real price of lead

[frugal]

I'm purchasing about 1000 lbs of isotope lead and wasn't sure what it was worth per lb so I checked the Kitco spot price for lead and it closed this week at .87. When I called a local scrap dealer on what they are paying for scrap lead he quoted .30 to .45 depending on the purity. .30 if its contaminated with steel like wheel weights. I don't want to pay any more than I can sell it for to a scrap dealer. What is the real price of what people are purchasing lead for?

Thanks
Frugal

[41 mag fan]

About $1/lb is avg.

[MBTcustom]

Yeah, I dont get it either. I think It has to do with how many middle men there are, but I dont know how that works either.
All I know is that the scrap yard is buying for $.40, and selling for $.60
RotoMetals is a crock when the cheapest lead on their sight is $1.89 per Lb. !!!
We sell it all the time here for about $1 per pound + shipping give or take a couple cents.
The real price of lead has been hovering around $.90 per pound for a while now, but what does that mean? Probably all kinds of cool if your trading in walstreet but how does a guy get his hands on that deal? I aint got a clue.
I'll tell you this much, the next time I have a couple thou layin around, I'm going to invest heavily in lead and get a couple tons so I never have to worry about it again.

[41 mag fan]

Tim, I'd be happy just to have a couple of thou laying around!!

[UtopiaTexasG19]

Last year I bought 800 pounds of lead ingots from a scrap dealer at 1.00 a pound and he was buying at .55 per pound and would not budge on his prices no matter how much volume you wanted to sell or buy. I went for the price because I have really become weary over the years of buying tiny bits and pieces of lead over and over always having a different BHN for each batch. This supply was melted into exact 5 pound ingots by one person and they all have the same BHN. I have a backstop set up at my place that collects lead shot at my targets so since I can recycle this supply it will last long after my life time. I would love to see the look on my nephew(s) faces after I die and they find the neat pile of lead ingots stacked up in the corner of my barn like they do at Fort Knox for gold bars! I suppose by then any form of lead will be illegal and the boy's can sell it on the black market for some big bucks. I'll call it their inheritance..... :)

[1Shirt]

This is what happens when we are sending lead to China. Remembe the scrap metal to Japan before WWII folks!!!!!!
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[TommyT]

I can't really comment as I get my lead for about 20 cents a pound these days. I do, however, see it selling for about $1 per pound on average on the net.

[Beagler]

My Work (Deka Battery) Is paying over 1.00 a pound for either pure or alloyed lead. I asked if I could buy a 100 pounder of 6% antimnoy about a week ago. They wanted 140 for it. I'll made due with what I got. Years ago I bought 200lbs pure for 150.00. Wont see that again from work

[Uncle Jimbo]

Clean lead from the metal scrap yard around here is selling for 64¢ a pound. WW sell for about 44¢ a pound.

[just.don]

Tim, I'd be happy just to have a couple of thou laying around!!

Last time I had any money anywhere that was just "laying around" was exactly 1 April '87, our wedding day.

[max it]

I wish all you guys would at least put the state that you live in on your profile. That would help in evaluating your input.

Much obliged,

max

[imashooter2]

The "real price of lead" is what you can buy it for. It is nice not wanting to pay more than you can sell it to a scrap yard for, but that isn't realistic.

[mold maker]

Comparing what the scrap yard pays, with what ROTO Metal sells it for isn't realistic.
The scrap yard is buying unknown lead, while ROTO metals sells lead that is pure or a specific alloy. You just cant buy a new Bentley for a wrecked Ford price.

