Is $.40/ lb too much for wheelweights in 5 gal buckets?

[LEADLUBBER]

Hello all.....



I found a local large-volume, non-national tire shop who will sell me LEAD wheel weights at $ .40/ LB for as much as I want.....


She is a lady owner of the business and was very nice.


She has been selling it for scrap value at $.40/ LB to the local scrap yard and said she would sell to me for the same price for as much as I want.

She showed me the pile of 20-plus 5-gallon buckets and seemed like she really would rather sell to me than the scrap metal place.


So, if the typical 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights is 130 lbs..... $52 a bucket...

Sound Fair?


Thanks!

[P.K.]

Do it. I'm paying about $20.00 for a 1/3 bucket of stickies and get about 25-30lbs. out of that.

[alkazoo]

hi everybody, longtime lurker, new poster!!
I just paid a guy $40.00 for a 80lb bucket (or so he said). Basically 50cents a lb. When i went to pick it up, he realized he had more in the bucket, actually set it on a scale in front of me, showed 100 lbs, he didnt really ask for more $$$ but i could tell thats what he was hinting at. I only had the 40bucks on me, cause thats what we agreed to ahead of time.. He took the $40.. :)

[fatelk]

I know there are some here that wouldn't dream of paying more than $5 per bucket, but I think that's living in the past. Around here .40/lb would be cheap for good, all lead wheel weights. I gave up looking long ago because everywhere I asked either said forget it or wanted way too much.

That sounds pretty fair to me. Not a steal really, because they're a pain to smelt into ingots, but definitely fair by today's prices. If they were offered to me at that price I would probably buy all I could afford. I have a feeling that scrap lead is only going to get harder to find.

[jsizemore]

What's your alternative? Can you get them cheaper somewhere else? How much gasoline will you burn driving around to accumulate that amount? Do you already have a sizable stash of ingots?

With an 80% return on clean ingots that brings it to about $.55/lb including gas to smelt.

Does that help?

[Wally]

I might add that you may get a lot of iron & zinc wheelweights in the "mix" which will increase your per pound cost... Maybe a good idea to sort it before you buy, if you can.

[birdadly]

Unless you can get them elsewhere for free or for less, or just want to buy ingots already made, I would buy as much as you feel good about buying. It's a good price per pound unless you don't want to smelt them. You can sell the Iron and Zinc weights for scrap and probably get your 40 cents/lb back, even from the same guy she would have sold them to in the first place.

Maybe if you take them all, she might take 35 cents/lb since she won't have to drive them to the scrapyard.

Good luck! -Brad

[Hardcast416taylor]

I don`t know how much running around you have done looking for anyplace that has wheel weights they will either give or sell you. That is a fair price considering how things are going with tire stores not wanting to let you get any for any price. I`m sure there are other people that will buy them for that price to make fishing weights or diving weights with.Robert

[Defcon-One]

Fair price and a great supply with that much available. I'd pay it!

Also, you can sell the Zinc weights and, less likely, the Steel ones to the same scrap guy she was using. Just don't say where you got it!

[LEADLUBBER]

Here's the deal.....

I have driven around to 20 + tire shops and even the little mom and pop shops, and NO ONE will sell me their used wheel weights.....

When I walked into this shop, the sales manager at the front basically stopped me rudely and said, "NOPE, we aren't selling them, we are recycling them or selling them to the scrapper only. We won't sell to the public...." There was a voice from an office behind him who said, "what does he want to do with them?" I spoke to this nice lady directly, telling her that I wanted to use it to smelt down and cast boolits with it, and she seemed to really care that I couldn't find lead anywhere to buy, along with the fact that the scrap yards here won't even sell anything to the public!

She personally walked me back to the pile to look at them and we made an agreement there about the price. She said, " You can buy it all or just a little, either way, I just want You to get some use out of it".


I have one buddy who works at a tire shop who promised me the wheel weights months ago, but I think he had to sell them for scrap because he wasn't allowed to sell to an individual......

[plainsman456]

Buy them.

[jonas302]

If .40 cents is the only game in town go for it figure it out to price per bullet you cast it will look very good

Not to mention she is looking for your tire business and should get it

[onesonek]

Fair enough in my books.

[4719dave]

HURRYYYYYYYYYY DONT WAIT ide buy all you can afford that's the mother load !!

