Copper Wire Identification Guide: Every Type, Ranked by Value

Wire is where most scrappers make their copper money, and where the most value quietly leaks away. The reason is simple: two cables can weigh the same and be worth wildly different amounts, because what matters isn’t the weight of the cable — it’s how much of that weight is copper. This guide teaches you to recognize each common type on sight and know, roughly, what’s inside before you ever put it on a scale.

If you want the exact numbers, the Copper Recovery Rates by Cable Type: Master Table has every figure with a calculator attached. This guide is about recognition — the skill that comes before the math.

The single question that ranks all wire

Every cable’s value comes down to its copper recovery rate: the percentage of total weight that’s actual copper versus insulation and jacketing. High recovery = thick copper, thin plastic. Low recovery = thin copper, heavy plastic. Learn to eyeball that ratio and you can rank any wire in seconds.

High-value wire (75–90% copper)

THHN / building wire — the scrapper’s favorite. Single thick conductor, thin colored plastic (often with a nylon coat), pulled from commercial and residential conduit. Feels heavy for its diameter because it’s mostly copper. If you find spools of this, you’ve found the good stuff.

MCM / feeder cable — thick utility and service-entrance cable. Even richer than THHN by weight. Less common for a beginner to run into, but the highest recovery of any everyday cable.

Mid-value wire (55–70% copper)

Romex / NM-B — the flat cable inside house walls, usually white, yellow, or orange jacketed, with two or three solid conductors plus a bare ground. Extremely common in renovation and demolition scrap. Solid recovery, easy to strip. Watch for old cloth-jacketed romex with tinned (silvery) conductors — it recovers noticeably less.

Appliance and AC whip wire — stranded conductors in thicker rubber insulation, pulled from the back of appliances and HVAC units. Decent but not as rich as building wire.

Low-value wire (20–45% copper)

Extension cords / SJ cord — stranded fine copper under thick rubber. The plugs contain a little brass worth separating at some yards. Recovery is low; usually not worth hand-stripping.

Cat5/Cat6 / communications cable — eight thin conductors under a round jacket. Solid-core bulk runs recover better than folklore claims, but the conductors are so thin that hand-stripping is brutally slow — nearly everyone sells data cable as-is. Stranded patch cords recover about half what solid runs do.

MC/BX armored cable — copper conductors inside a spiral steel (or sometimes aluminum) armor. The armor dominates the weight, so recovery is low; the armor itself is separate scrap.

Christmas lights — the bottom of the barrel. Hair-thin conductors plus sockets and bulbs. Published figures range from 5% to 30% copper. Never worth stripping; sell by the pound as-is in the low-grade pile.

How to tell them apart fast

• Diameter of the copper vs the jacket. Peel back an inch. Fat copper, thin plastic = high grade. Thin copper, fat plastic = low grade.
• Solid vs stranded. Solid single conductors (romex, THHN) grade higher and strip faster than fine stranded bundles (cords, patch cables).
• Color of the copper. Bright orange-red is clean, high-value copper. Silvery means tinned copper, which grades down. Dull brown may just be oxidized — still fine.
• The magnet. If a “wire” sticks to a magnet, its core or armor is steel — that changes the whole calculation. (See the magnet test.)

From identification to dollars

Recognizing the cable is half the job; pricing it is the other half. Once you know what you’re holding:

• Run it through the Copper Wire Yield Calculator — enter the type, weight (or spec and length), and your prices.
• Decide whether to strip it with the Strip or Sell calculator, which prices your time.
• Check the full Master Recovery Table for exact percentages.
• Back to all Wire & Cable guides.