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What kind of copper does the thin braided copper wire from appliance power cords count as . I know the thickness has to be over a certain gage to count as bare bright but what does the really thin stuff pay as . And is it worth stripping honestly

Boardsort doesn’t sort wire.
So if you’re looking at local scrap for appliance cables, the grade depends. I’ve always sorted it. And never had an issue locally. Always graded as 90wire. But the actual term varies by yard.

Assuming 200+ volt wire:
Age and quality is the deciding factor for stripping. If it’s just braided wire, and not exceptionally thick (think extension cable wire) the time without automation is probably a net loss.
But older cables used thick copper rope or solid copper strands. Especially for ground wires. That stuff is worth it as the price can exceed $3 today stripped.

I only strip silver, tin, and low gage (thick) wire. I use a drill powered friction stripper for silver and tin. (I use Dragon but TNT is popular).
I use a ceramic fillet knife for solid copper strands. cuisinart

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As with most other things, as Lost hinted at, test the waters in your area with your local scrap yards.
The terminologies range from ICW to insulated copper wire #3/2/1 (copper to junk ratio). The 0.60/lb Boardsort is paying isn't bad considering it's what we get here (upstate NY) for the lower grade cords (ins. #2 or 3) and it sounds like this is what you have.
Keep in mind, shipping will suck all the value out of a wire shipment if that is the entirety of your load. Consider a drop-off if youre not too far from them or you don't have a yard near you at all.
My preferred scrap yard (there are 7 within 15 minutes of my house) wont take stripped braided wire as bare bright at all, they buy all braided stuff as #2. So, call around and ask to see if stripping is worth your time. Even at #2 prices, still seems like a no-brainer if you have a decent rig. Shouldn't take too long.

Don’t be that person.
TLDR: automation doesn’t work for thin wire

The biggest and most common mistake I see in starting out with wire recovery is spending on YouTube suggestions for electronics scrap.
Again, the vast majority of YouTube scrappers are absolutely full of it. As in lie to your face.

Check out reputable people like Shark and Moose. Notice what they DON’T do? Scrap thin electronics wire! Not a chance.
Those pitches for otherwise good products, are either sponsored or biting for add hits.

You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone with experience make a bad comment about either TNT or Dragon strippers. Manual or semi-automatic. But such tools do not work with the thin tin or aluminium wires inside most modern electronics. Here’s the inside not for you. Those wires are NOT stripped in commercial recycling either. Not in 4” strands. They are shredded and the plastic is chemically dissolved. The plastic liquid is then refined for other oil products. Nobody os stripping tin cables from a smart bulb. Or even gold antenna cables from cell phones or tablets. It simply doesn’t work.

With that out of the way, common sense can make you money.
TNT has a manual stripper that is a small block of machined aluminium with super sharp needle strippers and sized holes.
And it works really well for manual stripping of small batches of wire. They can be found new for $100 or less.

Most people will want a semi automated unit. These start in the $200 range and rise up to around $800. They are precision crafted units with adjustable gears or tension belts. And are powered by a drill or driver. The benefit here is many can handle thinner wire than manual or automatic strippers when dealing with longer cables. I actually use a dragon for long telephone and network cable. USB, etc. a gentle pass to separate the outer layer. Than the individual strands inside.

For longer lengths or thicker wire such as power, or distribution, I suggest a powered stripper. As long as you have the volume to recover the cost quickly. These start at $400 and cost up to many thousands. But for large batches of well sorted wire nothing is faster or easier. Set the adjustments. Turn the machine on. And feed the wires in. Out comes clean plastic and clean copper. In nice sorted piles. Ready to sell both.
But these automatic machines will not handle the thinnest and most common internal wires of electronics.

But as I said above, a good quality fillet knife will do wonders quickly for thick wires like power cables. A good way to start and save for a machine.

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I have a Stripmeister, I am able to strip just about anything with it. If I remember it was 14 gage and thicker, up to about 1 inch thick wire (that includes insulation, btw). I will go and find my picture of it and post it.

Here is a picture of it.

My girlfriend won't let me have a stripper :(

Wait, sorry, wrong kind of stripper! If I had more workbench space I would get an automatic stripper, but right now there's no room in my shop.

Comment of the year!

I highly caution against fully automatic ones to those who have never dealt with them. Definitely not for those who haven’t used semis.
There are many highly rated reliable semi-auto that run off a power drill or driver, or support electric and manual modes. These should be the ideal target for most scrappers. V notch pin blades work far more reliably than circular blades used in most (all?) automatics.
The pins are inexpensive to replace. And you could theoretically make your own pins or contract a machinist.

Stay away from “automatic” bench top units. They simply wire a motor in to the unit and generally you have no real speed control by using your own driver. I’ve seen and heard horror stories of flying pins. A compression blade in a true auto will roll over internal rf rings and pinched divots. Pins do not. Things you notice hand feeding a machine.

True automatics start the size of a small microwave oven.

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