always been measures of give and take in ferrous scrap transactions, sometimes not in the most polite terms. An irate buyer or seller may suggest that the person on the other end of the phone line was descended from a canine mother or born out of wedlock. Or if not aloud on the phone, then to others in the office after the conversation. Maybe this is not as tactful as Miss Manners would recommend, but deals got done and the same buyers and sellers would be back on the phone again the following month exchanging pleasantries.....