How do you ask shops for WW's?

[jjsharpshooter]

Thinking about making the rounds of the local tire shops and was wondering how to approach and ask for "free?" wheel weights. The one time I did was when I was buying tires and the owner said he sold them to a company but gave me a bucket anyway, probably because I was buying his tires. I am hoping to get some free, but I doubt that after reading some posts here, but, how do you act and what do you do when they offer to sell them and you feel they're too pricey? Thanks, John

[Wolfer]

The only place that I can get any is a small shop. The guy said he sold them for scrap. I asked what they paid. He said 20 cents per lb. I told him they were worth twice that to me. Now he holds them for me.
Getting a lot of steel these days. I believe the days of WWs as primary boolit material is about over.
I recycle my boolits at home and can probably shoot the rest of my life with with what I've got.

[wlc]

I generally go in and ask what they do with the WW's. The answer I get dictates my next question or statement. Mostly I wind up buying them and occasionally get a half bucket or even whole one for free. Most shops up here are now either contracted out for disposal or every Tom, Dick, and Harry are already lined up to get them for fishing weights and have had relationships with the stores for years and years. New folks get hind teat....

[jsizemore]

I ask if they sell their WW. They are running a business. Money talks. If they say someone is getting them then I say "Great!". If they sell them to the scrapyard then I offer a better price then the scrapyard. If they don't have to drive to the scrapyard and get paid more money then it's a no brainer. If they care to ask what I do with them I tell them straight up that I cast boolits and shoot in my backyard. No sense in getting caught lieing regardless of what others say. No one will do any business with you then. If they don't like what I do with them, oh well. I talk about the technical side of casting if they're intrested. I carry a shipping scale good to 250lbs that UPS stores use and empty buckets. I police the area around the bucket for stray WW. They ain't gonna get rich off me but they didn't have to leave the shop and they put money in their pocket for lunch for scrap. They are business men,er, people. Treat them like you'd like to be treated.

[propwashp47]

I 2nd what isizemore says that's bought it in a nut shell. I wood add sell yourself , a good salesman must be prepared and will hear no more than yes, make more than one offer. print your own business cards, get a day planer keep notes and contacts . treat this as work. to be successful will depend on your effort .good luck. Donald

[Bored1]

I have learned that actually showing up in person goes a LONG way. A few places I called said no they don't sell them, they are contracted somewhere else, yada yada yada, however if you show up with cash and a bucket chances are you can buy them. Keep asking, just because they don't have any today doesn't mean they won't next month. Also be polite!!!! One place I have gotten tire weights from wanted to check out taking them to the scrap yard so I said okay, thats fine, I will call again next month and see how that went. Sure enougha month later my contact said "We've been waiting to see if you would call back. Scrap yard isn't worth our trouble, they only gave us 38$ for the bucket and I had to pay the guy to take em there, so ya you can have em for 20$." When I went to get em, even offered me pizza!

During the summer time it helps to toss a 12 pack of soda, and some bottled water in some ice in a cooler too, most shops don't have good ac around here and the guys can't accept "adult beverages". Giving the guys something cold to drink in 100+ heat helps them remember you are the guy they keep the weights for. BTW give em the drinks wether they have the lead or not. I noticed a SERIOUS decrease in razor blades in the bucket after starting the drinks last summer!!!

[RogerDat]

jsizemore covers it pretty well. I'm polite, ask if they have any scrap WW they wish to sell. Everyone knows they are worth something as scrap so why would I expect to get them for free? Thank them for their time if they don't have any or don't sell to the public. And as been mentioned if asked I tell them what I user them for. Figure honesty is best policy.

If there is a local scrap metal yard that will sell to the public you will pay more but have a consistent supply. And if you get lucky and find some good alloy such as type metal the price will probably be the same or close to the price of plain lead scrap.

[a.squibload]

Wearing a bandana on my face & brandishing two nickle plated sixguns.

(Horse idling in parking lot.)

[JSnover]

If you manage to find a shop that will give them away for nothing, make sure you drop by later with some cold soda, hot coffee, donuts, whatever. They'll remember that.

[jjsharpshooter]

Thanks for all the great tips, I' m sure they will help my search.

[mac1911]

I just walk in and ask, slim pickings these days plus so much iron around here. I find it easier to just network with know casters or other metal scrap type.
I just traded some with some one for 70/30 solder bars. I gave him all the brass I deemed un loadable. About 11lbs of brass for 30lbs of solder.
11lbs of brass cases is not worth the trip to the scrap yard here. It was a basic "hey I know you like solder/lead for your reloading I will give you this for that brass.... OK deal."

[TheDoctor]

Had one I went to a while back asking about WW. Guy asked me what they were worth to me. I checked the bucket, looking at the amount of iron and zinc on top, vs the lead ones. Offered him 30 bucks. He laughed, and said he has a guy that will give him a $100 bill for that bucket. Wow...Not sure if he was BSing me, or there really is that big a sucker out there.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I quit searching the tire shops and auto repair places...except the Auto repair guy that fixes my cars...he is now a friend and saves them for me. I pay the going rate for them. BUT there is more and more steel and zinc. BUT, the main reason I quit searching at other places, is there is just too much competition. Either these guys are scrapping for $$ or making something else...diving weights I hear alot.

