A woman in blue overalls and a pink tank top sits on a bench in a tool‑filled workshop, holding a broken copper wire in one hand and a small mechanical tool in the other. She looks at the camera, smiles and says, “Let’s make money stripping … wire!” This wordplay captures a niche on TikTok where users film themselves stripping copper wire to sell the metal for extra cash. The creators do not appear to coordinate or use a common hashtag, and they have not invented a new “‑maxxing” term, but many of their videos share a striking visual formula: a complex appliance is dismantled, industrial wire is pulled apart like licorice ropes, and the result is a pile of gleaming amber‑colored strands.
The participants are a varied group. Some are hobbyists or electricians looking for supplemental income, others claim to be saving for a major purchase, and a few seem to be cash‑strapped teenagers. Their videos feature languages such as English, French, Spanish, German and Romanian. At least one user runs an Etsy shop selling hand‑cast copper bricks, also called ingots, made by pouring molten metal into molds.
Selling scrap copper is not new. The metal’s relative scarcity, excellent electrical conductivity and recyclability have made it valuable for centuries. This year, however, copper prices surged to record levels. In September, International Monetary Fund data showed copper at roughly $14,473 per metric ton, or about $7.23 per pound—more than double the price in September 2020.
There is no reliable data on how often people sell scrap copper, but the frequency of copper theft—often involving material taken from vehicles, plumbing or roofs—offers some insight. Craig Depken II, chair and professor of economics at the University of North Carolina‑Charlotte, says theft spikes under two conditions: when copper prices rise, as they are now, and when economic distress makes the potential profit appear to outweigh the risk of getting caught. (In the United States, selling legally obtained copper is permitted everywhere except Minnesota, which requires a state‑issued license.)
On TikTok, copper‑focused accounts can attract hundreds of thousands of followers. TikTok Shop even sells wire‑stripping tools, the small devices that bite through insulation to expose copper. The most popular model has sold over 20,000 units worldwide at the time of writing.
The final price a recycler pays for copper depends on quality, grade and whether the metal is still insulated in plastic or rubber. Insulated copper fetches only a fraction of the price of stripped copper, so many resellers strip the wire themselves to increase earnings. Even with a wire stripper, the work can be monotonous, and sharing the process appears to help creators make the task more tolerable.
Users have turned wire‑stripping into themed events, posting about “girls’ night,” “movie night” or even “date night” spent around a spool of wire. In an August video, creator @Payciencu.u strips wire on a bed next to a man in a red sweatshirt, with the overlay text reading, “How down bad are you? Well I’m stripping wire just to hang out with him sooo.”
Other TikTokkers treat copper scrapping as a full‑time side hustle or hobby, posting time‑lapses, tutorials and lists of the “worst cables to strip for copper.” Benjamin Stickle, a criminal‑justice professor at Middle Tennessee State University and author of the 2017 book *Metal Scrappers and Thieves*, identifies three main categories of legal scrappers: people trying to make ends meet, workers selling scrap they acquire on the job, and individuals raising money for charitable causes. Electricians, who are plentiful among the wire‑stripping TikTok community, fall neatly into the worker category. Some creators are harder to classify, especially when they also earn money from TikTok itself.
One creator, @Courtney2291, did not respond to WIRED’s inquiries but began documenting her effort to strip enough copper to save $20,000 for a three‑bedroom home earlier this year. She sourced wire and old machinery from family, a scrap yard and Facebook Marketplace, stripping almost daily. On October 10, just over six months after she started, she announced she had reached her fundraising goal. However, most of the money did not come from selling copper. A scrap‑yard receipt she shared showed she earned only $99 from selling 30 pounds of copper over six months. In contrast, a single TikTok video generated $1,446 after amassing 6.8 million views, according to a screenshot of earnings she posted.
Courtney says she plans to keep posting after moving into her new home. “Once the house is mine, and it’s all set up and ready to be lived in, then I’ll continue pretty much the same kind of content,” she said, adding that her next target will be to pay off the loan on the two acres of land where the house sits.
Other popular copper creators, such as “King of Copper” and “Queen of Copper,” focus on scale and spectacle rather than personal narratives. Their videos show them buying crates and trunks containing hundreds of pounds of old wire and stripping each piece piece by piece. Although they do not claim any affiliation, they occasionally repost each other’s content and have each amassed hundreds of thousands of followers. How much they earn from TikTok and YouTube remains unclear. King of Copper is currently more than 70 days into a self‑described quest to…