$50/bucket too much

[CountryBoy19]

I'm currently trying to build up my stock-pile. I can see that the end of lead wheel weights is coming... not sure when, but it's coming. So I'm making sure I have enough to last me a good while. That being said, I have a small-ish source for guaranteed clean wheel-weights (no steel and very little zinc) that is free, but not a big source. Maybe 50 lbs/month max. I also have a source I can buy wheel weights at the rate the scrap yard is paying but I can sort out the good stuff from the bad stuff before paying/weighing/taking it which means I come out ahead most of the time because my weight are almost always lead and with a few zinc that slip by the sorting process. The problem is that shop is back home where my parents live and I have to weight between spending time with family and spending time sorting through weights.

Then today, found a local shop willing to sell me weights at $50/bucket no sorting in the shop etc. I checked them out and found several steel/zinc weights on the top inch of the bucket so I'm guessing it will be like most other IN lead with about 15-25% steel zinc in the mix. $50/bucket is pretty close to what the scrap yards are paying for the weights (about 150 lbs in a heaped 5 gallon bucket). So my question, is it too much to pay? Should I just be patient and stick with my free source and the market rate source that lets me sort the junk before leaving? Or go ahead and buy local too in order to make sure I have enough wheel weights to last me the rest of my life? FWIW, I'm in my late 20's and have a lot of life left so its a pretty big stock-pile I'm looking to get built up.

$50/bucket is normally about what it runs from the place that lets me sort them before I leave but that source yields over 90% lead ingots when smelted. This other source will yield about 70-80% ingots when I get it smelted so that a bit more of a premium... but I can still try to take the steel weights to the scrap yard and get the price they are paying for mix weights & I can trade off the zinc for lead. Buy them?

[472x1B/A]

I wish I could find them for your price. I have to pay up to $100 a bucket some times. Build that stash as fast as possible $$$$ permitting, lead WW's will be a thing of the past soon.

[labradigger1]

Holly ****, thats not cheap for this area, i bought 2 buckets for 15.00 each last saturday. Try some of the older towns and smaller tire shops.

[CountryBoy19]

Holly ****, thats not cheap for this area, i bought 2 buckets for 15.00 each last saturday. Try some of the older towns and smaller tire shops.

Unfortunately, most of the shops willing to sell weights for $15/bucket are "all locked up" by the buyer that's been buying for better than a decade now... I have my cheap source and my decent source, just wondering if I should pick up a "fair market" source. If the scrap yards are paying it then I figure it's a pretty fair rate.

[41cal]

If you are getting 70% lead after smelting it is costing you approx .48 cents per pound. If you need it buy it!!!!

[khmer6]

50#/month if all lead is pretty good. Idk how much you shoot, but at that rate most people here wouldn't come close to being able to use it all. (from a poll I took on this forum, how much lead do you use in a year) buy a bucket at 50$ and sort it, see what it yields. It's a gamble, but if it's 150# worth it might be worth it. Zinc you can trade for lead, steel take to scrap yard

[Larry D.]

I paid 30 bucks for the last bucket.
I wound up with about 2/3 of the bucket of COWW. The remaining third was a pretty even split between stick on weights and scrap.