Where do you get your wire?


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Old 05-13-07, 08:03 PM
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Talking Where do you get your wire?

Do electrical supply shops typically sell their wire (NM, etc) cheaper then the Home Depot/Lowes type stores?

I know copper is pricey right now, but seems like they want an arm and a leg at HD for just 250' of 12-2wg NM.

If anyone one of you gentleman can point me at a good source, it would be greatly appreciated.

Projects in my home are on waiting list because of how expensive this stuff is.

Thanks a bunch.

Go Red Sox!
 
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Old 05-13-07, 08:08 PM
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generally speaking, if you don't use a supply house often or have an account with them, you aren't going to get a price that is any better than home depot. The more you use them, the better prices you get. Actually, copper is going down in price, I have noticed a little difference in the past few weeks.
 
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Old 05-13-07, 08:13 PM
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actually looks like prices are back up, unless HD had the wrong price on it, because I am looking at my receipt and it says 52.47 for 250 ft 12/2 nm-b
 
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Old 05-13-07, 08:24 PM
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the boss shops around for best price. Believe it or not, sometimes that best price is at Lowes. They bulk purchase and they do not adjust the price of the wire on the shelves to the current market price. So what that means is if they have wire from a shipment that was low price and the prices have since gone up, they still have the low price on the shelf.

can't give a current price on NM since I don;t use it.
 
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Old 05-13-07, 08:43 PM
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You will get the best prices where they bulk buy and move high volume. Shop around. As a retailer, I can always get wholesale prices. But, retailers tend to mark up at different rates. Unless you have a local retailer that buys in bulk and has a high sales volume, you will likely not get the best price.

Costs for inventorying goods is high. When you purchase inventory, you sit on it until it's all sold. You have money tied up and vendors want their payment in 30 days. Thus, we retailers have to charge a higher rate.

If you live in a rural location and buy at a local hardware, you will likely pay a higher rate. Factor in the time and cost of fuel to travel to a store outside the area when calculating savings.

I got out of plumbing and electrical supply (high inventory costs) one day when a lady said she was will willing to save 4 cents on a 1/2" PVC elbow by driving an hour. I told her to go for it!

I always try to shop local to support my little rural businesses. I am willing to pay higher prices locally because I do not like to drive and am not willing to drive an hour to a larger metropolitan area. As a retailer I always got my best prices from electrical supply vendors. They have different prices for wholesale and retail. Shop around!

Price of copper is high!!! Recyclers pay good money. Don't know if it's going on in your area, but in my neck of the woods, the metal thieves are ripping wiring out of new construction before doors are installed on new construction and selling it to recyclers. They are stealing metal plaques off graves stones, too. Recent article in paper was about wiring thieves who got electrocuted. Another article about thieves being on poles in neighborhood stealing cable wire. My congregation is building a new church. A member just happened to stop by the job site, and a stranger had loaded up a truckload of building supplies ready to drive off. Drugs and poverty have lots of consequences. We have only just begun to encounter the consequences. The problems are ever increasing. We will see more and more homeless due to rising prices and fixed incomes and drug addictions.
 
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Old 05-13-07, 10:05 PM
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Recent article in paper was about wiring thieves who got electrocuted
=============

yep. right here in South Bend Indiana a dumbass climbed down into a manhole and grabbed himself a handfull of 7200 volts. I guess he actually lived. Surely surprised me.
===

a couple days ago an elec contractor lost around 30k feet 12/2 NM, 5k feet #4, and 6k feet 3/0 or so. It was at a local college with security guards and all.
 
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Old 05-13-07, 10:22 PM
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Thanks, nappie! The cost of copper has skyrocketed. The thieves know it and are stealing it for recyclers. All metals are recycled at high price. Crimincals risk their lives to support their lifestyles.

Copper wiring costs have skyrocketed to the point that the addicts can steal it and recycle it. It's all about money.

