Wheel Weight Prices for 5 Gallon Bucket

[Racer X]

Has anyone bought any recently and how much. I found a place that wants $20 a 5 gallon bucket.

[KevMT]

Personally I would jump on it at that price and buy at least 5 buckets. One of the tire dealers here offers a pretty fair price (just went up from $20 to $25/ bucket) But he is usually sold out. Some folks here seem to luck in to a lot of freebees and 2 weeks ago I scored a 3/4 full bucket free. But prices being what they are and metal futures being what they are due to China, I would recomend getting at least a couple of buckets at that price.

MY $.02

Kev

[randyrat]

Thats not a bad price by any means. Think about how many bullets you can cast with that.

[pumpguy]

Twenty bucks seems to be the going rate for those who pay. I would not give up hope in getting them for free. Usually a 12 pack of cold ones will go a long way.

[Lee]

Absolutely! It's a really small price to pay for an enjoyable pasttime.
My last score(OhOh here he goes again!) was two very full 5 gallon buckets. I netted over 400# of ingots, for a cost of a $40 4' long submarine sandwich and 3 liters of pop. Surprised the entire shop, they were really happy, had leftovers to take home. And (I hope) a little good PR for myself........Lee;-)

[mtgrs737]

I was in a tire shop a couple of weeks ago getting a couple of tires put on my truck and noticed two 5 gal. buckets overflowing with weights. I inquired about them and the guy said that a gun shop had been getting them but that they didn't pay for the last bunch they got. I said shame on them, how much do you get for them? They said $20 to @25 a bucket. I said I would take them! I paid $45 for the lot, I got over 350 lbs. of ingots out of those two overflowing buckets. Now I am going to keep a check on them and the other tire shops in the area. Today, a small station gave my about 30 lbs. of weights for free.

[jawjaboy]

Great stories! I love it. The chase is almost as much fun as the prize!

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[arkypete]

The highest price I've paid is zero.
Jim

[muffinman]

I go to four diffrent tire shops in four diffrent towns , Im in the boonies, they charge anywhere from free to 20.00 . That seems to be pretty common around the counrty.

[hunter64]

I was talking to a guy that works at a re-cycler while I was doing some work in his home. He said that they paid 15 cents a pound for used WW's and sell them for 45 cents a pound. He said that in one corner of the yard there has to be a mound about 30 feet high and about 100 feet square. They are hording them and say that in the next few years when China really gets on line with there car's etc. that the prices will go thru the roof and they will make a nice tidy sum. He even admitted that the tire industry is starting to turn "GREEN" and is advising there retailers to only dispose of used WW's to licensed recyclers for "proper disposal". So not only do they get them for cheap but now they have the market sewn up for the supply. I said that I have been having a hard time finding them at any price because the tire shops will not sell them to me. Cheap bugger, I thought I could get a deal from him since he worked at the yard but no such luck, oh well I made sure he paid full price for the work I did.

If I could find a supplier who would sell them to me for 20 bucks a 5 gallon pail I would buy as many as possible. The going rate for them is 40 bucks now if you can find them. I had a list for 40 shops in my 1/2 of the city (1.1 million pop.) and last week after being totally frustrated with every shop that I stopped at I finally got smart and just called. I went thru the yellow pages and phoned every shop there was and put a little check beside the ones that sold and crossed out the ones that didn't. It took me about 2 hours of calling but it really opened my eyes, out of 63 shops in the phone book only 14 would sell to me. I have visited 4 of them so far and picked up 10 buckets and I have to wait till next pay day to visit couple of other stores. Talk about depressing, I have a life time supply for myself and my kids but it doesn't hurt to have a little bit extra just in case.

[felix]

Corky, what do you think? ... felix

[Andy_P]

The situation is similar here in Canada (Ottawa - a city of one million). I have two shops that I hit once a month, and the deal is $20 and $15 for a full 5 gal pail. Our dollars are pretty close in value, so it's about the same price as I am seeing reported in the U.S. I have noticed a distinct change in the past year in attitude from the shops: none are now willing to give them away; and fewer are willing to sell them to me as they now have "contracts". I believe that the increased value of lead, as well as the "green" movement explain most of that. I have also noticed many more stick-ons (increased mag wheel use), and many more Zinc (but still amounts to no more than about 1%).

