My lead dealer is making me unhappy

[evan price]

So just before Christmas I visited my scrap dealer and he'd gotten in a whole bunch of Lyman ingots that were clip wheel weights. I dug them out and bucketed them and along with some more lead pipe there was about 400# there. When I went to buy it he told me he wasn't selling until after New Year because the market was "too volatile".
Went back twice after New Year and he wasn't there, but his employees say he isn't selling without I ask him first. Went back yesterday to sell some copper wire and asked again, he said "Nope, no lead left."
Well, he'd taken the buckets of clean ingots I pulled out of the mixed scrap lead tub, dumped them in a second tub, and then poured wheel weights on top of them.
I asked what was going on, he's got 400# I dug out and he was supposedly saving back for me. "Nope, we don't have any lead."
Employees say the owner is thinking lead will go really high over the next 30 days and he wants to cash in so he's telling people he is out and hoarding.
Grrrr.....

[Balta]

Hm...i just order from the guy some 200 LBS lead,hi use that before for making fountains .Its "hard" lead ,with antimony and tin added, and runs about 14-15 BHn..Hi gonna even melt that fountain parts to ingots for me..Price is 0,9 a lbs ,delivered to my door :=) Hi is happy ,local scrap yards offers about 0,7 USD for lbs so his selling his lead at higher price and i am buying my alloy for much less .It very close to Lyman #2 alloy..Maybe to give that a guy a phone call and make my delivery be as soon as possible.

[runfiverun]

evan:
lead really spiked in price a few day's ago.
it's been dropping slightly though.
one of the foundry's will dump a bunch of lead on the market soon nuff they are waiting to see if the price will keep on climbing too.

just be a little patient i bet it will come back down and settle out again.
you don't think all this panick buying is affecting the price of metals a little do ya?

[9.3X62AL]

Scrappers.......people who surround themselves with other peoples' garbage and waste streams, and think they're in a gold mine. The whole stinking lot of them can "G.I. Jane" me.

[zuke]

I can see his reasoning, and his greed

[wolf3006]

Guy I get my lead from told me no sales till after the gun band! Looking for a new dealer.

[chrisw]

LMAO, idiots... Even if this and that and if and if if if if if... Happened, then the price would actually drop, not go up.

I guess we can see why they deal with trash all day...

[Sonnypie]

Since it is his lead, he can do what he wants with it.

I believe I'd tell him to stick it where the sun don't shine.
Apparently, he doesn't value your business that much.
Wait till his taxes go up with Oblamo care...

[daengmei]

My source raised the price since last visit and now there is a "owner stash" box that can't be picked from. Seems not a year ago I was told they didn't like the lead, price vs transportation cost didn't make much for them....Scrap dealers are trying to make a dollar too I guess. Can we fault that?

[B.C.Jay]

evan:
lead really spiked in price a few day's ago.

Yah... to $1.06 (as of yesterday) up from what was it, around .90 - .95 for the last year. that's some spike eh? It's a long way from the 1.50+ it was a couple of years ago. I'm sure these guys have some other agenda up their sleeve. Keep in mind tho, the seasonal metal prices do tend to be high in the spring, making the fall the best time to buy.

[ridurall]

Wow our scrapper is charging .47 cents a lb i better get my butt down there.

[Beau Cassidy]

Wow our scrapper is charging .47 cents a lb i better get my butt down there.

You need to buy every ounce he has at that price.

[runfiverun]

it was up over 1.10 for a bit there from 95 cents a couple of weeks back.
don't seem like much.
except that's world spot price and you have to buy like 5 tons of the stuff to get that price.
the scrappers are also looking at rotometals like we do, and seeing 2+ dollars a lb....

[lwknight]

The scrappers get less than 80 percent market from recyclers and/or foundries. Plus they have to deliver it as well.
They will not benefit from rotometals pricing except for individual sales.
A local recycler gets $1.00 per pound unless I buy the whole tub ( which could be 1500 to 2000 pounds) in which case its $0.80 but I take all so I have to weigh the values and losses.

[evan price]

Over the past 30 days lead has bumped up maybe a nickel total. Figure that the scrap dealers are not getting LME prices for mixed scrap at the foundry. He bumped me up ten cents a pound after Labor day and another nickel around Thanksgiving. That's from fifty cents to 65 cents. Now who knows...? I figure I have other avenues to explore so he can sit on his lead as long as he wants. Just a PITA since I sorted it all out to begin with.

[youngda9]

I guess you learned to not do the work until a deal is struck. Tough situation. I wouldn't bite the hand that feeds you though...keep that in mind.

[runfiverun]

even at 75% that's not too bad.
they pay what? 15-20 cents a lb and then get 75 cents minus shiping. [unless the price climbs a lot]
shipping 5,000 lbs probably cost about the same as shipping 2,000 lbs.

i'm pretty sure the mantra "buy low, sell high" applies.
it seems he is selling to you for about the same price he would sell to the foundry, minus the shipping costs.
but is trying to squeeze every nickel he can.

at least your scrapper is willing to sell,all i ever hear is NO.

[ridurall]

First I owe everyone here an apology. When I asked our scrap dealer the price of lead I just assumed she was giving me the price I could get it for. Not the purchase price. So I’ve been cooking crow to teat for supper this evening. It took the lady over 1 hour to get me a price that they would sell for and it was $1 a lb. So I picked up what looked liked the cleanest batch for lead. I ended up leaving it over night because they are running so slow I didn’t have time to pay for it with the amount of people in front of me. I take pride in not BSing the people around me and I had no intention of BSng you folks, I thought the price she gave me was right but live and learn. Take care all
Ron.

[chrisw]

First I owe everyone here an apology. When I asked our scrap dealer the price of lead I just assumed she was giving me the price I could get it for. Not the purchase price. So I’ve been cooking crow to teat for supper this evening. It took the lady over 1 hour to get me a price that they would sell for and it was $1 a lb. So I picked up what looked liked the cleanest batch for lead. I ended up leaving it over night because they are running so slow I didn’t have time to pay for it with the amount of people in front of me. I take pride in not BSing the people around me and I had no intention of BSng you folks, I thought the price she gave me was right but live and learn. Take care all
Ron.

Ok, we hate you a little less now! J/K!

[runfiverun]

you can only give the numbers you have...
a dollar a lb is still far better than NO...