rolls of housewire

I was working labor and at the end of the job the electrician gave me all the leftoever incomplete rolls of wire... it was for a whole school, so those are some big rolls.

I want to list the rolls on craigslist, but I am wondering what important info on the wire should be listed on the advertisement. the little paper labels have long since deteriorated.

I remember he told me "dont let the foreman see all this" :x and the foreman was the one who gave me permission to scrap!

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8403/121009001.jpg
how should i sell this, buyer buys all, or just sell the rolls i can then scrap the rest? whats fair price? 2x, 3x, 5x scrap value?

Usually there is some specs printed on the insulation.

nice score, some value there

If it were my company I would have a talking to with the guy that gave you the wire. I would be just a little bit upset that he was throwing my GOOD material away.

It should say type and gauge on the the wire.
Example THHN 12AWG
That and color are what people will be looking for.

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Originally Posted by BarrenRealms007

If it were my company I would have a talking to with the guy that gave you the wire. I would be just a little bit upset that he was throwing my GOOD material away.

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I would do a little more then talking :)

well it came from a government job so there you go, time and materials job

^^you shouldnt assume things

Quote:

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It should say type and gauge on the the wire.
Example THHN 12AWG
That and color are what people will be looking for.

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just what i was looking for, thnx

Just a thought, but IMO if this is an ongoing job deal, I would scrap that stuff. If the electrician or even the foreman sees it up on CL, they might either get a little bit choked, or even think to themselves "Hey, why don't I just sell it myself to make some $$!". Another thing is that in my experience, selling any incomplete spools of wire has been pretty difficult, even with rolls that are near full, and most of those spools look like they're at less than 50%. There's always the question of how much wire is actually left. Plus lots of trades don't like to lay out $$ for materials till they actually need them for a job. Throw it up on CL, and I bet you get more calls on it from scrappers than from electricians.

well i figure the season for diy backyard projects is about to start so if anytime to sell, than right now would be it, wouldnt it?

I live by a pretty heavily used craigslist location, sfbay

Some spools of wire are marked off buy the foot so you don't have to stretch out a tape to measure.

Sometimes its just not worth saving the small rolls of wire when working on contract jobs.

Like when you figure that the rest of the roll will do the job, but its 10 feet short...
Or its the right length, then you find you need to divert the line sideways 1/2 along its length, & now its too short.
Or you spend a hour trying to figure something out, & find its that join you had to make somewhere.
Or, whats on the last roll isn't enough, but if you'd chucked the last roll & replaced it with a new roll at the depot, you'd be able to finish the job today, rather than coming back tomorrow to redo one small part of the job.

Double check the prices of the cable too. I called up & got a price of $11 a metre for 3 phase wire, figured I could sell the new roll for $100's.

'cept they have 'two prices'. One @ $11 a metre for customers quotes, and $3 a metre for contractors....

So, contractors can quote it out @ $11 a metre in their quotes and pocket the difference......

Most electrical contractors that I know of will save the left over wire and sell it to someone like Highvoltage. I would strip it and sell the copper as scrap. Just my .02

If I found one of my guys chunking or giving away a small roll of wire I'd make them go dig it back out. I would then make sure they got every crappy job there was for a few days so they would get the hint and learn a lesson. If the roll is too small for the contract job it goes on the service truck where it makes more money then the contract job, and the roll is already paid for.

In 18 years of commercial construction, even through all the really good times, I've never seen an electrical contractor that would just give away rolls like that. Oddly enough electrical contractors tend to be aware of scrap values. If someone told you that you could take that, I'd guess they weren't the person with the authority to do so. Just my opinion.

Timely thread. Today I went by the resale shop that gives me their unsellable donations... someone dropped off about an 800' roll of cat5 cable. What's something like that worth, and where would one sell it quick? I'd rather get a fast nickle than a slow dime, to copy a phrase I read here earlier today.. ;)


http://imageshack.us/a/img90/967/cab1v.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img255/7505/cab2g.jpg

What is a fair price for these? 2x scrap value?

I dont have a scale of anysort. think there is somewhere I can find a 1-50lb scale at flea market or something? or maybe something like 0.1 to 10 lbs?

low investment solution is what I am looking for since i am barely even a partime scraper...

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Originally Posted by auminer

Timely thread. Today I went by the resale shop that gives me their unsellable donations... someone dropped off about an 800' roll of cat5 cable. What's something like that worth, and where would one sell it quick? I'd rather get a fast nickle than a slow dime, to copy a

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just sold 400ft of cat 5 for $30. So I know what you mean.

Short wire is good to sell to small manufacturers. Most electricians don't want, need or trust it for liability reasons. I know one guy who is an electrical liquidator. He sells entire building leftovers for cheap and offers delivery anywhere. Dump it anywhere you can find.

Ok, here's my .02..

Don't strip it and scrap it. We're here because we recycle things.. but taking something that's perfectly good and using it is 10x better than wasting energy and time on re-inventing it. Just sell it to someone who can use it and get what ever you think is fair. Spend a few minutes Google searching it or call a local wire supply and ask them what it goes for by the foot for a contractor.

You're wasting something that is good by scrapping it..

I keep remnants of stranded wire because I rebuild wiring harnesses on trailers, RVs, boats and so on that mice get into (every spring it happens and people call me, I have a a knack for it) so there is that. Solid core wire of lengths greater than 40 feet I would keep in a heartbeat...less than isn't really what a contractor would be looking for except maybe as jumpers...hmmm.