Do scrap yards buy fiber optic cable?

Some do, many refuse. Fiber carries no copper conductor, so it prices as mixed plastic — between nothing and roughly $0.70 per pound at the ceiling, and you haul it there yourself. An intact reel with its tag is worth several times that sold by the foot.

Is it better to sell surplus fiber cable yourself online?

On paper it grosses more. In practice you carry marketplace fees, freight quoting for a 2,000 lb reel, palletizing and BOLs, no-shows, and a timeline measured in months. If the yard needs clearing on a schedule, that gross does not net out. If you have time and patience, it can.

When is a surplus dealer the wrong choice?

Three cases. A quantity too small to clear the freight, roughly under $1,000 of material with no nearby lane. A seller who needs money the same day, since a trading desk settles out of the sale rather than at the truck. And material with an in-house use inside the next year, which is worth more on your own job than on anyone's offer.

What do I need before I ask anyone for an offer?

Photographs of the reel tags, the footage on each reel, the city or ZIP where the material sits, and how it loads — forklift, dock, or neither. That set is enough for any serious buyer to price the lot without a site visit.

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Who buys surplus fiber optic cable?

Q: Who buys surplus fiber optic cable?

Six routes exist in practice: surplus fiber dealers who buy by the foot and handle freight, scrap yards that pay by the pound if they accept fiber at all, online marketplaces where you sell it yourself, industrial liquidation auctions that work on consignment, another contractor who needs that exact spec, and nonprofits or training programs that will take a donation. Each pays differently and each costs you something different in time and handling.

Short answer: six routes exist. Surplus dealers buy by the foot and handle freight. Scrap yards pay by the pound, when they take fiber at all. You can list it yourself, run it through a liquidation auction, sell it straight to another contractor, or donate it. We are one of those six. Below is what each one really pays and really costs — including the cases where we are the wrong call.

The six routes, side by side

The honest version: every row wins on something and loses on something else. Which one is right depends on how fast the yard has to be clear.
Route	What it pays	What it costs you	How long
Surplus dealer	Per foot, against fiber count	Tag photos and a phone call. Freight handled by the buyer.	Offer in 24 hours; pickup in days
Scrap yard	$0–0.70/lb, if accepted	You haul it. Many yards decline fiber outright.	Same day
Sell it yourself online	Highest gross on paper	Listing fees, freight quoting, palletizing, BOLs, no-shows.	Weeks to months
Liquidation auction	Market clears it, minus commission	Consignment fee, photography, no floor under the price.	One sale cycle
Another contractor	Best price available, when it fits	You need a buyer who wants that exact spec, now.	Unpredictable
Donate it	Deduction, not cash	Finding a taker with a dock. Paperwork on basis.	Weeks

Surplus dealers

A surplus fiber desk buys the reel as a reel, not as weight. Price comes off the tag: fiber count, series, part number, footage, date code. That is why buyers ask for tag photos before they say a number, and why a lot with legible tags prices higher than the same cable with the tags torn off.

What you should expect from any dealer worth dealing with: a written number rather than a verbal one, freight booked and paid on their side, and a price that does not move between the offer and the pickup. If a buyer wants to renegotiate at the truck, the photos were never the inspection.

What it costs you: the dealer's margin. They are buying to resell, so the offer sits below what an end user eventually pays. In exchange you skip the freight education, the listing cycle and the tire-kickers.

This is our lane. We do not publish a price list, because every reel is priced on its own from the tag: count, series, part number, footage, date code and condition. What we commit to is the standard above. One firm number in writing within 24 business hours, freight booked and paid by us, and no change at pickup.

Hold every buyer you call to that standard, us included.

Scrap yards

Scrap is metals pricing. Copper telecom cable is worth money because it is copper. Fiber is glass, gel, aramid yarn and a polyethylene jacket — a thin steel strength member at most, plus a corrugated tape on armored cable. There is no metal mass worth recovering, so yards price it as mixed plastic when they take it at all. The $0.70 per pound that circulates on forums is a ceiling for armored cable at a yard set up to process it, not a going rate.

When the scrap yard is right: cut ends with no continuous run left, crushed reels, hard kinks, burned or stripped jacket, water standing inside an open end. That material is genuinely scrap, and a dealer telling you otherwise is wasting your afternoon.

The full scrap math, with a worked example →

Selling it yourself

eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, the contractor groups. This route genuinely nets more per foot, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.