[Jack Stanley]

I used to take a few eight and a half pound ingots with me to the gunshow . Both to sell some of the extra I had and to give a fair price to casters that might happen by . I must have been wrong pricing that 92-6-2 at seven-fifty a bar because invariably someone came by wanting to buy it for a dollar , maybe two bucks if he was feeling generous . :roll:

The only thing I could think of was that lead must be in abundance in this area . I found out one guy wanted it for cheap so he could take it to the scrapyard . Maybe I'll just hold onto the stuff and shoot it and when I'm gone somebody else can think they got fort knox too . All I need is a can o' spray paint huh?8-)

Jack

[Old Caster]

Check the price at Midway if you think RotoMetals is high. If you go into the middle of an old city where lead plumbing pipe coming out of torn down buildings is common, you will likely get the best deal. No one there is using it and consequently they will be glad to sell it to you for what they can get for it because there is then no deliverly involved. You will have to add some tin because the lead is pure except for the solder joints. -- Bill --

[imashooter2]

Check the price at Midway if you think RotoMetals is high. If you go into the middle of an old city where lead plumbing pipe coming out of torn down buildings is common, you will likely get the best deal. No one there is using it and consequently they will be glad to sell it to you for what they can get for it because there is then no deliverly involved. You will have to add some tin because the lead is pure except for the solder joints. -- Bill --

Folks seldom include the cost of travel and the like when calculating the real cost of such lead. And let's not forget that you'll strike out much more than you'll score.

[10 ga]

I just compare my price/$ input on the lead and cost of propane and compare it to cast boolits/CU condom bullets and what it cost me to produce a boolit vs cost at the big box store etc... I'm a ML guy and ml boolits are (cheap ones) $11 for 20 or up to $27 for 15 so ... so I make my own for 1/5 to 1/10 the cost of commercial boolits. AND mine are GOOD boolits! Besides I'm retired and scrounging lead and pewter gives me something to do when the wifey is doing her shopping and traveling thing and I'm cheaufferin her around. Lotsa "no we don't do that" but 1 yes makes it a good day and another stop on the route. As for Ks and Ks of whatever, I have over 1.5K of ingots now and about 7C to "smelt" into ingots. I feel rich! LOL, if the greenies or Clinton/Obamist ......... Good scrounging to all! 10 ga

PS. I save all the metal I get of any kind, even cans, and make a trip to the junkyard and turn all I can into lead.

[lead chucker]

I'm pretty lucky where I live, there are a lot of old commercial fishing nets. A guy can strip the lead line off and burn off the rope part to get the lead. It's a lot of work but it is a source. I scored some lead off an old boat keel that was a good score. WW are hard to come buy here. I traded a guy on this sight pound for pound pure lead for WW. All I have invested is some flat rate shipping, the rest is all scrounging. The guy at the tire shop has a little cannon so I make him pure lead bullets for it and he saves me the WW.

[jcwit]

I now know why I help clean out the backstop at our indoor range and mine the berms if I have time. I've got a few tons, all free. If I factor in the cost of fuel to smelt it, It takes about a quart of gas in my dual fuel coleman single burner to smelt 100 lbs. So thats less than $1.00 per 100 lbs.

[lead chucker]

I mine the berm at the range. We had a lot of snow this winter and that helped capture a lot of bullets so when it all melted there were bullets laying all over I picked up about 15 pounds last weekend. I don't pick up the j bullets. Some one in town must have a 45/70 there were a bunch of them. The poundage goes up fast when you find them. There is only one other guy in town that I know of that casts I can always tell when he has been out there. He uses a lot of Linotype so I'm happy to pick up his. One mans trash is another mans treasure.

[Love Life]

Yeah, I dont get it either. I think It has to do with how many middle men there are, but I dont know how that works either.
All I know is that the scrap yard is buying for $.40, and selling for $.60
RotoMetals is a crock when the cheapest lead on their sight is $1.89 per Lb. !!!
We sell it all the time here for about $1 per pound + shipping give or take a couple cents.
The real price of lead has been hovering around $.90 per pound for a while now, but what does that mean? Probably all kinds of cool if your trading in walstreet but how does a guy get his hands on that deal? I aint got a clue.
I'll tell you this much, the next time I have a couple thou layin around, I'm going to invest heavily in lead and get a couple tons so I never have to worry about it again.

