Hm, cutting and pasting never even occured to me.

I usually save the object into the library and then import it into the scene file from there. I keep a junk drawer library that gets deleted periodically for all the little bits and pieces.

Also, I've sometime seen Bryce5.5 render an object as matte grey regardless of the material it really is. Usually just opening and closing the mat lab reminds Bryce to get it right.