A 3.5 lb coil of black annealed tie wire lists at $16.49. A 100 lb coil of scaffolding tie wire lists at $539.10. Nobody in a purchasing seat can compare those two numbers, and that is the problem with buying wire off a sticker price.

Wire is a commodity sold inside packaging, and the packaging is where a lot of the price spread hides. If you buy by the coil, by the pallet or on a standing monthly quantity, the only figure that compares two bids fairly is cost per pound of the same gauge in the same coating. Here is how to get that number, how to tell whether buying heavy saves money or parks cash in your yard, and what to confirm before a pallet shows up.

The coil price tells you almost nothing

Run the arithmetic on our own catalogue. Every line below is #16 black annealed wire, so gauge and coating are constant. Only the packaging changes.

ItemList priceNet weightCost per lb #16 black annealed tie wire, 3.5 lb coil$16.493.5 lb$4.71 #16 black annealed, 5 lb plastic spool$33.925 lb$6.78 #16 black annealed, 5 lb metal spool$34.825 lb$6.96

Same gauge, same coating, and the wire costs about 48 percent more per pound on a 5 lb metal spool than in a 3.5 lb coil. That gap is not a markup on steel. It is the cost of winding, packing and handling a smaller unit, plus the spool itself. Fair to pay for something a crew carries up a ladder, expensive as a way to stock a yard. The metal spool also runs about 18 cents a pound over the plastic one for the same wire, which is worth paying only if your crews bring spools back.

Work out cost per pound before you compare anything

1. Find the net weight, not the gross weight. A spool, carton and pallet all weigh something. You want pounds of wire.
2. Divide the delivered price by the net pounds. Use the price delivered to your yard, not material only with freight to follow, because freight is where a gap usually closes or opens. Prices on this site include delivery, so list is the delivered price.
3. Hold gauge and coating constant. Black annealed, galvanized and stainless are three different costs of goods, and heavier gauges cost more per pound to draw. A per pound figure only means something against the same gauge in the same coating.
4. Price the exact variant. Several listings carry options. The #16 annealed tie wire in a 1 lb coil is offered in black annealed, galvanized and stainless under one title, and stainless is a different cost of goods entirely. Confirm which selection the displayed price covers before you compare.

Cost per pound compares steel. Cost per foot only compares inside one gauge.

Feet per pound falls fast as wire gets heavier, which wrecks any per foot comparison across gauges. Two real lines from this catalogue:

A #20 galvanized annealed tie wire half pound coil holds 155 ft, about 310 ft per pound, and at $6.19 it works out near 4.0 cents a foot. The #16 black annealed 3.5 lb coil holds roughly 340 ft, about 97 ft per pound, and at $16.49 it works out near 4.9 cents a foot.

On cost per foot the light wire looks like the better buy. On cost per pound it is $12.38 against $4.71, more than two and a half times the steel cost. Neither figure is wrong. They answer different questions. Compare per pound across packaging, per foot only inside one gauge and one coating, and never let a per foot number decide a gauge.

Reading a heavy coil spec before you commit

On a coil you have not bought before, confirm these in writing.

• Gauge, and the footage that goes with it. Our black annealed scaffolding tie wire in 100 lb coils is listed in #9 at .1483 in, #10 at .135 in, #11 at .1205 in and #12 at .1055 in. A 100 lb coil weighs 100 lb whichever you pick, but the footage on it changes a great deal, so put the gauge on the PO and ask for footage per coil in writing.
• Nominal weight or actual weight. Heavy coils are often sold as catch weight, meaning the coil is billed at what it actually scales rather than the round number on the label. Ask which applies, because it changes your cost per pound and your receiving paperwork.
• Temper. Soft annealed wire ties and holds. A harder draw springs back and slows a crew down. Say what the wire is for when you ask.

Lighter gauges for rebar and general tying sit under black annealed tie wire.

When bulk saves money and when it ties up cash

Buying heavy earns its keep on one condition, which is that you turn the stock. And note that a bigger unit is not automatically cheaper per pound, because a heavier gauge costs more per pound to draw whatever the coil size. A real volume number comes from a quote, not the shelf price.

1. Get your real burn rate. Add up pounds received across the last three months of invoices, not what anyone remembers using. Wire is the one item nobody tracks and everybody pulls from.
2. Work out months of cover. Divide the pounds you are about to order by your monthly pounds. That is how long the cash sits.
3. Price the cash. Multiply the order value by what your business pays for money, say your line of credit rate, scale it to the months of cover, and compare that to the discount.
4. Price the space and the shrink. Coils take floor space, black annealed wire is uncoated and will surface rust in a damp yard, and small coils walk.

As a working judgement rather than a measured benchmark, if one order covers more than a quarter of a year's consumption for a discount of a few percent, you are financing your supplier's inventory. A few weeks to a couple of months of cover at a real discount usually pays. And set a reorder point, not just an order size: weekly pounds times lead time in weeks, plus a buffer for the weeks crews run hot.

Lead time and taking delivery of heavy coils

Because prices here include delivery, freight is not a line you are negotiating. What matters is whether the pallet comes off the truck on the first attempt. A 100 lb coil is an awkward two person lift, and several banded to a pallet is a forklift job. Send these with a quote request or an order note.

• Whether the delivery point has a dock, a forklift, or neither.
• Whether it is a commercial yard, a residential address, or a job site with gate hours or limited access.
• Your receiving hours, whether an appointment is needed, and who can sign.
• A phone number somebody answers, not a desk line.

Those four lines save a redelivery, because failed deliveries on heavy freight usually come down to missing information at order time. On timing, ask for the ship date and the transit days as two separate numbers. Two weeks can mean two weeks to ship or two weeks to your dock, and the difference is what empties your wire rack mid job.

Ask for a quote instead of paying list

If you are buying multiple 100 lb coils, mixed gauges on a pallet, or a repeating monthly quantity, send the quantity and let us price against it.

A useful quote request states the gauge and coating, total pounds or coil count, whether it is a one off or a standing monthly figure, the delivery ZIP with the receiving conditions above, and the date you need it on site. Send those details through our contact page and ask for volume pricing.

Western Steel and Wire is currently the seller behind the wire here, so a volume question reaches the people who pack and ship the coils.

Before the PO goes out

• Cost per pound calculated on the delivered price, for the exact gauge and coating you will order.
• Gauge on the PO, with footage per coil and nominal or catch weight confirmed in writing.
• Months of cover checked against three months of actual invoices.
• Receiving conditions and a working phone number sent with the order.