We buy surplus THHN and THWN wire

This is the most ordinary material on the site list and often the easiest to move. It is also the cleanest thing in most surplus programs, because it comes out of a locked site container rather than a demolition skip. The wire has never been pulled, the spool is intact and the label is still readable.

The review is simple. Size, insulation type, color and how much is on the spool. A sealed factory spool is one item. A spool with sixty feet left is another. Neither is a problem, but they need to be counted separately or the mixed line gets reviewed at the level of the weaker part.

Fourteen gauge through five hundred kcmil, and the print that matters

THHN, THWN and THWN-2 come in sizes from fourteen gauge up to five hundred kcmil, and the suffix is not decoration. THHN is the dry-location rating, THWN adds the wet rating, and THWN-2 carries a higher temperature rating for wet locations. A spool printed THHN/THWN-2 covers the widest range of uses.

Read the print on the conductor and on the spool label, and photograph both. Where a spool has been respooled and the label is gone, say so, because a buyer will then read the print on the wire itself and treat the quantity as approximate.

Factory spools, part spools and cut lengths

A factory-sealed spool with the original band and label is the best item in the category. Next is a spool that has been opened but still carries most of its length and its label. Then a spool with a short remnant, then loose cut lengths from a pull, which are counted rather than measured by the spool.

Sort by those four groups before anything is listed. It takes a couple of hours with a scale and a tape and it changes the review completely, because each group is looked at on its own terms rather than as an average of the whole rack.

Color, and why it belongs on the list

Color matters more than people expect. Black, red, blue and white are the common pulls, green is grounding, and the odd colors sit longer. A lot with a balanced mix of the common colors is more useful than the same footage in one shade that nobody needs for the next job.

So list colors by group rather than as a single total. If a rack holds forty spools and thirty are black, say that. A buyer reading the list can then plan around what will move, and the review does not have to assume the worst mix.

Commercial work downtown, along the research corridor and through the new office parks on SH-45 leaves wire in the site container at closeout. A contractor clearing a job usually has a shelf of part spools that nobody wants to carry to the next one.

The same is true at the warehouses and contractor yards out toward Pflugerville and Buda, where leftovers accumulate over years. A single pickup can clear a rack that has been growing since the last three jobs, and the lot does not need to be large to be worth listing.