How much would you pay for COWW?

[Indiana shooter]

The other day I was making rounds trying to scrounge up some Pb when I came across a mom and pop tire dealer. I stopped in and asked about WW. The manager/owner came up to me and said he had over 5000lbs of Pb COWW for sell at $75 a bucket. I passed.

So that got me thinking what would you be willing to pay for a bucket of all Pb COWW?

[toallmy]

I get some form a couple tire shops for 20.-25. Bucks a 5 gal bucket in the ruff. I live in rural area in Virginia.

[GhostHawk]

If I have to do the work, smelt them down into ingots, cost of fuel, etc.
I don't think I would go over .25 cents a pound.

I would want to empty the buckets, remove garbage, dirt.
Bucket of wheel weights is a pig in a poke.

[dale2242]

A buddy bought a 5 gallon bucket of WWs from a local tire shop.
1/3 was steel or zinc.....dale

[toallmy]

Most of the time I am better off going to the scrap yard at .60 a pound. But the last time I was there the fellas wanted 1.00 a pound so I have been collecting CCWW I guess I am protesting the scrap price . I am not to picky , as I am casting for my handguns and I'm not that good of a shot anyway. But since I started casting I have been getting better. Good luck

[MrWolf]

I had a truck place that I paid $20 for the bucket. Almost pure lead with some the size of hot dogs. Guy knew I have bad back and would load it in my car for me. Was a good deal at the time.

[rda72927]

For me, 25.00 a 5gl bucket for my local tire place (when he has one) and .40 cents a pound for the local metal scape yard. But the scape yard lets me bring back the steel weights and take's the weight off my next bucket of COWW's.

[TXGunNut]

If they're sorted with all Fe and Zn weights removed I'd be in @ $50/5 gallon bucket. Not a great deal but probably the best offer he'll get. If not sorted $25 is all they're worth. With that amount he's probably been saving them for awhile so it's hard to say what the actual yield will be.

[sandman228]

75$ a bucket is pretty steep considering about 1/3 of it will be steel, zinc and unusable junk . not to mention all the leg work you have to do smelting it . at that price your probably better off buying alloy from an online dealer . last I bought I paid 35 a bucket I bought 3 buckets from the guy and when it was all said and done I got over 300 lb of alloy

[scottfire1957]

The most I paid was 40 bucks, for 1 full bucket, when I had none. I would not even consider paying that now.

[BigEyeBob]

I pay 21cents a kilo (1kilo=2.2lbs) , I sort my weights from the bin at the yard into 25 liter buckets , I take soww and coww only ,I leave the steel and zinc ones for them .
The scarp yard has about 600 kilos of unsorted weights left for me to sort, but have more coming in all the time .

[Electric88]

I pay $20 for a 5 gallon bucket from my local tire shop. The buckets are full, and yield on average about 10% steel/zinc.

[RogerDat]

I was quoted 50 cents a pound for whatever the tire shop threw in the bucket. I would say a full bucket would go 110 lbs. +/- So they wanted $55 for a full bucket. I passed because 35 - 45 cents is possible to still find once in awhile and I'm not low on lead.

I would call the local scrap yards and find out what they would PAY for a pound of WW's and offer a bit more than that BUT give him a set amount you will take right then.

I'm guessing the scrap yard will pay him less than 50 cents a lb. Maybe as little as 25 cents. You show up with a roll of cash, a pick up truck or trailer and tell him 1000 lbs. of buckets for this here stack of money which happens to be 5 or 10 cents a pound more than the scrap yard will give him and I'll bet you have a deal. You will have also established a price for going forward if you decide another 1000 lbs. would be good.

One trick that can really help decide a deal is people do not want to let go of good things. Like money. If you go there with the amount your going to offer for 1000 lbs. in an envelope and the seller has that envelope in their hand they will NOT (really strong fundamental not) want to let go of the money. It is the reason that street vendors put things in your hand when trying to get you to purchase. Whole lot of difference between deciding to take something and deciding to give it back. Money works that way too.

Monkeys are sometimes trapped by putting rope in a coconut that also has a hole in it just big enough for the monkey to get a paw in, if the monkey gets their paw into the coconut and gets the bait in their paw the fist won't fit through the hole the open hand would. Monkey can be dragged by the rope because it will not let go of that bait food. Should be applicable to folks trying to sell you a bucket of WW's for $75 if you give them about 1/2 that amount but for a lot more so it is a chunk of money to let go of.

