Whether you want to remove one part or sell a pallet load, you’ll have less trouble and potentially make more cash by doing it right. Recycling catalytic converters is a booming business, which is both good and (kind of) bad. The good news is obviously that demand for the platinum, palladium, and rhodium in those scrap converters makes it possible to get a decent amount of cash for a catalytic converter. You need to know how to shop around, learn about the parts you have, handle your old parts correctly, and find the right buyer.
1 - Shop Around Before Recycling Your Converters
You wouldn’t sell an old car to the first person who made an offer if you had a choice. Right? Trying two or three converter buyers should get you a higher price. This should be easy enough and if you are recycling catalytic converters by the gross, you’ll end up making a good deal more money. Bear in mind that a $10 price difference multiplied by 144 old converters is $1,440. That’s a pretty decent return for doing just a little bit of extra research. Beware! You can undermine the value of your parts by careless handling.
On a related note, understand that there are different ways of recycling your catalytic converters if you have a large number of cats to sell. Normally, you would just sell the whole converter to a recycler. They take it from there. You may also use a company to hedge the metals on your behalf.
2 – Know What You’ve Got
You’ll want to know a couple of things about your cat before you go shopping for a buyer. The most obvious thing is the model number. This will be stamped somewhere on the part. Of course, age and mileage may have made it hard to read. Use still wool to give the area a light polishing if corrosion and grime make the part number unreadable.
The not-so-obvious thing you want to know is whether you are holding an original part or an aftermarket part. Aftermarket converters tend to have smaller amounts of PGMs, and you get less cash for a converter with less precious metal in it. You can often tell a non-original part by the arrow stamped on the case, to tell a technician which way to install it.
3 - Handle with Care
If you have exhaust systems with catalytic converters, you need to remove the exhaust pipes with care. Do not remove the honeycomb material inside. You might be able to sell them but it will be impossible to get full value for the material. Why? The smelter or recycler doesn’t know exactly what they are dealing with. That means they don’t quite know how much PGM material they can recover.
That is only one of two problems. Another problem is that rough handling can knock off pieces of the honeycomb. The tiny amount of PGMs is reduced even more. Some buyers are reluctant to take damaged honeycombs and damaged converters. So, don’t be too rough, and don’t attempt to remove the “biscuit” at a junkyard or garage.
Cut away the exhaust pipe leading into and away from the converter, as the recycling company will have to do this so, and will make you pay for the extra labor. You’ll also end up better off financially by using a company experienced in recycling catalytic converters.
4 – Go to an Experienced Company
An increasing number of scrap yards and recycling companies are buying up converters. Given the demand for those scarce PGMs, this just makes sense. However, not all companies that buy old cats are equally good buyers. This is true for a few different reasons. Some companies may be hoping to buy low and sell high, getting parts for a fraction of what they’d get if they were sold directly to a recycler who knows how to extract the metals.
Always trust your parts and your profits to an experienced specialist. They’ll know how to de-can your converters without damaging the cores. The company will be experienced at hedging the precious metals inside, to get you the best price. Pricing things accurately means having access to detailed information on what different models are worth, and how that value changes with ups-and-downs in the PGM markets.
The main part of your quote will come from the scrap value of PGMs. A catalytic converter with 1 gram of rhodium, 4 grams of palladium, and 4 grams of platinum contains at least $500 in precious metals. All converters contain steel that has some scrap value.
Cash in on Catalytic Converters
Once you understand how to handle and price converters, you are well-prepared to find the right buyer for one converter or several hundred. You’ll want to get recent and reliable pricing too, which is why Belanger created their Group Catalyst app. You can quickly price converters and keep a record of what you have. Visit their site today for Android and iOS download links.
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