What's the price difference between yellow brass and red brass scrap?
Short answer: Red brass generally pays more than yellow brass because of its higher copper content — red brass runs 85%+ copper with smaller amounts of zinc, tin, and lead, closer in value to bronze, while yellow brass is roughly 60-70% copper with more zinc diluting the value. Yellow brass shows up in plumbing fittings and hardware; red brass is common in older water meter bodies and pump housings.
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List Free →Why copper content drives the price gap
Brass is fundamentally a copper-zinc alloy, and the ratio determines value. Red brass (sometimes called “red metal”) runs 85%+ copper with smaller amounts of zinc, tin, and lead, closer in value to bronze. Yellow brass is roughly 60-70% copper with more zinc, which is a cheaper, lower-value metal diluting the copper content.
How to tell them apart
Red brass has a noticeably reddish-orange tint compared to yellow brass’s more golden-yellow color, similar to comparing pure copper to a duller alloy. Common red brass items include older water meter bodies, pump housings, and some plumbing valves; yellow brass is common in door hardware, plumbing fittings, and ammunition casings (cartridge brass).
What this means for sorting
If you’re accumulating mixed brass scrap, a rough visual sort by color before selling can noticeably improve your average price, since a buyer pricing a mixed load will default toward the lower yellow-brass rate unless you’ve separated it.
How ScrapTrade Makes This Easier
Listing red brass and yellow brass as separate lots on ScrapTrade lets buyers who specifically want the higher-copper red brass bid accordingly, rather than a blended guess applied to the whole load.
Ready to sell or source brass scrap without the guesswork? ScrapTrade connects verified buyers and sellers with escrow-protected payments and transparent weighing.
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