Vanishing Pewter

[jsizemore]

I've been buying pewter from my local flea market for years. Vendors know me and know my price. I bring my scale and everyone is happy.

Last weekend there was no pewter to be found. I talked to 2 vendors that said a group of "college" kids came through and bought EVERYTHING that said pewter at the asking price which is generally around $7/lb. These guys didn't know what they were buying because they bought Wilton and anything that had PEWTER stamped or stickered on it. They were very hush-hush about the whole thing. The vendor that told me about the Wilton said that it said PEWTER so it was. I told her to sell them a bunch more.

I stopped by one vendor that had closed his antique mall booth. He had enough pewter plates to weigh 25lbs. I had just finished weighing them when a young college aged couple came up and asked if they were for sale. My former friend said they were and wanted $7/lb. but agreed on $6. I was prepared to pay $4 but money talks and friendship walks. The buyer asked me about using borax to flux. I gave them the 15 minute lecture on the ID, and process on the production of ingots. I hoped communicating would get them to wag their tongues about what they are doing with the pewter. Not A Peep.

Your guess is as good as mine. I looked on ebay for pewter ingots offered from my area but found nothing. I'm thinking it could be a cheap source of solder or ???????

I'm letting folks on the board know about this and show a bit of caution when you buy from an unknown seller. Good Luck

[dbosman]

Oh, well. Some of us may have to share our bounty.

[MrWolf]

I have never found any pewter for sale near me. I found it once in Florida on vacation at a flea market. You folks are lucky.

[elmacgyver0]

Are these "college kids" just buying it to keep it out the hands of bullet casters?
If so, that is so very typically liberal.

[Green Frog]

The pewter I've found in Thrift Shops locally has generally been in the form of artsy little figurines so their per pound prices were not at all attractive (at least not for scrap tin!) Fortunately one of our fellow shooters has a nice reliable source, so we're pretty well taken care of here. :D

Froggie

[jsizemore]

Take a little time to check the price of pewter on ebay and the price of lead free solder anywhere. Prices are right up there. A fella that builds power supplies for just about anything has a small melting pot of certified lead free in the middle of his workers that dip the fluxed end of their connections to "tin" them before assembly. I figure it's a group of nerds trying to find a cheap way to feed their electronics habit. Maybe sell a bit on the side to cover costs. I know I scrambled a bunch to see my way through college.

[Bazoo]

In 5 years I have found 1 piece of pewter. I still keep my eyes peeled.

[Don1357]

Meh.

I buy from the local recycler. There is another dude that has a sinker casting business. Sometimes he hits the recycler before I do, sometimes I hit the recycler before he does. One of these days I'm sure somebody else will find that recycler and get in the way of me and the sinker casting dude.

[Petrol & Powder]

Are these "college kids" just buying it to keep it out the hands of bullet casters?
If so, that is so very typically liberal.

I seriously doubt they are that informed about bullet casting or capable of thinking that many steps forward in the process.
More likely there is some other social trend such as collecting items for a renaissance fair (or Game of Thrones props), props for a play, home decorating trend or items on a scavenger hunt list.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

We will never know...

[rancher1913]

my guess is casting figures for dungons & dragons games, thats quite huge to them and they all try and out do each other in the dice they use and the figures that represent them on the board

[Shawlerbrook]

Yes, probably Comic-con nerds like rancher said.

[Bob Busetti]

A local priest passed away awhile back. When they cleared out his stuff there was a 10 lb. bar of pewter that the old guy used to cast figures. I was the lucky recipient.

[Mr_Sheesh]

The SCA uses non-lead Pewter for the charms they give people on paying to attend events, the idea being that if someone's kid gnaws on it it won't harm the kid. Probably D&Der though.

[bangerjim]

I have never found an pewter items I would melt in over 12 years of looking here in AZ. The items I do find are antiques and go into my collection, but never any general modern pewter ware items like many have found elsewhere. I have had greater luck at junk yards where I get it for a buck a pound like all Pb-ish items they sell. (How about 30ea) 2# pure foundry bars of Sn for a buck a pound! Good times.......good times!

banger

[Reverend Al]

Thank goodness I'm not short on Pewter ... I think I have about 95 to 100 pounds on hand that is smelted into ingots ...

https://i.imgur.com/5KS9L3Y.jpg

[lightman]

Are these "college kids" just buying it to keep it out the hands of bullet casters?
If so, that is so very typically liberal.

