Clip on and Stick on WW

[K-Rod]

I picked up roughly 1700lbs of Clip and Stick on WW today. I thinking about selling 500-600lbs of it. I see lots of ingots selling at a $1lb but Im not set up to smelt these qualities. What's the reasonable going rate per lb if I left them whole?

[Beagle333]

Are you going to sort it to get out zinkers and iron?

[K-Rod]

Absolutely. I plan to sort out the Zinc and steel. Not that much that I can see. Going to take a minute though. The bed of my truck has 17 5 gal buckets in it right now. I was thinking about shipping them in 50lb LFRB

[plmitch]

.30-.50 a pound shipped.

[el34]

The USPS large box postage is $17.45, so if you max it out with 70lbs it comes to 25c/lb just for shipping. I'm thinkin 75c/lb shipped would be ok with me but you'd only make 50c/lb. I'll be curious to see if you post a selling price, I'd probably be interested. And doing the smelting is fine with me, while doing it I add the calculated antimony and tin to get casting alloy.

[tygar]

Sorry but I & what I see, others can get "WWs" cheaper than .75lb. Smelting, seperating, fluxing & dirt, make $1 lb delivered an OK deal. If I want to drive 1.5hrs I can get them at .37 & locally from free to .50, clean pure lead at .70. So, from my perspective I would pay .50 just so I don't have to drive.

FWIW. I see somebody said .75 was OK with him but not me. Much rather a clean, fluxed $1 delivered or .50 as is.

[K-Rod]

Thanks for the feedback Guys. I'll probaby just smelt them down into ingots. I was just wondering if there are enough out there that would rather have them in whole form rather than ingots. Some are pretty particular about the lead they get.

[tygar]

Thanks for the feedback Guys. I'll probaby just smelt them down into ingots. I was just wondering if there are enough out there that would rather have them in whole form rather than ingots. Some are pretty particular about the lead they get.

If you don't have a good setup for melting it will be a lot of work to melt & clean that much lead. I can melt several hundred lbs at a time if I need to but to do that much in a 20# would be way to much work, unless time & effort is no problem.

So you might want to pursue the shipping them intact & let people who want to smelt their own. FWIW

[RogerDat]

I get what you are saying about the "form" mattering. With a box of lead WW's there is no question about the metal source or any losses of good alloy due to heat or poor fluxing during the smelting from WW's to ingots.

I'm pretty sure a medium USPS flat rate box would be all that is required to hit max weight if shipping ingots not a large box. Loose WW's will probably take up more space for a given weight.

Given that you are going to sort through them anyway why not offer them as-is for sale at a price that is profitable for you and see if that works for others. You can always adjust price down as needed. Many can get WW's and only purchase from members if price is a better value (ingot form saves them hassle or driving), others can't find them at all or only at very high prices. That second group might find 40/50 lbs. of loose WW's a good value at a price that makes sense to you. Don't forget some of the market would be very happy with a smaller quantity at a more affordable price. Especially if just getting started or not doing large volumes of casting.

Put another way just because one person can get buckets of WW's for 25 cents a lb. does not mean others are not paying 75 cents for that same lb. at a scrap yard and others just can't find any so are buying ingots at $1 a lb. If your price is too high they won't sell so you lower it until it nears the point where it's not worth the hassle and you would rather keep the lead.

$26 cast iron dutch oven from harbor freight will allow you to do 50-60# at a time if you have a fish/turkey fryer burner. Have seen those burners at garage sales for $10 (of course after I bought mine new for $50).

This guy just paid 60 cents / lb. and bought 10 lbs. half of which where garbage, do you think small chunk of your pre-sorted would interest him? http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2931604

[tygar]

Well said RogerDat

[Larry Gibson]

I suggest you keep them. 1700 lbs might seem like a lot now and you might think you'll never use it all but if you are a "moderate shooter" you might want to do the rough math. First consider COWWs of lead, antimony and the smidgeon of tin they are now will soon be a thing of the past, i.e. you won't get any anymore in the near future as they are banned in many places and are being banned in all the others.

If you realize 80% alloy from that 1700 lbs and cast it all in 250 gr .44 cal bullets you'll realize 38,000+ bullets. Sounds like an awful lot, eh? However if you shoot 5K per year you'll shoot them up in 7 - 8 years. If you shoot 3,800 per year they'll last 10 years. If you shoot 10K per year they'll last not quite 4 years.


I invest in precious metals; brass and lead.........like the guy on TV says; "what's in your safe?" Well it isn't gold and silver he's trying to sell me as in my case the answer is guns. I also have a good supply of brass and lead.........

I suggest you keep it as you just may use it........and it is better to have and not need than to need and not have..........

Larry Gibson

[cbrick]

Gotta agree, were it mine I would keep it. Get it while the getting is good, you've got it . . . keep it. I don't know how old you are or how much shooting you do but trust me, when talking lead 1700 pounds isn't nearly as much as it sounds.

Rick

[knobster]

Heh. Couple guys beat me to it.

Personally, I would keep it all. 1700 pounds of lead sounds like a bunch but you would be amazed how fast it goes once you really get into casting.

Lead is the new gold now. Hoard!

[Beagle333]

Keep it unless, like me, he's the master of his own berm. Then... fire away!

[lightman]

Another vote to keep them!