[fishnbob]

Somebody posted about a guy on another site who wanted to sell about 1000 lbs of WW's for 12 cents a lb. Unfortunately, his post was on the 16th and today is the 19th and the line of PM's went on & on. I live close enough to drive but I would have to join the site and get in line and I figured it wasn't worth the wasted time, cause I know they are gone, gone, gone!

[Franklin7x57]

That would last me the rest of my life and not depending on someone for lead is priceless

[Jailer]

For me, I'd have to pass. But! I already have a large stash and I can get them cheaper than that if I need to.

You on the other hand are left with few other choices. If I were in your shoes I'd buy every bit of those things that I could afford.

Cull the zinc and steel WW and save your steel clips after smelting. You can scrap all of these and gain a little of your money back.

Do it.

[Fishman]

I just paid .50 a lb for wheelweights today from my mechanic shop. Bought 140 lbs and was happy to get them. If I were you I wouldn't wait I'd buy some.

[bumpo628]

I just paid $50 per bucket from a small tire shop yesterday. I got two full buckets at that price. They have been the only place I can find any lead locally.

Your (and my) only alternative seems to be buying lead here for $1 per pound.
Get all you can right now and make arrangements to buy the rest on a monthly or weekly basis. You can always sell some here to help offset your cost if you think you have too much. I don't know how anyone can have too much, but that's another thread.

[Bad Water Bill]

If I lived in Texas I would be there before she changes her mind. The next thing I would do is invite her to your range to shoot some of the products from her shop,

[bobthenailer]

I personaly would not pay over 25 cents a pound in my area as WW are still easy to get. theres a few local tire shops that i know the owners . for what is supposed to be WW by the time you elimate the , zinc clip ons & stick ons your total useable weight will drop around 10 to 20 % not counting another 5 to 10 % loss for the the clips .
However i have a good stach on hand . If youre just starting on your first 1000 pounds you had better buy all you can afford and then dig a little deeper into that pocket . because 100 lbs of alloy wont last very long , even at 63 years old i still use about 300 lbs a year of alloy and thats after the zinc & clips smelted out so you will need approx 400 lbs of raw WW to get 300 lbs of useable alloy.

[rockrat]

I would buy all of them if I were you!!!

[captaint]

Well, yes. Get all you can afford. I would. Can't have too many, and they're getting scarcer all the time. Good for you!!! enjoy Mike

[Swede44mag]

hi everybody, longtime lurker, new poster!!
I just paid a guy $40.00 for a 80lb bucket (or so he said). Basically 50cents a lb. When i went to pick it up, he realized he had more in the bucket, actually set it on a scale in front of me, showed 100 lbs, he didnt really ask for more $$$ but i could tell thats what he was hinting at. I only had the 40bucks on me, cause thats what we agreed to ahead of time.. He took the $40.. :)

I would have asked him what he wanted for the bucket after he weighed it.
The reason if he was unhappy he may not be willing to sell you anymore later
as you know lead is getting harder to get everyday.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My most recent purchase was for just over 400lbs from a small time metal scrapper,
besides WW there was some Pipe and sheet lead in there too.
he wanted 53¢ per lb...I paid it.
there was very little zinc or Iron WW in that batch :)
I think this was a good deal.

also this spring, I stopped by a autosalvage yard,
they had 3 buckets of WW,
He called a big time metals recycler in Minneapolis for current buying price,
he said 44¢ per lb, I paid it.
Sadly, there was a High concentration of zinc and
Iron WW in that batch ...around 20 to 25%.
I would have been better off buying ingots from members here I think.

you need to think about labor time and fuel,
expecially when you can get ingots shipped
to your door for around $1 per lb.
Jon

[JTknives]

here is Utah i pay 20 bucks for a FULL 5gal bucket. i almost never see a zink or steel
ww so i'm lucky.

[VA Shooter]

Run don"t walk go get them

[fredj338]

I know there are some here that wouldn't dream of paying more than $5 per bucket, but I think that's living in the past. Around here ..

So true. Within the next three years, there will be no lead ww to speak of. So 40c/# will be the deal missed. If they are mostly lead, I would buy all 20 buckets. I know from exp. I used to have access to lino for 25c/# & thought 200# would last along time.:oops:

[mtgrs737]

Posters urging you to buy are right IMHO, WW's are a perfect alloy for most casting I do. Lead WW's are on the endangered species list and may soon become extinct! Buy on Brother!!!