It will be interesting when or if we ever find out. I seriously doubt that its any kind of conspiracy. My thinking is that any conspiracy would leak out and some of us would hear about it.

As far as pewter goes, I'm another that seldom finds it. As it gets harder for me to walk around I spend less time looking. Sometimes the other things that I find in thrift shops make up for the lack of pewter.

[jsizemore]

I seriously doubt they are that informed about bullet casting or capable of thinking that many steps forward in the process.
More likely there is some other social trend such as collecting items for a renaissance fair (or Game of Thrones props), props for a play, home decorating trend or items on a scavenger hunt list.

I think this a real possibility. The local university is known for engineering. I bet it's for casting playthings.

[LenH]

The random pieces I find are usually kind of bent up and not worth saving and get melted. I haven't found any lately but sometimes find 2 or 3 items and think
I have hit the mother load.

[soflarick]

D&D is again very popular. I had some small figurines from childhood, and tried giving them to a young adult male at a grocery store whom I know plays. He said "no thanks", he and his buddies had plenty. Ok, into the pewter pot they went. He said the resurgence of D&D has created a large market for fancier figures than what existed in my time. There are other craft-type people who seek it out. I purchased a few lbs the other day from a lady, and she assumed it was for crafts. It's still out there. I've never had a connection like some of you stated. Best deal I ever got was a dude selling pewter mugs at a flea market for a dollar a mug; one free if I bought ten. I bought ten. Should have grabbed them all.

[kevin c]

It sort of makes sense for instructors to use a low melting temperature alloy with good casting qualities for first timers.

If pewter is scarce in an area, that's just the way it is. But occasionally there are ways to up the odds of finding it. My latest foray paid off well when I checked out a local estate auction house that lists on line the lots they will have for sale at their monthly auction, available for preview. I've gone to couple to check on lots of mostly or all pewter. One lot went for antique prices because, well, the pieces actually were antique. I won the other lot of nearly 30 pounds of nondescript plates for a net price of well under a dollar a pound. Except for a bucket thrown in with the plates that fizzed like crazy with muriatic acid, the other pieces were all touch marked as the real article. So far it's an easier and potentially cheaper high yield proposition compared to hitting and haggling at estate sales and the low yield hunt at thrifts, where I may have to wait for a sale day for the meager finds there, only to lose out when they get bought by others before the price comes down. YMMV, but thanks to the old hands here who suggested I check out this approach.

[Cast_outlaw]

Are these "college kids" just buying it to keep it out the hands of bullet casters?
If so, that is so very typically liberal.

I highly that or you would see them bragging about it all over social media with pictures of them destroying it so no one can use it or throwing it in a lake or something like that

[Slugster]

I usually find 2 to 5 pieces on my pewter foraging jaunts, but for the last couple of months it's like someone is throwing a net over the pewter before I get to it. Have found zero pewter on the last three trips. Have five different thrift shops on my circuit and "aint found nuttin" lately.
That's OK though as I have a plentiful supply for my needs, but I quit spending half a day looking for something that isn't there. Still stop in to different shops if I happen to be in the area. I can still find Wilton crap but since it isn't pewter I have no need for it.

When I first started searching for pewter I bought a Wilton bowl that is pretty heavy, and thought I had struck it rich. Not. It still sits on my workbench collecting cigar ashes. I keep it as a reminder that you should read the pewter thread in this site before trying to score some pewter booty.

Now lead is a different situation. I can find it at a couple of scrapyards but they are usually asking a premium price if they will even sell it to you. Early morning and a box of glazed donuts will usually grease the way.

[unclemikeinct]

I find myself in the enviable position of being able to offer some Pewter Scraps in the S&S section. I have a question. Do you guys prefer to purchase Pewter for the tin & antimony As Strips, Flattened pieces, little ingots say 4 to 8 ozs. Or popcorned like BB shot loose form ?? unclemikeinct

[kevin c]

A few things to consider:

Like Linotype, seeing and handling pewter in its original form and seeing the touch mark offer some assurance that it's the real thing. Along a similar line, while some will treat pewter as pure tin, the variation in tin content (90 to 98%) makes others want to verify the source, or have the seller report on an assay.

