Wire & cable · 34 pages
Every wire family, and the situations that produce it.
Twenty-four cable families and ten seller situations. Each page covers what the construction actually is, what decides its value, and what a New York seller should have ready before a review.
- 24 cable families
- 10 seller situations
- Copper and aluminum
- New surplus to removed
Send a wire lot
Six details are enough to start a review. Photographs of reel tags and jacket print can follow by email or text.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
01 / Families
The families that actually move
Most surplus cable in New York is ordinary: THHN and XHHW building wire, MC and SER, tray cable, control cable, URD and USE-2 underground cable, welding cable and portable cord. It is produced in enormous quantity by commercial, institutional and industrial construction, and it is left over on almost every job.
The families differ in how they are valued. Building wire is valued on copper content plus jacket condition, and partial reels are common. Tray and control cable are valued on conductor count and shielding. URD and USE-2 are valued on whether the insulation is intact and whether the cable is still on a reel. Medium voltage cable is valued on voltage class and test history, which is why it sits in the high-voltage cluster rather than here.
02 / Situations
The situation matters as much as the cable
A cancelled project leaves tagged, unopened reels with purchase records. A plant liquidation leaves installed cable that has to be removed. A contractor's leftover pile is a mix of both, stored badly. The same THHN can be worth very different amounts depending on which of those it came from, and the review questions change accordingly.
Ten pages cover the situations we see most: partial reels, cancelled projects, plant liquidation, demolition, warehouse overstock, contractor leftovers, obsolete inventory, mixed pallets, water damage and utility warehouse stock. Read the situation page if you already know what the cable is.
Building and power cable
- THHN, THWN and THWN-2 wire buyers in New YorkNylon-jacketed 600 V building wire, 14 AWG to 500 kcmil, in reels, part reels and cut coils.
- XHHW and XHHW-2 wire buyers in New York600 V XLPE wire in copper and aluminum, 14 AWG to 1000 kcmil, dry and wet locations.
- MC cable buyers in New YorkInterlocked-armour MC and HCF cable, 14 AWG to 600 kcmil, in coils and reels.
- Armored cable and BX buyers in New YorkAC and BX branch-circuit cable in steel or aluminum armour, part coils and cut lengths.
- SER and SEU service entrance cable buyers in New YorkRound SER and oval SEU service cable, 6 AWG to 4/0 and larger, aluminum and copper.
- NM-B cable and Romex buyers in New YorkRomex in 14/2 through 6/3, full coils and job offcuts, priced honestly on length.
- Feeder cable buyers in New York600 V – 1 kV multiconductor feeder, 1/0 – 1000 kcmil, copper and aluminum, all install methods.
- Bus bar buyers in New YorkCopper and aluminum bus bar and tube, 1/4 x 2 in through 1/2 x 6 in, plated and bare.
Underground and specialty
- URD cable buyers in New York15 kV and 25 kV XLPE underground distribution cable with concentric neutral, 1/0 to 1000 kcmil.
- USE-2 cable buyers in New YorkSingle-conductor 600 V USE-2 in copper and aluminum, 4 AWG to 500 kcmil, direct burial rated.
- Tray cable buyers in New YorkTC and TC-ER multi-conductor cable, 600 V to 2 kV, shielded and unshielded, on reels and part reels.
- Welding cable buyers in New YorkFlexible 600 V welding cable, 6 AWG to 4/0, rope-lay copper with neoprene or EPDM jacket.
- SOOW and portable cord buyers in New YorkSOOW, SJOOW and STOW portable cord, 18 AWG to 2 AWG, in spools and cut lengths.
- Submersible pump cable buyers in New YorkFlat and round well pump cable, 14 to 6 AWG, three and four wire, 600 V.
- Solar PV cable buyers in New YorkPV wire and cable, 1 kV and 2 kV, 10 AWG – 500 kcmil, XLPE and EPR, USE-2/RHW-2 dual rated.
- Data center cable buyers in New YorkData center power and infrastructure cable, 600 V to 35 kV, busway, control and fiber.
- Fire alarm cable buyers in New YorkFPL, FPLR and FPLP fire alarm cable, 14–18 AWG, 2–4 conductors, plenum and riser rated.
- Elevator cable buyers in New YorkFlat and round elevator traveling cable, 18–14 AWG, 300 and 600 V, with hoistway wiring.
Control, instrumentation and grounding
- Control cable buyers in New York600 V multiconductor control cable, 18–10 AWG, 2–37 conductors, tray and conduit rated.
- Instrumentation cable buyers in New YorkMulti-pair instrument cable, 16–24 AWG, individual and overall shields, thermocouple extension.
- VFD cable buyers in New York3-conductor drive cable with symmetrical grounds, 16 AWG – 500 kcmil, 600 V and 1 kV.
- Bare copper wire buyers in New YorkBare and tinned copper grounding conductor, 14 AWG to 500 kcmil, solid and stranded.
- Copper wire buyers in New YorkCopper conductor as a category: temper, stranding, size and the link between copper content and value.
- Aluminum wire buyers in New YorkAluminum building and feeder wire, AA-8000 series, 6 AWG – 1000 kcmil, XHHW-2 and USE-2.
Seller situations
- Partial reel buyers in New YorkPart reels priced on documented remaining length, construction and cut-end condition.
- Cancelled project cable buyers in New YorkUnopened project reels with tags, purchase orders and a clean written release.
- Plant liquidation cable buyers in New YorkStores rooms, OEM spares and installed cable from closing plants, reviewed in that order.
- Demolition cable buyers in New YorkCable cut out of demolished buildings, valued on metal and identifiable construction.
- Warehouse overstock cable buyers in New YorkAged and slow-moving distributor stock converted from a stores list into a priceable lot.
- Contractor leftover cable buyers in New YorkShop-corner part reels, offcuts and trailer stock, bought sorted or as they lie.
- Obsolete cable buyers in New YorkSuperseded constructions, odd sizes and legacy color stock, priced on remaining use.
- Mixed pallet cable buyers in New YorkMixed pallets and boxes bought as they lie, or better, after a cheap separation.
- Water damaged cable buyers in New YorkWet reels triaged on source, duration, sealing, jacket and voltage class.
- Utility warehouse overstock cable buyers in New YorkConductor, OPGW and distribution cable released from utility stores after formal disposal.
Seller questions
Cluster questions
How do I know which page applies to my material?
Start with the family: the jacket print or the reel tag usually names it. If the material is a mix, read the situation pages instead — a mixed pallet from a contractor is a situation, not a family. If you genuinely cannot tell, send photographs and the desk will identify it.
Do you buy small quantities of building wire?
Yes, but freight sets the practical floor. A few hundred feet of THHN is rarely worth a dedicated truck; several reels from the same area, or a partial reel combined with other material, usually is.
What condition is too poor to buy?
Cable that has been wet internally, burned, crushed, or stored outdoors for years with a degraded jacket is usually recovery material rather than reusable cable. It is still reviewed, but as scrap value rather than cable value, and the two should never be confused in a listing.
Do you buy cable with no reel and no tag?
Yes, as recovery material, unless the jacket print or a cut end identifies it well enough to establish construction and size. Loose coils with no identification are the hardest category to pay well for, because there is nothing to reuse.
Next step
Send the lot details
Construction, size, footage, storage city. That is the whole ask.
Send the lot
Six details are enough to start a review. Photographs of reel tags and jacket print can follow by email or text.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com