Maximum price for WWs

[roysha]

What is the maximum price per lb. you would pay for clip on WWs?

I have an opportunity to purchase nearly 800 lbs of them, mostly big truck sized weights, but I feel the guy is about 25%-30% too high. I hate to let them get away but I hate worse getting screwed!

I checked the national market price for scrap lead and it ran around $.40 lb but our local scrap yard is only paying $.28 lb which the fellow will not accept.

[selmerfan]

The most I've paid is $.45/lb and they were perfectly clean, no trash, no zinc, no steel, just some dust. I didn't like it, but I paid it.

[bowfin]

I would pay pay 40¢ a pound for them if they were mostly large and mostly lead. Any more than that and you should look at buying lead from the vendors here on the website, because time spent smelting and fluxing competes with time spent casting and shooting.

I think the seller figures that the price can only go up, so he is going to be looking for more than he can get at the junkyard.

Now, some guys here on the forum never pay a dime for wheelweights, and some guys have never seen a bucket of them for sale at any price. Some guys already have a sizeable stash of lead and can wait for a great deal and for some a great deal is just below the price offered on this web, because they actually like to smelt.

My advice to you is pick a price that will make you happy, and offer that. What those wheelweights are worth to the junkyard and what they are worth to you may be two different prices. Also remember this guy didn't save up 800 pounds waiting to sell for the price he could have got last year when gas was a dollar a gallon cheaper.

Good luck in your decision, but in the end only two people can decide the "fair" price.

[fatelk]

If they are mostly big truck wheel weights, no non-lead weights mixed in, and reasonably clean, I would easily give 40 cents/lb for them. I haven't smelted but a tiny fraction of the wheel weights that some here have, but my experience is that with bigger weights you will end up with a better percentage of lead yield.

Around here I just can't find lead wheel weights, so I've quit looking. Clean and all lead, I would buy them in a heartbeat.

[Gswain]

Coming from california, im happy that i picked up 300 lbs of WWs for .50 a pound today. that stuff is impossible to find out here.

[badbob454]

dont give up the lead is still being pulled off of cars and trucks i live in ca. and i am still finding @ 20-30% lead and the remander is @ 45% fe or iron followed by 20% zinc or zn and 0-5% stick on lead so ask but dont pay much if at all , i havent paid yet best of chance to you and no effort = no lead

[Gswain]

my haul was 90 percent lead, i got 300 lbs and had 30 LBS of dross/zinc/steel/**** i pulled off of it

[Cherokee]

I would pay the 40 cents.

[klutz347]

Paid $.40 for "lead" a couple of months ago at the recycler.

There was flashing, WW's and under the flashing was a bunch of lino.

Got almost 300 lbs.

[bumpo628]

I bought a couple hundred pounds off ebay when I started out for about $1 per lb.
I recently found 6 buckets of lead at a tire shop for $50 per bucket. There was an average of 20% scrap in the buckets, so I paid about $0.40 per pound. I bought them all out.

Here in Kalifornia, the pickins are slim.

[Ole]

Depends on how badly you need them.

You don't need them/have no interest in reselling them: I wouldn't pay much over .50/lb.
If you need them: I'd pay up to .75/lb for them.

[geargnasher]

I quit buying them when my last source went from .65 to .75 cents/lb. If I didn't already have "enough" I would pay the .75 gladly. I've bought quite a few from members here in the past when my stash got really low and local availability was nil, I was not disappointed with those purchases, but if I can get it cheaper I will. I built several boolit trap backstops so now I just recycle what I have.

Gear

[XWrench3]

the most i have paid was $30.00 for a five gallon bucket, which is roughly 110 pounds of clip ons with a small amount of trash mixed in. there were some, maybe 4 or 5% that were iron or zinc (i dont know, they just did not melt at the temp that the vast majority did, so i toss them).i am pretty carefull about making sure the smelt does not get hot enough to melt zinc weights, and i have had no trouble after 6 or 7 buckets. unfortunatly now, i can not find any. i am glad i have 2 buckets of ingots that are 3/4 of the way full to carry me until i can find some more. i am going to have to expand my search area in order to hopefully find them.

[JeffinNZ]

I'm with Ole. Depend how bad you want them.

When you consider that you get 35 x 200gr bullets from a pound even if you pay $0.70lb that's still only 2 cents per bullet. That said, I like to know I am buying only LEAD.

I was in the mind set of free wheel weights or exchanging beer for lead but those days are gone. Scrap prices are high and times are tough. You have to be practical and if you can still buy WW's then be reasonable. At the end of the day, if you don't pay for them someone else will.

[468]

Roysha, if you don't buy them now, you'll be kicking yourself in the ars later.

[fredj338]

dont give up the lead is still being pulled off of cars and trucks i live in ca. and i am still finding @ 20-30% lead and the remander is @ 45% fe or iron followed by 20% zinc or zn and 0-5% stick on lead so ask but dont pay much if at all , i havent paid yet best of chance to you and no effort = no lead

Yeah, for maybe another 2yrs, then you'll be lucky to find a lead ww here anywhere.
Really, most of us are spoiled, we used to get ww for free or really cheap. Those days are over, have been for about a year, & it is only going to get worse. In 5yrs, you will have wished you bought all you could @ 50c/#. I would gladly pay that & stack it deep. With spot lead prices currently going over $1/#, bargain baby.

[Catshooter]

Like fred said.