When growing up in Appalachia, drugs never existed in my tiny world. I had never heard of them in high school. I had never heard of them until I got to college. I am from a previous generation. You know, the old-fashioned and prim and proper folks that are labeled as the 'institution.' Adult research research reveals drug addiction goes back to times before our Jesus Christ, and the smoking joint has had many names through the names and languages of Greek, Hebrew, and others. And, now we have drugs and synthetic drugs and lots of dishonest patients and dishonest doctors.

I can't afford to go to the doctor, but I am not stealing copper or anything else. I am old. We old poor people can do nothing unless we can qualify based on income for health and other benefits. If I can sell my building and land, I can qualify! The poor have far more benefits than the working poor.
 
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Old 05-14-07, 04:08 AM
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Right now copper is in a lull, for lack of a better word.
IMO we will never see $40 rolls of 12/2nm again. That said, right now that same roll it teetering on the $60 mark. Last fall I was paying over $100 for it. For about a week it was over $120.
So NO, copper is not right now "skyrocketing". Now....the commodities price of copper IS very high right now, so we will be seeing higher shelf prices real soon.

If you need it, but it now.

http://www.alanwire.com/images/cophis.png
 
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Old 05-14-07, 04:29 AM
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As of 10 minutes ago the orange big box price on 12-2 wg NM-b was $60 for 250', and 14 was $46. Alot better, like Pete says, than earlier in the winter when it was $120. You get your breaks by buying the larger 1000' rolls, but if you only need 100', you haven't saved anything.
 
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Old 05-14-07, 04:35 AM
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My company is a dealer for a wire manufacturer. Our wholesale cost right now is quite a bit higher than the retail cost of a year ago. I've heard several reasons for the massive price increases -- price of transportation/deisel fuel, price of oil driving up costs for PVC wrap, rebuilding from Katrina, supply-side problems... No indications that things will return to normal anytime soon.
---
In addition to the wiring being stolen out of buildings, copper and steel water pipe is another target. Several news stories lately of thieves breaking into homes while the owners were at work and ripping the water pipe out -- leaving the water running to flood the home! Manhole covers are another target, although I can't see how you could sell something like that to a legit recycler.
 
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Old 05-14-07, 08:51 AM
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I know when I was pricing AC, NM, individual wire and even conduit, both of the electrical supply houses in my area were a good bit pricier than Depot or Lowes.

Definitely shop around, but the big box stores will usually be your best bet. Also, think ahead; you may be doing a job that needs 75-100’ of NM or AC now, but if you’re planning another job down the road that will bring the total closer to the 250’ mark, buy the full roll and save. Cut down rolls are more expensive. I bought 250’ of 12/2 AC for $89, while a 100’ foot roll of the same was $52. The same goes for individual wire: I needed about 175’ for my project and the cost of 12 AWG solid was 28 cents per foot at Depot and Lowes. Rounding off to 200’ that would be $54. Cost of a full 500’ roll: $51! I bought that, didn’t pay any more than I would have and have plenty of extra for future work.

As for theft, same is going on here: $10,000 of copper pipe stolen from a large work site a couple of months ago, people coming home to find piping removed from under their house, air conditioners being stolen for the copper. There was even one case where aluminum siding was stolen right off a house, about 4’ up the side of the house! I would not have believed it unless I saw the picture and read the article in the newspaper myself.
 
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Old 05-14-07, 09:30 AM
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Thank you all for all the input. Looks like I will be getting mine at Lowes. Lowes is cheaper then Home Depot.
 
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Old 05-14-07, 11:30 AM
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Consider using the HD low-price guarantee. So if Lowes really has a cheaper price on the shelf, then you might want to get the Lowes price, and walk over to HD and get HD to give you the Lowes price less the price-guarantee discount.
 
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Old 05-14-07, 03:27 PM
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Some of the stores don't price match like they advertise. They will claim the the other store has xyz brand and they carry abc brand so they will not match the price. Even though both are NM-B.
 
 

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