Does that mean I can come over and help you test the lead for accuracy? Lead is no good if it isn't accurate. :kidding:

Now to the OP. Real price is whatever someone is willing pay. I hate smelting. I really hate smelting. Smelting is right below case trimming on my short list of things I hate about casting and reloading. With that being said $1.00 to $1.25 per pound shipped for smelted ingots is a good deal to me. If buying locally I will pay $1.00 per pound for smelted goods.

[9.3X62AL]

My initial impression of Rotometals' prices was not a real positive one......until I gave it some further thought.

WWs are pretty much GONE in CA. Scrounging is a waste of time, most tire shops have been EPAed and End User Certificated into bullsquat compliance by the organized-crime-ridden waste management industry. It's mystery metal, anyway.

My time is worth something, and even when WWs were fairly common it was a time-suck to scrounge the things. With their oncoming extinction, that factor is greatly exacerbated.

Scrapyards rank among my least favored places to visit, largely because they are owned and operated (in my experience) by cretins who think they own gold mines because they surround themselves with people's garbage. Their hand-in-glove relationship with organized-crime elements doesn't make me smile, either.

Smelting is about as much fun as a root canal or spinal tap. I have about 140# of old-school wheel weights in a 15 gallon barrel left to render, and when those get domesticated I'll be OUT of the smelting trade--and thankful for it.

So.......that seemingly exorbitant pricing charged by Rotometals fades to reasonableness once you think the matter through. Guaranteed assay.......shipped to your door........it pisses off the lazy mail carrier (that's a whole 'nother Oprah Show).......no smelting, just ingots into the furnace and hit the rocker switch........what's not to like?

[Black Powder Bill]

If you go into the middle of an old city where lead plumbing pipe coming out of torn down buildings is common, you will likely get the best deal. --

LOL maybe we can host a big Cast Boolits reunion in Detroit !!

WW looking pretty slim in my area, Roch. NY. I know 3 shops and my last look around I didn't see 10 lead WW's in the bucket as I waited for my truck inspection.

[Love Life]

Also throw in the price of gasoline, propane/white gas, and other odds and ends and smelting your own makes less sense. For those who get them free, it still costs. Have to look around, drive to get them smelt them down. I'm with Al. Ingots to the door is much better.

[shotman]

good thing I live in WV, buy all you want here for about .50lb If you want to take all it will go for about .40 but have to sort it . I got 1100lbs last fall for 300 bucks and sell it at $1 lb + shipping most times that works for spare time money
that batch had a bunch of printers lead. that they didnt know what it was . so give a discount

[9.3X62AL]

Nice, Shotman. Enjoy it while you can.

[jcwit]

Also throw in the price of gasoline, propane/white gas, and other odds and ends and smelting your own makes less sense. For those who get them free, it still costs.

I drive 20 miles round trip when we clean the backstop out, takes about 3 hours with 6 guys helping. Any of the guys helping with the project can take all the lead they wish, I usually take 600 lbs or less, depends on how energetic I feel.

And as I stated earlier it takes approx 1 quart of gas to smelt lead yeilding 100 lbs of clean lead.

Car get almost 35 miles per gal., so a lb. of clean lead ends up at approx, $ .09 cents.

Worth it to me, may not like doing it but still worth it. and I can smelt a few 100 lbs an hour.

[quasi]

So lead is .88 a lb. Tin is way more per lb than lead, as is antimony. And you have to alloy them together, and then there is transportation costs.

Oil is $100.00 a barrel, how much is gasoline?

[jcwit]

Gas? $3.39 in Sturgis, Michigan.

BTW Oil closed at approx $90.00 a barrel on Friday.

Not shur what the above has to do with the cost of lead but I answered the questions.