[fredj338]

Depends on where you live but you can't buy them out here in kalifornistan for any price. Going forward, as the lead ww dries up, you'll think $1/# is a buy, much less 25c. How big a bucket? 1gal, 3gal or 5gal? A 5gal bucket will be well over 100#. 15% scrap, 85# usable alloy, 85c/#, not terrible, again, depends on where you live. IF it were all guaranteed lead, I would offer him 50c/# of the whole 5000.

[wrench man]

I never weighed a bucket?, but the UPS tag on a TRUCK brake drum is #107, I pick them up by myself all the time, the buckets of wheel weight I bring home require two guys to put in the back of the pickup.

[noisewaterphd]

Ya, I dunno. I get COWW and SOWW for free, and sometimes I don't even think it's worth it.

Factor in my time and propane, time being the big one, and I'm unsure about it these days.

I like casting, I like reloading. I do not care for cleaning WW over propane.

[dragon813gt]

Not a single cent. I can still get them for free but have stopped dealing w/ them. My time is worth more. To much time spent sorting and cleaning up. And the end result is an unknown alloy. If I'm going to pay it will be for a foundry certified alloy.

[mold maker]

Ya better stock up while still available. When the WWs are gone the price of certified will increase because of demand.
He who has a stock pile is the only winner. Lead trades for powder and primers also.

[RogerDat]

Those that turn their noses up at WW's might be in an entirely different place either in terms of lead stock on hand or financial resources. Lot of folks would not even consider turning down free WW's as an option.

Foundry sourced, or purchased already cleaned and smelted into ingots can be a good choice, in some cases and circumstances even a better choice. On the other hand having WW's that were lower cost and are available has a lot to recommend it too. No way I could have built up my lead stash paying retail prices. Whole lot of difference between .35 and 1.70 a pound, I'm sure when the time comes I'll get to those buckets in the shed but by golly at least I have them. That one does not consider them worth having is not terribly relevant to what constitutes a good price for those that purchase them.

You show me a bucket of mostly lead WW's at a good price and I'm probably going to buy them. If I don't live long enough to use them well then someone else will. I have gone as high as .40 but that was back when lead was high and I needed to beat the scrap yard price by at least a little bit to make me the preferred purchaser.

[dragon813gt]

Buy in quantity. Half ton minimum and the price is low enough to make it worthwhile. I was buying isotope cores for a few years. I didn't pay much more for foundry certified and it was the exact alloy I wanted. If you can pick it up at the foundry the price is right around $1 a pound. Rotometals is not real foundry prices.

But I do understand that everyone is in a different situation. WW just aren't worth it to me, even when free.

[jimofaz]

I was getting them for $20 for a 5-gallon bucket full, back when there was not so much of the newer PC zinc & steel weights mixed in. Be careful what you buy on evil-bay in this regard. Rendering down wheel weights with too high a melt temp results in an alloy that can be difficult to get good boolits from.

[RogerDat]

Buy in quantity. Half ton minimum and the price is low enough to make it worthwhile. I was buying isotope cores for a few years. I didn't pay much more for foundry certified and it was the exact alloy I wanted. If you can pick it up at the foundry the price is right around $1 a pound. Rotometals is not real foundry prices.

But I do understand that everyone is in a different situation. WW just aren't worth it to me, even when free.

Yep different ways to wack the devil that is for sure. I enjoy scrounging and finding good scores. Part of the fun for me and keeps the hobby from breaking the budget. At least most months. On the other hand a pallet load of nice clean known alloy is a great place to start, and allows that person to focus more time on other parts of the hobby such as testing different loads or powders and reporting back what works, or doesn't, or can be made to.

It's all good as long as ....Oh look a wheel weight! Right there by the curb! :grin:

[Krieger82]

Hunt a bit more. After a day of harassing hapless tireshops, i found two that gave me 5 buckets and 2 buckets for free, respectively. Two were 70% Fe and Zn, one was 50%, one was 40%, the other three were almost all lead. Now if I could find some friggin Tin......

[RogerDat]

...... Now if I could find some friggin Tin...... Saw some for sale recently in swapping and selling forum. Some tin today, and some solder not long ago. If you don't see what you want in the first few pages of WTS then post in Wanted To Buy and see if you don't scare up some offers of tin for sale pretty quick.

[convert69]

I was getting 5 gallon buckets for $25. I scored a 55 gallon drum half full for $114 at local scrap yard. They had to use a fork lift to but it in the truck.