Sep 21, 2026
Stuart Kagan's Balls of Steel: A battle-tested playbook for the modern scrap yard
Balls of Steel, a new book by scrap industry veteran and Buddy co-founder Stuart Kagan, is an honest, boots-on-the-ground guide for scrap yard owners and operators who refuse to leave the future to chance. Kagan delivers real insights for building a scrap metal business that can adapt faster and compete harder in the years ahead. "The instinct that built great businesses still matters, but it's not enough on its own anymore," he writes. "Balls of Steel is about keeping what made scrap strong and adding what the future demands."
Balls of Steel arrives as the metal recycling sector faces converging pressures: tightening margins, commodity volatility, growing compliance demands, labour challenges, and the beginning of meaningful technological disruption. Kagan argues that the yards that will survive and lead are those that combine operational grit with strategic intelligence, and that the tools to do this are already here, more capable than most operators assume and improving at pace. The stakes are real, the window is open, and the operators who move with intention now will be the ones setting the pace later.
Rooted in real stories and hard-won lessons, the book covers everything from customer relationships and cash flow to leadership, smarter systems, and what the yard of the future actually looks like. It weaves in conversations from Born Scrappy, Kagan’s podcast where industry legends share their setbacks, wins, and sharp instincts - extending those conversations into a format leadership, traders and operators can apply on the ground. Each chapter is grounded in the realities of the trade: deals that were too good to be true, machines that turned into expensive lessons, pressure that exposed weak points, and moments where better judgment made all the difference.
Tyler Adams, COO of SA Recycling, sees the book as both important and timely. “The scrap industry is in a period of change and what worked for decades isn't going to be enough on its own for what's ahead. The hard part is finding voices who can hold both sides of that - the grit that built this industry and the systems that will define how it operates from here. Stuart sits credibly in both: three decades on the operations and trading side, and now building the technology layer with Buddy. A book from someone with that footing is exactly the kind of guide this industry has needed.”
The book reads the way the industry talks: direct, unvarnished, and with no patience for theory that doesn't hold up in the yard. Rather than replacing the old-school scrappy, Kagan’s message is to arm the operator with better tools and a clearer read on what’s changing. Get your copy today from https://www.tradebuddy.io/balls-of-steel.
About the Author
Stu Kagan has spent nearly three decades in the scrap metal industry. He previously served as Executive Director for the largest metal recycler in sub-Saharan Africa, later co-founded one of New Zealand's fastest-growing recycling companies, and now co-leads Buddy, the platform that is built to be the digital backbone of the recycled metals industry. You can find him behind the mic on the Born Scrappy podcast, onstage at industry events, and, of course, in the yard.
For media inquiries, interview requests, speaking opportunities, or advance copies, contact: Lisa Kagan, lisa@tradebuddy.io www.tradebuddy.io
Book Details
Title: Balls of Steel Author: Stu Kagan Publication Date: June 2026 Available: https://www.tradebuddy.io/balls-of-steel