[nanuk]

my issue is cash up front, and logistics

I'm working on a score of around 10T

our local buyer is paying 20c/lb

I wasn't sure how much this fellow could get initially, so I offered 50c/lb to start

now he wants 50c/lb for all 10T

this stuff will be close to pure, as it comes from a Nickel mine smelter.

my biggest issue is I don't have $10k to buy it all..... and my Wife would Kill me if I did

[Daddyfixit]

Gas? $3.39 in Sturgis, Michigan.

BTW Oil closed at approx $90.00 a barrel on Friday.

Not shur what the above has to do with the cost of lead but I answered the questions.

we're at $4.18 gal here! all the tire shops here already have their WW spoken for
so I'm paying $1lb for mine

[Matt_G]

Yeah, I dont get it either. I think It has to do with how many middle men there are, but I dont know how that works either.
All I know is that the scrap yard is buying for $.40, and selling for $.60
RotoMetals is a crock when the cheapest lead on their sight is $1.89 per Lb. !!!
We sell it all the time here for about $1 per pound + shipping give or take a couple cents.
The real price of lead has been hovering around $.90 per pound for a while now, but what does that mean? Probably all kinds of cool if your trading in walstreet but how does a guy get his hands on that deal? I aint got a clue.
I'll tell you this much, the next time I have a couple thou layin around, I'm going to invest heavily in lead and get a couple tons so I never have to worry about it again.
Actually, you can get lead cheaper than that from Rotometals.
Look at the links below and you'll see that their 5% Sb lead is $1.38 plus freight if you buy a pallet. (2500 pounds)
With freight costs, figure a $1.50 a pound delivered; provided the destination is a dock with a forklift.
Also, knowing the composition is worth something IMHO.

Still somewhat pricey, but after taking into account what my friend 9.3X62AL said above, it justifies thinking about it.
Now what I need is soft to mix with my wheel weights, so a pallet of pure for only a penny more ($1.39) has me thinking.

Pallet of 5% Sb lead (http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/pallet_of_antlead_ingots.htm)
Pallet of pure (http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/bundle_of_lead_ingots_99.9.htm)

[41 mag fan]

Last year I bought 800 pounds of lead ingots from a scrap dealer at 1.00 a pound and he was buying at .55 per pound and would not budge on his prices no matter how much volume you wanted to sell or buy. I went for the price because I have really become weary over the years of buying tiny bits and pieces of lead over and over always having a different BHN for each batch. This supply was melted into exact 5 pound ingots by one person and they all have the same BHN. I have a backstop set up at my place that collects lead shot at my targets so since I can recycle this supply it will last long after my life time. I would love to see the look on my nephew(s) faces after I die and they find the neat pile of lead ingots stacked up in the corner of my barn like they do at Fort Knox for gold bars! I suppose by then any form of lead will be illegal and the boy's can sell it on the black market for some big bucks. I'll call it their inheritance..... :)

Paint them gold color. that picture would be worth a mint!!

[dbarnhart]

I have a client to is a relatively large regional scrap metal recycler and I learned a thing or three from him, The most interesting thing I learned was that Quantity is worth a premium not a discount.

When he sells metal to a mill, the bigger the batch the higher the price per pound he can get. As a result, when he sells to you, expect to pay the highest price per pound that he reasonably expects to get when he sells his largest quantity.

[Old Caster]

I'm going to cast bullets no matter what because some I shoot aren't commercially available and a well cast bullet shoots better than what you can buy. Obviously I will get my lead as cheap as possible but Midway's price of 7.7 pounds of pure for $32 plus shipping and 7.4 pounds of #2 alloy for $35.50 is an insult to those of us who buy other things from them. Right now, people are running scared and are paying too much for lead which drives the price up in some areas because companies like Midway know they can gouge casters. 18 months or so ago the lead spot price was about $1.50 a pound and lead pipe here could be bought for 50 cents a pound. Now the spot price is about 85 cents a pound and lead pipe is still 50 cents. Relief is on the way because metals are on their way down however so is the value of our currency.-- Bill --