The caveat emptor approach especially applies to transactions with strangers. If the seller has a good established reputation, say, on this forum, then he might have an easier time selling small ingots/nuggets/coins of a metal that he says is pewter, though there still can be an expectation of some discount in price to offset the perceived risk.

On the other hand, cut/crushed/shredded pewter is a lot more bulky and therefore more expensive to ship compared to ingots or coins, raising the ultimate price per pound.

BTW, don't tread too close to the edge on rules restricting sales pitches to the S&S forum. I asked the moderators if I could pose a similar question to yours, and was told I could not without incurring an infraction.

[Traffer]

I did a search on the internet (I'm really good at that) and this was my conclusion:
There is no trend or movement of young people toward using Pewter.
If there was it would be more popular on youtube.
I did a youtube search and found lot's of videos of melting pewter, casting it blah blah BUT only one video had over a million views and that was on a guy's channel who had over 4.5 million subscribers...That is Waaaaaaay insignificant. Most of the pewter videos only had in the hundreds of views.
You may have a local interest in pewter by the young where you live (maybe a College art's program that is promoting it or something but that's about it)
Other reasons for vanishing pewter...mostly because of it's value it is not being used much anymore so when the stuff that is out there is gone...it's gone.
More and more people (especially scavengers who pillage the local thrift stores) are becoming aware of it's relative value. And every one of the scavengers who resell the stuff on eBay will grab something for $2 if they know they can sell it for $12 on eBay.
That's my stttttory and I'm stttt stttt sttticking to it.

[frkelly74]

We were just binging on the Poldark series and all the pewter mugs and flagons made me thirsty. I was tempted to go to the stash and grab one of my mugs and fill it up with something frothy.

[RogerDat]

Are these "college kids" just buying it to keep it out the hands of bullet casters?
If so, that is so very typically liberal.More than likely jewelry or figurines. Could even be as others have mentioned for tinning wires. Could even be a design project for a class and casting is an option. Pewter is far easier to cast than say brass or bronze. Although just as likely to be one bright young person figured out that there was a nice profit margin between the price pewter fetched at flea markets and what it could be sold for online. Or maybe sold to students involved in a casting project.

Don't forget sinkers are an easy cast and lead free sinkers have a definite market. One can make a mold from any game piece and then cast it with a modest amount of work. Don't like the competition but it is to be expected. I know I don't always hit places at the "right" time. Sometimes someone else gets the good stuff. Sometimes it's me. More I try the better my chances.

At one point I wouldn't walk away from pewter if the price wasn't stupidly high. Figure 1/4 pound for a $1.50 wasn't a deal but it was only a buck fifty and a little goes a long way. Got some built up, was tighter about what I would pay. The folks buying a lot or larger single purchases have to be more concerned by price per pound. A $2 a pound extra on a 10 pound purchase is $20 at which point it gets hard to justify. If buying 25# of plates paying $6 a pound just doesn't work out so well for bullet casting.

Another possibility is someone found some collectables market and is flipping the stuff from flea market to antique market prices. We all know antique places often seem to price sterling silver and pewter as almost the same value. Maybe the local college knows a place that will pay top dollar.

[RogerDat]

I might also point out I was at a scrap yard and the lead bins have the same stuff almost unchanged for over a month. Stuff is covered in dust undisturbed by any additions. May be a seasonal downturn across the board. Fewer auctions, estate sales, garage sales, fewer people moving an elderly relative out of a home to a senior community in the cold weather months. So less downsizing going on.

If wife and myself move to say a condo or single floor apartment in town at some point I'm going to be selling stuff to down size. If it was only one of us I already know she wouldn't keep any lead, or solder, or pewter, or brass. In my case I arranged with casting and reloading friends to help her dispose of what doesn't go to friends and family. If not one could easily see my "keeper" collection of pewter ending up in an antique mall or thrift store. Thing is doubtful she would elect to move in winter weather. More likely to be a spring or summer endeavor.

And while not related to OP as some posts allude to there are areas of the country where pewter just isn't common, others where it is. Around here we see a fair amount but this is rural farm country and the décor works well with pewter. We also see a lot of lead sheathed cables or water pipes. Something not seen as much out west.