Classic cars and trucks crushed because of increasing price of scrap metal

The reason for the shortage of old tin is the increasing price of scrap metal. A decade ago scrap vehicles were worth just $7.50 a tonne - whereas today they are fetching a staggering $300 a tonne. To put this into perspective, a truck loaded with crushed American cars and pickup trucks from the 60s and 70s is worth about $7,500 today, whereas it would have fetched just $175 in the mid 1990s.

For some junkyard bosses, who also have the added hassle of increased environmental pressures, this is all the impetus they need to get out of the business.

Mobile crushers are being called in, cars and trucks are being flattened, and money is at last being made. Other junkyard owners are choosing to dispose of part of their stock, and inevitably it's the older, heavier vehicles that are the first to go. While this may sound like killing the goose that lays the golden egg, many will argue that this isn't the case. Elderly vehicles tend to sit around for years, earning very little income for their owners. The later models, with their quick turnaround of parts, are the serious income generators.

The demand for steel is not going to go away, and the price of recycled metal is not about to drop. Within a few years the traditional junkyard is likely to have disappeared and I'm going to need to find a new hobby.

I'm not sure if I'm ever going to find enough pictures to make a successor to my current book.