Need advice on selling some chain...

[Fugio]

I bought an entire drum of brand new 5/16" grade 80 (made in the USA!) chain this week.

I was really just looking to buy 20-40 feet of it, but I got a deal on CL I couldn't refuse.

So I'm planning to sell a bunch of it to make back my money, essentially getting mine for free, hopefully.

I was wondering if any of you had any advice on how to sell it. CL? Ebay? Others?

I was thinking of breaking it into 20 foot long sections and selling it as grade 80 tow chain? Or maybe binding chain? I figure it will go in a flat rate box that way, I hope! Any other uses/keywords you can think of?

This stuff sells for $6-$7 minimum online, plus shipping, as far as I can tell. Anybody see it cheaper? I'm hoping to get about $2 a foot for it because that's the price of grade 70 at HF, so it seems like a really good deal, I think. Do you think that's a fair price to ask?

Should I maybe buy some clevis hooks to go along with it?

Any other marketing ideas?

Thanks!

 

[organ]

Drive to the nearest bridge and try to do this:

 

[Buckgnarly]

Sell lengths and use flat rate shipping USPS boxes. I would not include any ends as many people will have different uses/end needs. I may be interested in a length, post up on the classifieds on here when you decide cost and shipping.

 

[Fugio]

I didn't put it in the classifieds because I was afraid someone would bust my balls about using the general discussion to sell my ****, when I really am just looking for the best way to market the chain.

If you're really interested in some, let me know how many feet and I'll see what size flat rate box it fits in. Does 2 bucks a foot seem pretty reasonable? That's more than 3 times cheaper than I can find it for anywhere, but if you see a deal somewhere I missed, let me know!

My dad is claiming 50 feet and I probably wanna keep that much for myself. So that leaves me with 400 feet to sell, which is about 600 pounds! 5/16" weight about 1.5 pounds per foot. Flat rate indeed! But it's sooooo much nicer to carry to my jobsite than my current 3/8" grade 43 chain. Almost the same SWL but sooo much lighter!

 

[Fugio]

Drive to the nearest bridge and try to do this:

Believe it or not, this is almost exactly what happened when I unloaded it from the trunk or my poor little car into a pair of gigantic ammo cans! It fed about half of itself out for me, which was awesome because it's over a hundred degrees here and unloaded 750 pounds of chain is one hell of a workout!

Lucky for my my car is a pile of **** or I would have freaked out and the amount of bumper paint I lost unloading it!

 

[road_warri0r]

I have sold a few chains on eBay, but prepared to take a beating, I have sold a $500 ( price replacement) chain a couple times for about $50-$60. Also two good quality hooks will cost more than the chain with hooks will bring on eBay! Some things sell well, some don't, chains don't on eBay. I hope your experience is different from mine.

 

[Buckgnarly]

I didn't put it in the classifieds because I was afraid someone would bust my balls about using the general discussion to sell my ****, when I really am just looking for the best way to market the chain.

If you're really interested in some, let me know how many feet and I'll see what size flat rate box it fits in. Does 2 bucks a foot seem pretty reasonable? That's more than 3 times cheaper than I can find it for anywhere, but if you see a deal somewhere I missed, let me know!

My dad is claiming 50 feet and I probably wanna keep that much for myself. So that leaves me with 400 feet to sell, which is about 600 pounds! 5/16" weight about 1.5 pounds per foot. Flat rate indeed! But it's sooooo much nicer to carry to my jobsite than my current 3/8" grade 43 chain. Almost the same SWL but sooo much lighter!

I would pay 2 bucks a foot shipped for sure, you can never have enough chain and around here it goes for at least 2/ft, and that's used. I could use 20'

 

[Fugio]

Even used that seems like a great price for grade 80. No store around here (Dallas) even sells it as far as I know!

We have at leather/plastic business we run out of our house, so I'll get my wife to set up a custom/private ETSY listing for you tonight so I can get it in the mail to you tomorrow.

PM me with the shipping info if you want, or I'll just get it from ETSY in the morning.

 

[AmericanMechanic]

Sending you a PM.

Regarding the 20' lengths, I wouldn't cut more than one or two. Leave it long until you sell short lengths. For example, someone might want a 30' length.

