Wire cutoffs from 25 to 500 feet, bought in Tennessee
Cutoffs are the part of a wire inventory nobody wants to count. They are also the part where a seller most often leaves money on the pallet. We buy them by length band and by family.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Every electrical shop has a corner of short lengths. They are too long to throw away and too short to put back on a shelf, so they accumulate in bins until someone decides the corner has become a problem. In Tennessee, that corner is usually a saleable lot, and the bands are how we price it.
We buy cutoffs from roughly twenty-five feet to about five hundred, by length band and by family. What we will not do is quote a single rate for a pile that mixes large conductor with small, because the two have nothing in common but their length. The bands are what make a pile quotable without counting every coil by hand.
Measure the long pieces, estimate the rest by band, and send the photograph.
Lot basics
- Length range
- About 25 to 500 feet
- Usual packaging
- Pallets, bins and coils
- Key question
- Length per piece, per family
- Lowest value
- Mixed shorts under 25 feet
How cutoff lengths fall into bands
A hundred feet of 12 AWG is a service call. A hundred feet of 500 kcmil is a different conversation. Length alone does not set value, but it decides whether a piece is worth re-reeling, worth selling short, or only worth recovery. We sort into bands before quoting, and a piece sitting on a boundary is the one we measure twice.
The bands we use in practice: under twenty-five feet, twenty-five to a hundred, a hundred to two-fifty, and two-fifty to five hundred. Anything longer than five hundred feet is normally treated as a partial reel rather than a cutoff, because it can go back into service without a splice. Below twenty-five feet, a piece is recovery unless it is a specialty construction.
Which cutoffs are worth buying at length
Large conductor cutoffs hold value because both the metal and the labor to make them are substantial. So do lengths of families contractors use in short runs: tray cable, control cable, portable cord, welding cable. A fifty-foot piece of 4/0 aluminum is worth a look. A fifty-foot piece of 14 AWG is not worth a look at all, even clean.
Condition still applies. A clean cutoff with a sealed end and an intact jacket is stock. The same length with a crushed jacket or a waterlogged wrap is recovery. We do not blend the two into one number, because that hides the difference, and the difference decides whether selling is worth your time. The two are quoted on separate lines.
How we review bins and pallet lots
A bin of mixed cutoffs is reviewed by family first and weight second. If the bin is all one construction, we can weigh it and give you a number quickly. If it is mixed, we either sort it with you or price it as a mixed lot at a lower rate, and you should expect that rate to be lower.
Pallets are easier. A pallet with one family, banded and labeled with approximate lengths, can usually be quoted from a photograph. Write the lengths on a card and tape it to the pallet, then photograph the card alongside the reels. That one step removes most of the back and forth and often saves a second visit before anyone loads a truck.
Selling a cutoff pile without counting every piece
You do not have to measure every piece. Measure the long ones and estimate the rest by band. Tell us which bands dominate. A pile that is mostly under twenty-five feet will be priced as recovery no matter how carefully it is counted, and knowing that early saves everyone a day. Estimating is normal, and it is usually accurate enough to price a bin.
If the cutoffs sit at a shop in Tennessee, we can collect them with a partial reel sale or a scrap load. Combining is the practical answer, since a cutoff pile on its own rarely covers a dedicated run across the state. One truck, two or three stops, and a single scale ticket for everything at the end of the day.
Questions sellers ask
Is there a minimum length you will buy?
Twenty-five feet is the practical floor for anything we would sell on as wire. Below that, a piece is recovery material unless it is a specialty construction. Send it with a scrap load rather than making it a separate sale, and you will usually do better overall. A single piece below it is not worth a dedicated trip.
How do you price a mixed bin of cutoffs?
We separate by family where the volume justifies it, then weigh each group. If the bin is too mixed to separate economically, we price it as a mixed lot and say plainly that the rate reflects the sorting we will have to do. There is no useful middle ground. Guessing produces a number neither of us can defend.
Can you take cutoffs with no tags?
Yes. We identify the construction from the jacket print, the conductor and the insulation. Where the print is gone, a measurement of the conductor and the outside diameter usually settles it. Untagged cable is normal in cutoff piles and does not prevent a sale. Bring a sample if the print is worn past reading.
Do short lengths of aluminum wire have value?
Some, at larger sizes. Aluminum cutoffs in the 1/0 to 500 kcmil range are worth reviewing, particularly in USE-2 and URD constructions. Small aluminum branch sizes are usually recovery, because the handling labor exceeds what the metal returns. A bin of small aluminum is a recovery load, not a wire sale.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
A pile of shorts in the corner?
Tell us the families and the length bands, and we will say which parts are worth a sale and which are recovery.
Tennessee only · statewide pickup planning