I have an idea for how to profit by selling scrap copper. But first, the story.

My neighborhood had a garage sale, so I put some random stuff at the end of my driveway with a "Free" sign on it. By the end of the day, an old amp, CD player and power strip weren't taken. I forgot to take them in that night (because I didn't really care), and by the morning, I saw them lying at my mailbox in disarray.

When I retrieved the electronics, I saw that their power cords had been cut off. That nine feet of insulated wire was obviously valuable enough for someone to bother retrieving them, ruining three devices in the process. And I live on a dead end street in a less-than-suburban area. It's a shame, I realized the CD player could have been donated to a second-hand store for someone to actually use.

I know insulated wire has an obscenely low scrap metal value, but there may be a way to both profit and recycle from this craze. Many of you are techs, so how many computer power cables have you amassed? I somehow have a 25 pound box full at my house and two smaller boxes full at my office; none of which I will ever use. I'd love to see these things be recycled, so selling them as scrap wire would be a relief AND a profit.

Does anyone know if computer power cables can be sold as scrap metal? Are they copper, aluminum, or what? And clearly this idea isn't revolutionary, so why aren't there people hoarding these unwanted power cables for scrap?