 

[Fugio]

I was thinking of buying some to supplement my grade 70 chain (because grade 80 is supposedly stronger and also rated for overhead lifting applications), but I was a little surprised to learn that the working load limit is only 4500lbs vs 4700lbs for the 5/16 grade 70 that I have now. I looked around on a few chain manufacturer websites (Peerless, etc.) and it seems they both have the same 4:1 safety factor built into the rating, so why the lower WLL when the alloy itself is stronger and the safety factor is the same?

Yeah I've seen that too. Grade 80 is ALWAYS stronger than 70 though, no matter what the SWL rating might say.

You can always use grade 80 in place of 70, but not the other way around.

This is because binding chain is rated using a different standard than overhead lifting chain.

A chain manufacturer has to manufacture Grade 80 & 100 chain per the ASME B30.9 standard.
This standard it requires alloy chain, which is Grade 80 & 100, to have the ability to stretch a minimum of 20% before it breaks. This is designed to be a visual indicator of an overload. Since any stretch would indicate the chain has been overloaded & must be removed from service, no stretch is acceptable. To my knowledge, grade 70 and below doesn't have to meet any such requirement. As long as they can hold the weight, they are allowed to just snap without warning and can still maintain their rating.

There is really only one downside to grade 80, 100, and 120 chain over grade 70. They are an alloy and, thus, cannot be coated with a rust proof coating like grade 30, 43, and 70 can. This is why you can't use stronger than 70 in some application such as high salt or high corrosive environments.

Grade 80, 100, and 120 will only be painted, never galvanized, chromed, or Gold Chromated.

In the case of grade 80 it is painted black. Mine is black, minus any scratches from loading it into my car.

I've seen grade 100 painted black and also dark blue.

Grade 120 is light blue and about as affordable as solid gold, just FYI.

 

[logical]

It isn't a hot item on Ebay but with what's probably $30 worth of hooks, a 20 Ft section sells at $100 shipped on there.

Not sure if that much will fit in a flat rate box but if it will you'll have to spend close to $50 in shipping and hooks to net $2.50/ft for the actual chain.

I'd start by just listing it by the Ft, offering custom lengths, on Craigslist at maybe $3/ft (assuming that gets you more than your investment back) and see if it sells at all.

I'd also load some into a large Priority flat rate box and find out exactly how much will fit so you know where you stand if you are asked to ship or move to Ebay.

 

[Fugio]

Ah, interesting. Thanks. I did just notice that 100' of 5/16" grade 80 is also about 10 pounds lighter than a grade 70 equivalent chain, so the links themselves must also be a little bit thinner diameter.

If it's actually lighter, then I would suspect that it's because it's an alloy. Some metal in the mix, that adds to it's strength and/or elasticity, must also be slightly lighter than carbon steel. Grade 70 is just plain old carbon steel. In fact, grade 43 and grade 70 are made of the exact same 1022 steel. The only difference (besides the color/outside coating) is that grade 70 is heat treated and 43 is not.

This is why you'll find galvanized grade 43 but 70 is almost always gold chromate. Galvanized chain will be more corrosion resistant, but you can't galvanize heat treated steel without losing some strength. Galvanized grade 70 chain can actually be made (usually for people with big boat anchors and big wallets), but it will be about 10% weaker than gold grade 70. Are you bored yet?!!!

I haven't taken a micrometer to it, but looking at mine side by side with the grade 70 I have, it appears to be 100% identical in link diameter and every other dimension including the length of the links. Just FYI, longer links will result in a lighter (but less flexible) chain.

 

[Fugio]

Just finished cutting a couple of 20' lengths for myself and others, and man oh man I can tell you one thing....this stuff is VERY abrasion resistant compared to the other chains I work with!

My poor DeWalt angle grinder is begging for mercy!

 

[Fugio]

Delete

 

[fatfillup]

I'd try to sell it local on CL by the foot and cut to order after you have been paid. Price it at 1/2 of comparable new retail and be willing to come down. That should put you where you need to be.

Be sure to describe it as you did here, size, grade, USA

 

[defektes]

go to all your industrial plants near you and talk to the maintenance manager. They may buy the whole roll.

 

[Fugio]

Amazingly, people jumped at it pretty hard on CL. Getting 3 bucks a foot was really easy. I'm down to about 100 feet now which is all I really need for myself.

Thanks!

 

[fatfillup]

Don't be amazed. Quality will sell and good chain at a bargain just doesn't come up often if ever. And anybody who uses it knows exactly what you have and how much it costs.