I stopped off at Discount Tires and asked the manager if he had any scrap wheelweights. He looked at me funny. Then I offered him ten bucks for a bucket full. He told me to go out to the tire man and take them all, and give the money to him.
Tito, the tire guy, traded my empty white plastic bucket for one about half full, and helped me carry it to my car and put it in. It is 75 pounds exactly, including the plastic bucket, and 3 wheelweights I picked up in the parking lot on the way out. Contents are nice clean wheelweights, a lot cleaner anyway that my last bucket which sat for 8 years gathering dust, and lots of the tape-on pure lead weights, and one allen wrench set with all but 2 of the allen wrenches in good shape.
Now I'm not so cheap that I want to quibble over ten bucks, I mean, Tito told me he was in training to be a cop, and was saving up for a rifle, which he would buy when he turned 21, and we talked about casting bullets for a few minutes, and I would have given him ten bucks without the wheel weights. But I'm just curious-- those of you who do pay for your scrap wheelweights, what is the going rate? Is there a going rate? What do the tire people make off scrap wheelweights?
I've never been able to buy any before-- I got run out of every tire shop I went to, and then got lucky at a truck stop and got 80# for free and didn't go back to a tire place for 8 years until today.
So I know most of you have free lead fall out of the sky or whatever into your melting pots, or like Buckshot have your neighbors leave it in front of your garage for you, but those of you who do have some buying arrangement, what are you paying for scrap wheelweights? Thanks--