Copper building wire · the category
Copper wire buyers in New York
Almost every cable on this site contains copper. This page is about the copper itself — how it is drawn, how it is stranded, and why the metal content of a reel is the floor under its price rather than the price.
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Send the construction, size and footage. Photographs can follow.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
Copper wire is reviewed on temper, stranding, size, insulation and footage. Soft annealed copper is the installable product; hard-drawn copper is largely a metal sale. The copper in a reel can be estimated from the conductor size and length, which is why footage and AWG are the two facts that matter most.
One metal, several products
Copper wire begins as electrolytic tough pitch copper rod and is drawn down to size. What happens after drawing decides the product. Soft annealed copper, to ASTM B3, is heat treated for maximum ductility and is what almost all building wire uses: it bends without cracking, it takes a set, and it terminates predictably. Medium-hard, to ASTM B2, sits between the two and appears in some overhead and specialty work. Hard-drawn copper, to ASTM B1, keeps the work hardening from drawing and is stiff, strong and springy.
Stranding is the second variable. Solid conductor is standard from 14 AWG to 10 AWG and available beyond; it is compact, cheap to make and easy to terminate in a screw or a small lug. Concentric-lay stranded conductor to ASTM B8 is the norm above 8 AWG, built in 7, 19, 37, 61 and larger strand counts. Compact stranded conductor presses the strands into a shape that fills a lug; rope-lay conductor, with much finer strands, is used where the cable has to flex repeatedly.
Surface finish is the third. Bare bright copper is the default. Tinned copper to ASTM B33 adds a thin tin coating for damp and corrosive locations and for solderability. Neither the stranding nor the tinning changes the conductivity enough to matter in building work, but both change what the cable can be installed for, and a buyer reads them from the print.
Size, copper weight and why the two travel together
The weight of copper in a cable is fixed by the conductor size and the length. A 1,000 ft reel of 2 AWG contains about 200 lb of copper regardless of whether the insulation is THHN or XHHW; the insulation adds weight and volume but no metal. That simple relationship is the basis of every copper valuation, and it is why footage is the most valuable single fact a seller can supply.
The table below gives nominal copper weights per 1,000 ft for the sizes that dominate New York lots. They are conductor weights, not cable weights: a finished reel weighs more because of insulation, fillers, jacket and the reel itself. Use them to sanity-check a claimed footage, not to replace a scale.
| Size | Nominal copper, lb per 1,000 ft | Where it turns up |
|---|---|---|
| 14 AWG | 12.4 | Branch circuits, control panels, lighting |
| 12 AWG | 19.8 | General-purpose branch circuits |
| 10 AWG | 31.4 | Small feeders, equipment connections, solar |
| 8 AWG | 50 | Grounding, small feeders, ranges |
| 6 AWG | 79.4 | Service and feeder conductors, grounding |
| 4 AWG | 126 | Feeder and subpanel work |
| 2 AWG | 200 | Service entrance, large equipment |
| 1/0 AWG | 317 | Feeders, service conductors |
| 4/0 AWG | 641 | Large feeders and service entrance |
| 250 kcmil | 758 | Distribution feeders, risers |
| 500 kcmil | 1,518 | Service and heavy distribution |
| 1,000 kcmil | 3,037 | The practical ceiling before parallel runs |
Copper content is the floor, not the price
Every copper cable has a metal value and, sometimes, a cable value. The metal value is what the copper would fetch on content. The cable value is what a contractor will pay for a reel that can be installed tomorrow: correct size, intact insulation, legible print, known footage, sound reel. The gap between those two numbers is the reuse premium, and it is largest on the sizes and types that are bought constantly.
The premium is not uniform. A full reel of 500 kcmil XHHW-2 with a tag is almost all copper by weight and carries a strong reuse premium, because the metal value is high and the demand is steady. A part reel of 14 AWG THHN is mostly insulation by volume, contains comparatively little copper per foot, and is bought by the electrician who needs 200 ft on a Friday. Small sizes are also where stripping costs bite: reclaiming 14 AWG copper from scrap cable costs more per pound than the copper is worth, which is why small scrap cable is sold as insulated cable by weight rather than stripped.
Condition is the multiplier on both. Water in the core, sun cracking, ring cuts at the ends and missing footage all push a reel from the cable column to the metal column. A reel that has been indoors, on its own reel, with the tag attached, is the same copper as one that has stood in a yard for five years — and it is worth materially more.
What a copper lot should tell you
The useful description of a copper lot is short and specific: for each reel, the size, the insulation type, the footage and the condition. Everything else is commentary. Where a lot is mixed, separate it by size class — small branch sizes, mid-range feeders, large service sizes — because those three groups have different buyers and different economics.
It also helps to say what the copper is in. Bare conductor, THHN, XHHW-2, tray cable and armoured cable all contain the same metal but are sold into different markets, and several of them have their own page on this site for that reason. A seller who states the product, not just the metal, gets a more useful answer.
- Size and stranding for each reel
- Insulation type and voltage rating from the print
- Footage, or a measured remaining length
- Temper where it is not standard building wire
- Storage and jacket condition, honestly described
- Whether the reel is sound enough to travel
Specification
What a buyer needs to know about this cable
Every row below changes what a lot is worth. If the reel tag is gone, the jacket print and a cut end usually answer most of it.
