BUILDING WIRE: COPPER AND ALUMINUM, #14 TO 1000 MCM

What Counts as Building Wire

Building wire is the stock that carries power inside a structure: branch circuits, feeders, subpanels and service entrances. It is either a single conductor or a factory assembly of two to four conductors under one jacket. Tray cable, portable cord and medium-voltage cable are different products with different valuations, and each sits on its own page.

The common families are NM-B and UF-B, the sheathed cables run through framing; TW, THW and THW-2, the single conductors pulled through conduit; and service entrance cable, which is heavier and has construction rules of its own. Service entrance is common enough to be treated separately in SER, SEU and URD cable.

• NM-B in 14/2, 12/2, 12/3, 10/2 and 10/3, copper conductors, 25 to 1,000 foot coils.
• TW, THW, THHW and THW-2 from 14 AWG through 1000 MCM, solid and stranded.
• Copper and aluminum, including compact stranded aluminum from 12 AWG upward.
• Green insulated grounding conductors and bare copper in the same size range.
• Cut lengths from a panel change or a riser: 30 feet of 3/0 copper is still a saleable piece.

The Print on the Insulation Sets the Price

Two reels of the same gauge are not the same wire. A 500 MCM copper conductor with a 60 degree rating is worth less than one rated 90 degrees, and a conductor with a wet-location rating is worth more than one without it. Before you photograph anything, read the print along the insulation.

Older stock often carries types that are no longer specified for new work: TW, RHW, THHW. Those are still saleable. What changes is the valuation, because the next user has to size the circuit from the lower temperature column and may not be able to install the wire where they need it.

Ampacity Is Not the Number on the Reel

The 90 degree figure describes what the insulation survives, not what the circuit can carry. Conductors are sized from the ampacity table at the termination temperature, and most breakers and lugs are rated 75 degrees. Small conductors are capped again by the rule that holds 14 AWG to 15 amperes, 12 AWG to 20 and 10 AWG to 30, whatever the insulation says.

That is why a buyer asks for type and size together, and why a tag reading 12 AWG THHN does not tell the whole story. Send the size, the type, the footage and the reel count. Leave the breaker size out unless you are describing the project the wire came from.

Full Reels, Part Reels and What to Photograph

Most building-wire lots are not one clean reel. They are eleven coils of 12/2, three spools of 10 AWG THHN, a rack of cut lengths and one good 4/0 reel. We price the lot as it stands rather than asking you to sort it into a tidy inventory first.

A photograph of the tag answers most of the questions we would otherwise ask on the phone. Take it flat, in focus, with the print filling the frame. The how it works page sets out the rest of the sequence, from photo to collection.

• The reel tag or coil label, square on and readable, with footage visible.
• The whole reel, so flange size and the amount of wire left are clear.
• The printed legend on the insulation, showing type, temperature and voltage.
• The cut conductor ends, so metal and stranding can be seen.
• Storage conditions: indoors, under tarp or open yard, and whether the wire has been wet.
• The town or city where the wire sits, and what equipment can reach it.

Wire and Cable Only

Our offer is wire and cable. Transformers, switchgear, circuit breakers, motor control centers, generators, chillers and machinery are out of scope, and so is loose scrap metal. When a cleanout mixes wire with that equipment, we price the wire and leave the rest where it sits.

The boundary keeps a quote simple. Every dollar in the offer is tied to a reel, a coil or a length of cable that can be identified and moved. Start with the quote form and tell us what the wire is, and how much of it there is.

• Copper building wire in any color, full or partial.
• Aluminum building wire, priced on its own terms through aluminum wire buying.
• New surplus, unused overstock, cancelled-project stock and clean job leftovers.
• No transformers, no panelboards, no switchgear, no rotating equipment, no general scrap.