The price of lead

[JIMinPHX]

Gentlemen,
The spot price of lead has been hovering around a buck for the past year or so. It's just recently dropped to about $0.75 & seems to still be going down. The time to lay in a stock of new, store-bought lead may be approaching. I'll be keeping an eye on the graphs from the link below to see when the price gets good enough to jump on some. If nothing else, knowing the spot price gives you some bargaining leverage when haggling with the scrap guys.

http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical.html

[GabbyM]

My supplier tells me my price is set using the previous thirty day period average price. So the price needs to stay down for a month.

[leadman]

Great site Jim. Looks like the price of lead has been dropping for a bit, hope it keeps going down.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Ya, a fellow sent me an "E" yesterday about 300lbs of "lead".

I replied back asking what and how much.

Hope it is ugly look'in WW he really wants to clean out for a looooooooooow, price.

He answered an add I have on a local .com site.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[9.3X62AL]

Yeah, even Type 01 gun dealers have succumbed to the Buccaneer Instinct on casting metal pricing. Not long ago, I asked about some short-poured ingots for sale at the local toy store, total mystery metal, about 3/4# each. $1.00 apiece. And, NO--no hardness tester use on it, take it or leave it. Nice. NOT!

Since that time, I have noticed that he has transitioned to the "I'm Doing The Public A Favor By Just Being Open" phase of gun retailing. All Rugers are priced at MSRP, as are SIG-Sauers--and the Colts (4 in number) are about 5% OVER suggested retail. This is the same place that limited primers to 100 per day @ $7.50/100 not long ago.

He had a pretty good thing going on here. I hope he regains his faculties soon.

[KCSO]

I all most feel ashamed in over 30 years i have never paid a nickle for lead. I either traded sinkers or got wheel weights for free. My buddy with the telephone company would drop off cable snippets and I took the lead and he sold the copper. I just got another 200 pounds of w/w last weekend as a fellow wanted to get all that dangerous stuff out of his garage. My other friend was an old time news paper editor and I traded 38's for lino, a box of ammo for each 40 pound ingot.

[hydraulic]

You forgot to mention that 30 lbs. of monotype some good-looking fellow from up in the northern part of the county gave you.

[chuckbuster]

I'll confirm in the morning (getting new tires on the Tahoe) but I heard from an employee at my tire shop that the boss got $85 a bucket for scrap ww at the salvage yard. Man I hope not...

[RP]

Well the big thing that has hurt in my area is that the tire battery guys have started giving a buck a lb for WWs. The battery guy hits them if they sells his batterys every month easy and pays cash or credit for their WWs. The tire WWs salespeople give credit off next WWs purchase send them boxes to put it in and a truck picks them up when they hit 1000 lbs. Thats getting old to some people being lazy are getting tired of boxing them and storeing them so I was able to buy some at one place gave junkyard price per lb then.

[GabbyM]

I'll confirm in the morning (getting new tires on the Tahoe) but I heard from an employee at my tire shop that the boss got $85 a bucket for scrap ww at the salvage yard. Man I hope not...

Someone in that loop is getting there chain yanked. Scrap yards never pay more than five to seven cents per pound that I've seen.

The way those battery and WW dealers work is they charge X amount per pound if the customer has no core trade in. In my opinion it's not an honest way to do bussiness.

[Suo Gan]

Someone in that loop is getting there chain yanked. Scrap yards never pay more than five to seven cents per pound that I've seen.

The way those battery and WW dealers work is they charge X amount per pound if the customer has no core trade in. In my opinion it's not an honest way to do bussiness.

Same here.

[lwknight]

Someone in that loop is getting there chain yanked. Scrap yards never pay more than five to seven cents per pound that I've seen.

Do a little research! Scrapyards are paying as of today 65 cents per pound for lead and selling it to foundry recyclers for 75 cents per pound. Same as market spot.
Scrapyards are paying 45 cents for mixed WWs.

Scrapyards in tinytown USA with ignorant patrons might get away with paying pennies on the dollar.

[Suo Gan]

Do a little research! Scrapyards are paying as of today 65 cents per pound for lead and selling it to foundry recyclers for 75 cents per pound. Same as market spot.
Scrapyards are paying 45 cents for mixed WWs.

Scrapyards in tinytown USA with ignorant patrons might get away with paying pennies on the dollar.

Why research when I can go down and buy it from a scrapyard for .30 cents a pound? Just did it Thursday. I am not sure if this business is in the loop, but they have railroad access to their yard, they have two cranes with electro magnets, three loaders and seem like a big operation to me. I guess it is like they say, things are only worth what people are willing to pay? My guess is that it costs a lot to transport lead and money talks. The radical price differences between what scrapers pay and charge for lead have always been curious to me.

[chuckbuster]

Got my tires

He got .54/# for his last batch from the "scrapyard". Have known him for years, not lying to me.

Kevin

[roarindan]

I swapped a .22 rifle and 5 boxes of ammo for a pile of lead, end of April. A retired telephone worker friend of mine has had it behind his garage since he worked the long lines in NJ. He didnt know how many # he had, lucky for me/us i live 1/4 mi from a junk yard.we weighed the lead (85 lbs) and Jason said they give $.30/lb.

[lwknight]

The average going rate for WWs at the scrapyard is $0.45 to sell them and if you want to buy the nits about $0.60 or more. The scrapyards usually will sell for near what the foundry will pey them. That was they don't have to ship as much and wait for their money.

Sou Gan , if you can buy WWs at your scrapyard for $0.30 , you should buy all of them and take then to a larger scrapyard to collect 45 cents per pound cause thats what they will pay!

You would get a 50% return on your investment in a matter of hours. Thats like a million percent annual interest.

Better yet , just tell us where this scrapyard is. LOL.

[HodakaGA]

I guess I better bust my piggy bank and go down to our recycling center. On Thursday I was quoted $0.40 per lb. for all I wanted to buy of either straight lead or wheelweights. I thought he was high on the WW, I can get a 5 gal. bucket from the tire dealer for $25.....what's that.......20-25 cents per lb.?

[Huntermb]

I lucked out the other day, an old plumbing shop that was closing up gave me over 600 lbs of pure lead. Alot were in big ingots but I actually have a 1/4 cubic foot of lead complete with handle. I'm feeling pretty lucky right now.

[stephen perry]

I never pay money directly for lead. I get all I need from my tire shop for the last 30+ years. Same deal same oldie but goodie. A bucket of weights for a case of Old Milwaukee. I like the truck weights he gets, most 1 lb. Less clips to mess with. I dump the magnesium small weights in my recycle bin. I also get from time to time lead from co workers and antimony 45 bars.

My Arizona bud gets lead bullet scrap out of his scrounging Canyon along with the brass he sells or gives away.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR