What makes a reel of wire unsellable

1. The type cannot be established

If the tag is gone and the print legend is unreadable, the reel has no identity. Type and voltage class cannot be inferred from color or diameter with enough confidence to resell it.

2. Water has been inside the jacket

Wire stored outdoors with a cut end can wick water under the jacket. On small conductor this is often fatal; on large feeder it can sometimes be cut back to dry material. Either way, an open end pointing uphill in the rain for two years is a bad sign.

3. The jacket is UV-cracked or brittle

Sunlight-resistant marking matters. Cable without it, left outside for years, chalks, cracks and loses flexibility. Cracked insulation is not resalable at any price.

4. There is damage through the run

A nick at the very end of a reel can usually be cut back. Damage in the middle of the wind, or repeated damage along the length, means the reel is no longer a known quantity.

5. It has been hot

Burnt cable, fire-damaged cable and conductor with heat-discolored insulation is not bought. This includes cable from a building fire even where the jacket looks intact, because the insulation properties cannot be verified.

6. It is no longer wire

Chopped conductor, mixed unidentified wire, stripped and tangled material and heavily contaminated cable are scrap, not surplus. We are not a scrap yard and will say so plainly rather than quote a number that cannot be honored.