If my shooting habits do not change, I've got about 20 years worth. Still, I'm accumulating and hoarding like a mad-man. I have about 500 lbs of WW ready to smelt.

It's not going to get better.

[Bret4207]

Hey Andy- I'm down near Ogdensburg NY. Howdy neighbor! Long live Lowell Green.

[Andy_P]

Hey Andy- I'm down near Ogdensburg NY. Howdy neighbor! Long live Lowell Green.

Howdy! Lowell can rant with the best of them. ;-)

[zipdog]

I recently bought a 5 gallon bucket of WWs for $20, but after sorting had about 1/2 bucket....82 #. Lots of valve stems. After smelting I had 66# of ingots. I bought a smaller bucket at another shop for $20 that was almost all WW....103#. This yielded 85# of ingots. I'd pay $20/5 gal all day long if I could find 'em.

[EMC45]

I gave my tire guys 6 cheeseburgers on monday for all their efforts.

[rideage]

I had to get my truck inspected today at my tire store, and while there I asked the owner about the three FULL and over flowing and two half full buckets, he said make an offer... so I am thinking ok this sounds better than last year when I got them for two buckets for $15... so I said.. 'how bout $5 a bucket' he said ok, just be sure to bring back my buckets... So I gave him $25 for everything there. I am glad I have done quite a bit of business there this last year...... so now I have to get to sorting and smelting.... I still have a few hundred pounds to smelt from my last batch.

its kind of funny that some of us hoard one of the least valuable metals [smilie=1:

[Adam10mm]

The recycler up here charges a dime a pound. Pure lead is two dimes per pound.

[Old Ironsights]

I'm seeing $15/bucket uncleaned here.

[nicholst55]

I got REAL lucky today; had some time so I started calling around. I only called three stores; two said come and get 'em, and the other said corporate sells them to a recycling center. I dropped about $11 on beer and got two 3/4-full 5 gal buckets, and one that was only about 1/3 full. The store manager with the 1/3 bucket was embarrassed - he said someone threw them in the dumpster on his last day off, but he'd set some aside for me! For 2 six-packs and two business cards, I'm not complaining. :drinks:

Most of the big name chain stores seem to recycle them; the smaller private shops either trash them (doubtless illegal) or wait until they have a pickup load full and then trade them in for beer money.

[MR45]

What about all the zink weights.
Thay don't make good boolets do they.
Mike

[Crash_Corrigan]

1st shop had only a half 5 gal bucket full of pure clip on weights (they toss the strips) and I got them for the asking. :-D However the Mgr wanted some cokes so I will bring some tomorrow. [smilie=1: At the second shop I had left an empty 5 gal bucket last week and today it was 3/4 full. I slipped the balance guy a $5 bill and he was surprised and happy about that. :drinks: At the 3rd shop they had two overflowing buckets and a third 3/4 full and another bucket of weights all over the floor. [smilie=w: Martha Stewart would have had a conniption. I brought in 5 buckets and transferred the goodies so each of my buckets was only 1/2 full as I do not feature getting a hernia at this age! [smilie=2: I dragged my loot out to the car and returned for a second trip. When I got done I cleaned up the trash from the area and made sure to leave two buckets with my name on them. This is a truck stop and I love those long and heavy clip on weights. I made a friend of the balancing guy here and when I came up with a crisp $10 bill he almost broke his face with that smile. :-D This all took about one hour from the 1st stop to the 3rd shop. However as it is 117 degrees today in Vegas I am pooped out. The total for the day was more than 20 gals of weights to add to the 30 gals I have in the back yard now. I sprang for $15 and tomorrow I will return with some cokes and donuts. In the morning when it dips down into the 80's I will unload the car and bring the lead into the back yard for storage.

[HEAD0001]

I hope nobody gets mad at me about this. I know everyone is blaming China for the increased price for lead. The problem is that it is us(Good Old USA) buying their product's!! IMO there is some irony there, I am just not sure where. Tom.

[jawjaboy]

I hope nobody gets mad at me about this. I know everyone is blaming China for the increased price for lead. The problem is that it is us(Good Old USA) buying their product's!! IMO there is some irony there, I am just not sure where. Tom.

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