Missing detail is not a problem — say what is missing and the review works from photographs.
| Material | Electrolytic tough pitch copper, generally 100 percent conductivity when annealed |
|---|---|
| Temper | Soft annealed to ASTM B3, medium-hard to ASTM B2, hard drawn to ASTM B1 |
| Stranding | Solid, or concentric-lay Class B to ASTM B8; compact and rope-lay for flexible products |
| Size range | 14 AWG through 1,000 kcmil in building wire; finer strands in flexible cord and portable cable |
| Copper weight | About 12.4 lb per 1,000 ft at 14 AWG, 200 lb at 2 AWG, 758 lb at 250 kcmil, 3,037 lb at 1,000 kcmil |
| Insulation | THHN/THWN-2, XHHW-2, RHW-2, USE-2, or bare; the insulation does not change the copper weight |
| Identification | Surface print with size, insulation type, voltage and temperature; reel tag with footage |
| Condition signals | Green oxidation at cut ends, water in the core, ring cuts, sun-cracked jacket, missing tags |
Constructions
Copper products we review
The same metal, sold into five different markets depending on what covers it.
THHN / THWN-2 building wire
The most common copper product in any warehouse: 14 to 2 AWG, solid and stranded, in conduit and raceway. Reviewed on size, footage and jacket condition.
XHHW-2 feeder and branch
Cross-linked polyethylene insulation for wet and high-temperature locations. Common in 1/0 to 500 kcmil feeders and in specification-driven work.
Bare and tinned copper
Grounding and bonding conductor with no insulation. Valued on temper, stranding and surface, not on jacket condition, because there is no jacket.
Flexible and portable cord
Fine-strand rope-lay copper in rubber or thermoplastic jackets. A different market from building wire, and one where the jacket grade decides most of the price.
Armoured and metal-clad cable
Copper conductors inside a metallic armour. The armour is recoverable steel or aluminum and is separated before the copper is valued.
Mixed contractor scrap cable
Part reels and offcuts of several types. Sorted by insulation type and size it recovers most of its cable value; left mixed it is sold on copper content.
New York
Copper wire in the New York market
Copper building wire is the category a New York seller is most likely to be holding, because every electrical project buys it and almost every project finishes with some left over. Contractors over-order to cover routing changes; plants keep minimum stock that goes obsolete when a standard changes; demolition releases installed wire that has decades of service behind it.
Demand is equally broad. Service work, renovation, machine connections, panel changes and solar installs all consume copper wire continuously, and the sizes in demand are the sizes that appear in surplus. That is why a clean, tagged reel of a standard size moves quickly, and why an unlabelled pallet of mixed cut-offs does not.
What helps a New York lot move
- Size, insulation type and footage for each reel
- Whether the copper is bare, tinned or insulated
- Storage condition and jacket integrity
- Reel soundness, and whether the material can be lifted
- For mixed lots, how it has been sorted so far
Seller questions
Questions sellers ask
How much copper is in a reel of cable?
It is fixed by conductor size and length. A 1,000 ft length of 2 AWG contains about 200 lb of copper, and the same length of 500 kcmil contains about 1,518 lb. Insulation and jacketing add weight but no metal, so the reel weight is always higher than the copper weight and cannot be used directly.
What is the difference between soft drawn and hard drawn copper?
Soft annealed copper to ASTM B3 has been heat treated for ductility and is what building wire uses, because it bends without cracking. Hard-drawn copper to ASTM B1 retains the strength from drawing, is stiff and springy, and is used where the conductor must stay taut, such as overhead ground wire. They are not interchangeable.
Do you buy copper wire that has been in service?
Yes, once the owner has de-energised and released it. Served wire is judged on insulation condition, the length of the usable runs and whether the ends are clean. Wire pulled from conduit often comes out in short sections, which changes it from a cable sale to a copper-content sale.
Why is small scrap cable not stripped?
Because the labor costs more than the recovered copper. Reclaiming 14 or 12 AWG from insulated cable is slow work, and the copper per foot is small. Small cable is normally sold as insulated cable on copper content, while large conductor is worth stripping because each foot carries much more metal.
Can copper and aluminum be sent together?
They can be collected together but must be listed and weighed separately. Aluminum is a lower-value metal, and a mixed lot is priced at the lower basis, which costs the seller the copper premium. Separating the two before the truck arrives is the single easiest way to protect the value of a scrap-oriented lot.
Keep reading
Related pages
- Bare copper wire buyersGrounding and bonding conductor
- THHN / THWN wire buyersThe most common copper building wire
- XHHW wire buyersCross-linked polyethylene insulated wire
- Aluminum wire buyersThe other conductor metal
- Feeder cable buyersLarge multiconductor power cable
- Plant liquidation cable buyersWhole-plant copper stock
Next step
Send the lot details
Include the storage city, how it is stored and what can reach it. If you have photographs of reel tags or jacket print, send them with the enquiry.
Send the lot
One desk reviews every lot that arrives.
Prefer to talk? 614-715-3047 · saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com