Selling Brass what a pain.....

Local is tougher than internet ship out.

Fill the flat rate box. Weigh it. That gives approximate amount of cases. List shipped price.

I've bought brass that exact way on this forum. Two pms, paid, he shipped.

Any annoyance simply click ignore.

Yes, a bit more work but as someone who ships out almost daily and 90% flat rate usps.. print label from home, shop from home, they pickup at regular mail.

Greatly understand if it's not worth it to you. Wish I was there. I'm hitting up LEO friends to see if I can buy any or all their range brass. I'm going to all the truck stops asking to buy there wheel weights knowing I'll be sorting scrap out of the bucket.

You've got a problem I envy

Yeah, I guess if you knew how many 1lb lots were in each bucket, you'd have a leg up and the potential buyers would know how much money they needed.

Take a gallon bag over to the post office and weigh it. Everyone should have an idea how big that is. Just put a price on it. Ask what shipping is while you are there and when you are watching tv, count one bag. Or else price one of their usps boxes and weight and price out one of those. It really wouldn't be too much trouble and then who knows what other questions they may ask. Do it for each caliber or guess and estimate from that one.

jeeptim said:

Jez do I need post the whole listing here???????????

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Only if you are interested in selling.
It seems you are more interested in discussion than disposition.

FROGO207 said:

If things keep going south like they are now in about a year you will be able to swap it even for gold I bet. Too bad nobody wants to pay a reasonable price today for that brass. If I was closer I would buy it just because it might be scarce soon and then it will go for a better price.
Last time I sold some .22 brass to the recycler they lept it seperate as they were required to shred it brfore selling it to China I was told. I am now in the process of getting swaging tools to make my own .224 bullet jackets and swage bullets.

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I was always very curious about this proposition. It'd be real interesting to do. I remember reading that the jackets they make are a bit on the thin side, but great for varmint and target rounds.

If you get the stuff set up and working, I bet a bunch of the people here would be very interested to see the process and results!!

markr6754 said:

I guess the part that has me scratching my head...though it may have been answered or info provided. If you're selling for $3/lb, 1 bucket min, and you don't know how heavy each or any bucket is...how do you know what to charge?

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Can some one direct me to the original posting? Op says all that info is given there.

whughett said:

Can some one direct me to the original posting? Op says all that info is given there.

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It wasn't originally posted on this forum. OP's for sale listing was stated to be on a local forum of a similar nature to this one.

There was a Facebook group, The Brass Bank, long ago for buying and selling brass only. I worked well until ding dong shut it down.
People will ask idiotic questions so the more info you post the better. But I never answer questions that were answered in my original post, unless I responded - "Read my original post".

Natsun said:

It wasn't originally posted on this forum. OP's for sale listing was stated to be on a local forum of a similar nature to this one.

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Ah, thanks. Read the OP several times , guess my reading comprehension is slipping with age.

Guess I’ll never find out at $3.00 a lb and a one bucket limit just how much I need to buy a bucket. Never was very good at math either.

I’m on the eastern seaboard so it’s academic.

If you decide to take the brass to the metal recycler (which is what I do with my retired reloaded brass and odd range scroungings), be sure it is rung up as "brass shells' and not "mixed brass" (locally a difference of 30 cents more per pound for cartridge brass than for common brass).

The recycler I visit adds 5% to the payout for veterans.

jeeptim said:

Want to keep this in [brass] circulation but there's a guy selling brass deprimed polished sorted by headstamp $35.00 for 500. Really? I guess if you got the time and passion.

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Last time I saw something like that it was a guy with 9 foster kids. He was using them as slave labor for a product he sold on the side.

What I did in a similar situation…years ago 15 or more I had more 45, 9mm and 223 brass than I would ever use in my life time if I never picked up another piece. I figured out approx. how many would fit into a large flat rate box and sold it for $15 over that cost to pay me something for the effort, sold all of it in about a week. I understand not wanting to ship something, but when the USPS makes it so easy I don’t understand why people don’t offer it.

People want to half azzed know what they are getting for thier money.
For what you could get for it you need go put some effort in to it.
The way you are going about it I highly doubt any one will be knocking your dood down for the brass you have.
The people I sell brass to want certain calibers of brass and have no use for other calibers so if they can only use half of what you sold them they would be into it for $6 a pound.
Maybe the recycler would be the best option here.

When I buy bulk brass it is all.mixed together, any garbage brass or other brass that is mixed in gets returned for more brass or I get my money back for it.
Out of the 500 pounds I just bought I have a little over thirty pounds to take back.
If I were to buy what you have I would pay between $1.25 to $1.50 a pound.
One place I get range brass from charges me a dollar a pound.
But it takes time and effort to make it attractive to the guys who want it.

