Quite the mark-up

[454PB]

I took a tire into a mom and pop tire shop that I've used for years to get a slow leak repaired. I've been getting paranoid reading all the posts scattered across cyber space concerning the availability of lead, wheelweights in particular. During my BS session with the owner, I asked him if he had any used wheelweights. He hesitated a second, then said "how many do you want?". I replied that a couple of 5 gallon buckets would hold me a while. He then wanted to know what I was going to do with them, so I told him that I make bullets from them. Here in Montana, you don't usually have to worry about being a "gun nut", because most people are raised around guns, shooting, and hunting. He then asked a lot of questions about how many WW I go through. I was honest with him and told him that the scrap metal prices have sky rocketed, he was honest with me and said he knew that, that's why he was holding on to his pile of used WW, and that he had twenty 5 gallon buckets in the back room. He didn't really want to quote me a price, so I told him I'm acquinted with the manager of the only metal recycling business in our town, and that they were only paying 3 cents a pound for scrap lead, and selling it for 30 cents a pound the last time I checked. He got on the phone and called the recycler, and was quoted 5 cents a pound. This seemed to tick him off, and I told him that this same recycler bought scrap steel for a penny a pound, but sold anything picked out of that pile for 20 times that amount. He agreed to sell me two buckets for $20, then helped me load the buckets into the back of my truck. He said he'd much rather sell them to someone that was actually going to use them, rather than someone that was going to resell them. I unloaded them when I got home and weighed the haul, it was 321 pounds.

Just goes to show that it never hurts to ask, and the smaller shops seem more likely to keep them around.

[9.3X62AL]

You would think that WW were gold, the way that recycler acts. Good score, and a great torpedo below the water line to that profiteering metals broker. A reasonable profit is fine, but 10X buy/sell is ridiculous.

[mag_01]

Fortunately I obtained all my wheelwieghts for free from a near by tire store and stooped getting them years ago (how many years) I don't know time is going by so fast and I had them pretty much large ones easy to use and small ones a pain in the neck sorted to some degree in 5 gallon pails which was nice----My sons decided that they should all go together so they put them in a 55 gallon drum--I certainly have enough to last me my lifetime---but being mixed I have to deal with a lot of the small ones which is not as convenient as it was before---so I am just thankfully I have enough and don't have to run the course of trying to obtain them which seems to be a problem today. Its funny tho I still spend time while shooting to pick lead out of the backstops (gravel bank) just cant resist it just like empty shell casings have to pick them up. You have to love this hobby of ours it certainly keeps us busy and out of trouble for the most part.-------Mag

[Mallard57]

I stopped by a local tire shop the other day and I asked to buy some wheel weights(WW). The guy at the counter made a big deal about it. First he calls the local scrapper and when he didn't get an answer he scratched his head. He wanted to charge me $50.00 for a bucket of WW, and he was really righteous about it. I know that even the scrapper wouldn't give him anywhere close to that. I went down the street to another place and paid $20.00 a bucket, they keep the WW for casters and fishermen. I think I might go get some more today.
Jeff