If that seems a bit high, wait five or ten years. What do you think you'll be paying then?


Cat

[canyon-ghost]

Roysha, if you don't buy them now, you'll be kicking yourself in the ars later.

With certified alloys going for $2/lb to $4/lb, you think he's wrong about that?

Ron

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I just smelted 27 pounds and finished with 18 pounds in ingots running about 30% waste this was wheel weights from the local car dealer i don't see much zinc but a fair amount of iron

there was a member here selling 60 pounds shipped for about that many dollars so unless you like smelting a hole bunch 30-40 cents a pound is about where i figure your point of diminishing returns is hit propane isn't free

[badbob454]

Yeah, for maybe another 2yrs, then you'll be lucky to find a lead ww here anywhere.
Really, most of us are spoiled, we used to get ww for free or really cheap. Those days are over, have been for about a year, & it is only going to get worse. In 5yrs, you will have wished you bought all you could @ 50c/#. I would gladly pay that & stack it deep. With spot lead prices currently going over $1/#, bargain baby.

fred as luck has it i started casting fishing sinkers .. i have worked around cars and tires for years @40 ,only lead i paid for was lino tin and solder i have @ 2,000 lead coww and hundreds of pounds of tin ,lino, and solder so i am set ... just hoping you all dont give up i may have to sell off some some day , but that is later in life ... appy casting and blasting :Fire:

[white eagle]

Most I have paid at a recycler is .65
how much would I pay well that depends on my need for ww
I do however sell back the non lead pieces so that does differ the cost a bit

[Vly]

I know this post does not help anybody figure a price for wheelweight, but I just scored 60 lbs of NEW wheelweight from a RV dealer. I think in NY they can't use lead WW anymore. They were looking to throw it out. Fortunately, I was able to save it from that fate. :)

I had never seen it new, still in the box before.

http://www.fototime.com/962D34817A3B2BE/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/89721B58388D786/standard.jpg

[fredj338]

I know this post does not help anybody figure a price for wheelweight, but I just scored 60 lbs of NEW wheelweight from a RV dealer. I think in NY they can't use lead WW anymore. They were looking to throw it out. Fortunately, I was able to save it from that fate. :)

I had never seen it new, still in the box before.

]
Good score! I always ask when in some facility that may deal with tires, even scored about 20# from the Gm dealer last oil change. I don't drive around looking anymore her in Kalif, but always ask.

[jsizemore]

You haven't said how much he's asking for his ww. He's got .28 from the scrapyard already and probably doesn't need the money. So he can wait you out for his price.

So how much stashed do you have? If you don't, then will your future low price offset the current high price he's asking? If your sitting on a stash, then you can wait folks out. If you have a stash then you have to figure your overall average cost.

The large truck coww that I get will yield 90% ingot weight. Much better then the 80% of regular ww.

Personally, I've never paid more then $.25/lb and have gotten them for $.09. When a deal comes along, I make sure the moneys there to buy all I can.

[MT Gianni]

What is your maximum price for gasoline? Do you park everything and walk when it gets to $5? What if you need to get to a hospital.
Prices all depend on how bad you want or need it. In 5 years 40 cents may be a gift or a rip. None of us can see the future but we can all see that lead ww are on the way out. I have a few but if this was clean and close I would not worry about 10-20 cents a lb difference. I believe that if you only shoot 100 lbs in 5 years you can sell the rest at a profit. If not I have lost money in the stock market more than once.

[Viagrow]

I'm in California and WW are not easy to find. I buy from the good members here on Cast Boolits who sell them in ingot form. I like to help a fellow member make an honest dollar.

[oscarflytyer]

Personally, I WOULD pay $.40/lb for truck wheelweights - and I have two buckets WW in ingots and two still to smelt. I have smelted one bucket of the truck weights. MAN what a joy compared to the **** I scrounged from car tire places. Was night and day diff, and as someone else said - MUCH greater yield. So much so that I started looking for truck weights. Much easier/nicer.

[maglvr]

Just think how you'll be crying in 3-5 years when it is going for $3++ lb.

[Canuck Bob]

Local srap yard quoting $1.30 a pound!!!!!! Didn't buy but decided to commit myself to some serious scrounging while lead remains an option here.

Prices up here are stupid for lead. One supplier of bullet alloy quotes upward of $5 per pound.

I am also thinking a weekend in montana might be planned soon. My kids first visit to the US and a big pile of bullet lead for ballast on the way home.

[Freightman]

I felt bad about the $1.18 per # I charge for smelted lead shipped to your door, but gas, propane and all have gone up that I had to. Now I do not feel so bad if you will pay that and more for Unsmelted lead. That is $65 per 55# shipped in the USA.

[crabo]

I would buy the WWs, smelt and put them up. It seems like to me that pure lead is not to hard to find, but WWs is getting very difficult to find. I traded pure lead for a PID and partial payment on a scope.

I also have switched to 50/50 WW to pure lead in my boolits to make my WW stash go farther. As long as I keep my friends from going crazy, I have enough for this lifetime.

[Down South]

The highest that I have ever paid which is not often is $20 per full 5-gallon bucket full. I usually get them cheaper but I have not bought any in a while.

[chambers]

Buy all you can afford, tire dealers told me they are in process of changing over to steel/zinc and will be a thing of the past. I pay .30 cent to .50 cents per pound. Lead in several years will be hard to find!

[nonferrous]

Buy it!!