What it actually involves: photographing every reel, writing specs you can defend, marketplace fees on the sale, and then the part nobody warns you about — freight. A 10,000 ft reel of 96 ct is 800 to 1,200 lb on a flange nobody can lift by hand. You will be quoting LTL carriers, arranging a liftgate or a forklift, writing bills of lading, and explaining to a buyer in another state why shipping costs what it costs. Add the no-shows and the lowball messages.

When it is right: a couple of high-count reels, no deadline on the yard, and someone in the office with time. Months of listing, a real net gain. That trade is yours to make, and it is a legitimate one.

Liquidation and industrial auctions

Consignment platforms will list an industrial lot and let the market clear it. Commission typically runs a meaningful slice of the hammer price, you supply the photography and specs, and the lot sells for whatever it sells for — there is no floor unless you set a reserve, and a reserve that does not clear means the reels are still in your yard a month later.

When it is right: a large mixed lot of hard-to-spec material where you want price discovery more than you want speed.

Large wooden reels of black outdoor cable on gravel in a contractor yard — A yard after a build: cable, drums, conduit, and a decision

Freight is the hidden line item. Every route above except a dealer pickup puts the reel-moving problem on you. Price it before you decide.

Another contractor, directly

The best price on this page, when it works. A contractor two counties over who needs exactly 4,800 ft of 48 ct next week will pay close to distributor pricing and send their own truck. The catch is the "exactly" — spec, count, footage and timing all have to line up, and you find out by asking around rather than by listing.

If you have that buyer, take it. We would.

Donating it

Trade schools, lineman training programs, community broadband projects and some nonprofits will take cable, closures and pedestals for training and for builds. You get a deduction rather than cash, and you still have to get it there or find a taker with a dock. Short ends and odd partials that no buyer wants are often perfect for a training program.

Letting it sit

The default, and the one route with a cost nobody puts on paper. Reels take yard space. Tags fade in the sun until nobody can price the reel. Jackets take UV. Open ends take water. Reels walk off. And every month the date code gets older, which is a real discount when the material finally does move.

Cable does not spoil — the glass is fine — but the paperwork on the flange is what makes it sellable, and that is what degrades.

Where we are the wrong answer

Too small to move. One 500 ft partial in a rural ZIP will not clear the freight. Unless it sits on a lane we are already running, a scrap yard or a neighboring contractor serves you better.

You need money this week. We are a trading desk: we place material rather than warehouse it, and we settle with the seller out of the sale. Payment follows placement, not the truck. If cash timing is the whole point, say so at the start and we will tell you straight.

You will use it. If there is a job in the next year that takes that spec, the reel is worth more on your own build than on anyone's offer.

You already have a buyer. Sell it to them.

What to have ready before you call anyone

Same four items for every route on this page. Assemble them once and you can shop the lot to three buyers in an afternoon.

Photos of the reel tags. Straight on, legible. The tag carries fiber count, series, part number, footage and date code — the entire pricing basis.
Footage per reel. On the tag for full reels. For partials, the jacket is printed with sequential footage marks: the mark at one end minus the mark at the other is what is left.
City, state or ZIP. Freight is priced from where the material sits, so this moves the number more than most sellers expect.
How it loads. Forklift, dock, or neither. It decides what truck shows up.
Anything else on the pallet. Closures, pedestals, strand, conduit, hardware. Mixed lots move as one load, which spreads the freight across more material.

No tags at all? Photograph the flange and the jacket printing anyway. Identifying reels off jacket legend is routine work.

If a dealer is the right route, here is our number

Tag photos and a ZIP. Firm written offer within 24 business hours. Freight booked, paid and insured on our side. Over 50 years in the fiber trade, out of Miami, buying nationwide.

WhatsApp the tag photos Send photos, get an offer Call or text (786) 478-7874

Compramos también — atendemos en español.

Common questions

Do scrap yards take fiber optic cable?: Some do, many refuse. There is no copper in it, so it prices as mixed plastic at best — nothing to roughly $0.70 per pound at the ceiling — and you haul it there.
What is the fastest route?: A dealer pickup, generally: photos out, offer back in a day, truck booked from there. A scrap yard is faster still if you drive it yourself and they accept fiber.
What is the highest-paying route?: Selling directly to a contractor who needs that exact spec, then listing it yourself, then a dealer, then auction, then scrap. The order flips the moment you put a deadline on the yard.
Does old cable still sell?: Glass does not degrade on the reel. Tags on, jacket uncut, ends sealed, flanges intact is what matters. Older date codes price a little lower and still move.