[MrWolf]

I ask what do they do with their SCRAP ww's. When they ask me why I want them I tell them I cast for my 45. I had one guy who thought they were gold and claimed everybody wanted them so we negotiated to $30 for the bucket - had about 200lbs in it. His were about 70% lead but I didn't care for the greasy feeling I got with dealing with him so did not go back. My other paying source costs me $20 for the bucket and he loads it into my car for me. His averages about 95% lead with some huge ww's - he deals in the truck tires. Other free ones I have gotten were in the 90% usable area but I think that was because they had been accumulating for years. As stated, be polite and honest. I tell them about the 45 because most have heard of it and they find the process interesting. Good luck in your search. I've managed about 600lbs of sorted lead ww's so far - just waiting for the weather to break to smelt.

[Wasalmonslayer]

You might try checking with local commercial roofers you could score some large amounts of soft lead and then add pewter to harden a touch. I have shot a lot of it in my wheel guns just plinking with no leading. The last time I asked I got over 300 lbs for free.
It's worth a try.

[bangerjim]

I don't even waste my time with tire shops anymore~!!!!

Free is a thing of the past. And Pb WW's are too.

I mix all my alloys now from pure and alloys I find at scrap yards. And YES......I pay $1/# for everything......pure, lino, tin, solder, hardball, etc.

My time is worth too much to me to be scrounging and stopping at every tire store. And unless you have your own well and refinery, don't forget the cost of all that gas you will be wasting driving here and there.

Bangerjim

[alox]

I typically pay $30.00 or a 5 gallon pail (Canada) If they ask what they are to be used for just say fishing sinkers. If you say casting bullets you get some strange looks and the w.wts may not be available. I have encountered this reaction. 5 gal pail is usually 115 lbs heaped up.
A great deal and a bucket of fun for myself. I'm into the large bores and would be living in a chicken coupe with no heat or wife if I didn't cast. I just love casting bullets. Part of the casting fun is the "hunt" for w.wts. I even have roofers keeping pure lead for me when they can find it from an old time building. Bottom line;; money talks so just ask; How much for the discarded w.wts.??? I've used this line for 44yrs.I keep 2000 lbs in the back yard as a "base" and work from there. Good Luck

[Old School Big Bore]

I'm usually in uniform getting my department unit serviced, and this IS Texas where guns don't bother people except in Frisco East (Austin) or Lower Jersey (Houston), so I just find the Senior Tire Guy and ask what calibers he plinks with. From there it's just barter, so many boxes of whatever ammo for so many buckets of WW. It saves him paying the Shop Worm to sort the weights and drive the result to the metal yard and steal half the cash, and extends my shooting buddy family. Sure I have to cull the weights when I smelt them but I swap the zinc and steel to the neighborhood junk lady for more lead, pewter etc. I also have a deal working with a metal yard to swap brass I consider junk for radiator-shop solder drippings.

[MrWolf]

I use my truck for hauling but my Prius for looking for WW's :drinks:

[HollowPoint]

I've taken a slightly different approach.

Since the economy crashed a few years back, alot of the out-of-work tire guys took to opening their own little tire shops out of desperation just to make ends meet. Most went out of business after a while but, as a result there seems to be a small tire repair shop on every corner in my neck of the woods.

I never go directly to the shops to ask about buying wheel weights. This just tends to get the tire shop workers into the state of mind where they see me as someone that they might be able to take advantage of. Instead, during casual conversation with folks I meet during the course of every day life, I'll mention that I'm looking for lead or wheel weights for certain projects. You'd be surprised how many folks know someone or are related to someone who works at a tire shop.

In the automotive world, tires and fuel are the equivalent of food and water to those of us who have to eat to keep running so, somebody always knows somebody who can get you in touch with somebody who has access to used wheel weights.

This gives me a non-threatening intro to the folks working in the tire shop before I ever set foot in their establishment. If they're not inclined to just give them away I can then try to negotiate if need be. In reality I've only needed to do this three or four times. Each one of those times they just gave me the wheel weights they were going to throw out. If they can't be re-used, some of these small tire shops will just throw the used wheel weights in the trash rather than paying someone to properly discard them as is mandated. By me taking them off their hands, (In these four instances) it just tended to relieve them of that obligation.

I'm in an automotive related business. Many of my customers are as well. When they drop by for an estimate they see the pile of ingots I leave in open view and they ask me what they're for. It's the perfect segway into the topic of collecting wheel weights.

Just recently, a customer I've known for several years; whom I've done several jobs for but never knew what his line of work really was, (I thought he was retired hot rod enthusiast) mentioned that he was getting to old to keep working on diesel rig tires. BAAM! Now he saves all the discarded Clip-On-Weights for me; and these aren't the small skinny passenger vehicle Clip-On-Weights. They're the huge eighteen-wheeler sized Clip-On-Weights.

I just wish I had more free time to get out fling some of those Clip-On-Wheel-Weights downrange; in the form of cast boolits of course.

HollowPoint

[BNE]

I was blessed to find a shop owner who is also a SHOOTER!! I also had just spent ~$650 on tires for my wifes car. I left him a bucket in my wifes car and asked him for weights. The bucket had a 100#s in it when I picked that car up. The shop was closed, so I went back later that week with some $$ and a box of .45 ACPs that I had polymer coated. He flipped over the "Nuclear" colored boolits and handed me the cash back. I asked him if it was enough to get a call the next time he had a full bucket and he says he will call...

I am encouraging other people to buy from him also. Hopefully he will see me as a help to his business and continue to let me remove his "harmful waste".

[jjsharpshooter]

Great postings guys, getting a lot of info, thanks, John.

[typz2slo]

usually a 12 pack of an alcoholic beverage will get a bucket of WW faster than 20.00 in cash. I tell them I am casting fishing weights. Usually less questions when I tell them that.