Not worth the effort, give them to a reloader.

At one time brass lying on the ground at the Knights Trail Range in Sarasota was thick as grass. Free for the taking. So much an inter prizing fellow would pay for him and his family to enter the range. Wife himself and a young boy. During range cold they would pick up all the brass even 22’s. That ended in 2008 when the first down economy down turn hit. Now brass on the ground belongs to the county unless it was yours to start. A women’s organization, Friends of the County, come in on Mondays clean up and empty the brass troughs and buckets. They sell it to help defray the counties cost of running the range.

I have a shooting buddy that also runs a metal recycling business. When the Covid stay-at-home stuff started, I started buying brass from him to sort and sell. The problem is that the brass comes in large lots all mixed together, so sorting becomes the first order of business, and well over half is 9mm. Right now I have full buckets of 9mm and 38spl that may take a while to move. I can hardly sell the 9mm for more that what I pay for it. The good news is that he lets me take back anything I can’t use and trade it for more brass. Sometimes I take my sorting trays with me and sort out what I want, other times I just take 5 or 6 empty buckets and a shovel and bring home whatever I get.

He just informed me that scrap brass prices are going up. Plus, we are getting busy again at work so I am not staying at home as much, so my brass selling days may have to wait until I retire. Hopefully another 4 years.

As far as shipping, I’ve had good luck with UPS. For local shipping, regular ground always gets there in one day. The UPS store is close to my house. UPS has “simple rate” that is a flat fee, and I can use any box, as the rate is based on the cubic inches and not a specific box dimensions.

I’m basically doubling my money, but if I counted my labor I’m probably making less money than an organ grinder’s monkey. Gives me something to do, though.

whughett said:

Ah, thanks. Read the OP several times , guess my reading comprehension is slipping with age.

Guess I’ll never find out at $3.00 a lb and a one bucket limit just how much I need to buy a bucket. Never was very good at math either.

I’m on the eastern seaboard so it’s academic.

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I'd be all-in if I found a local person trying to off-load brass for $3/lb!! I'd take a couple buckets full anyway.

I'm just SWAG-ing here, but I'd bet a 5-gallon bucket goes 50-60 lbs.
I've never bought brass by the bucket, but I've sold it by the 500 and 1000.
If it is sorted by type (not headstamp) the internet will tell you approximately how many cases per pound, or how much weight per hundred/thousand/etc.
Then it is up to the buyer to determine if that is a good deal.
In my experience, brass by the 100/500/1000 goes for a good bit more than brass by the pound.
If it is already sorted, no brainer.
BTW, if you have tons of brass, sorting is pretty easy with a three-tray $40 set of sorters from Dillon (and probably others as well). Black, yellow, blue.
Been using mine for years to help me sort my range brass (not for sale, just for tumbling and reloading).

When I was reloading handguns, I had all the .38 Special brass I could use. Super .38 brass was harder to obtain, but few loaders want it. Once fired military brass is very much in supply.

Calibers .223 Remington (5.56x45mm) or 7.62x39mm are not reloaded much. Those who have rifles chambered for such usually buy loaded ammo and leave the brass on the range.

If selling any of the not so desired caliber brass, contact commercial reloaders, but they will want to know more than what you now provide.

Free tip, spend some money on a 50 pound "postal" scale. One can find the tare weight (look it up) of boxes and the net weight of contents. Then figure the average weight of the cases and that will give you a close enough guess to the number of cases in a box, bucket or pound.

I've attempted to see once fired brass at gun shows. Interest is minimal.

Sorry to hear that it is that hard to sell the brass. should not really be that tough but I guess people can be tough to deal with at times .

Like some others said take it to the recelyce place or maybe you can stop by a local gun range and one of the range rats will be interested .

good luck on the sale !

I took 46 pounds of the garbage brass back and traded it in for 50 pounds of good range brass. He has another two hundred pounds or so of range brass that I will be buying this comeing tuesday or wednsday.
Last night I seperated the 50 pounds and wet tumbled the 9mm and 223/5.56.
I will wait on tumbleing the other calibers until I get more seperated.

I have a 2,000 and a 5,000 order for 223/5.56.
It sells, not all at once but over time.

I have traded brass for other stuff I needed.

You see selling brass cases is easy going if you give it time.

orionengnr said:

I'm just SWAG-ing here, but I'd bet a 5-gallon bucket goes 50-60 lbs.

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Depends on which calibers are in the bucket. I can tell you for a fact that a bucket full of 9mm weighs a lot more than a bucket full of 45acp. A full 5 gallon bucket of 9mm will be over 75 lbs.

The last time I picked up a few buckets of assorted range brass, each full bucket weighed about 60 lbs.