Guide · Identification
Reading a reel tag before you sell the cable
A reel tag is the cheapest document you own and the one most often lost. Read it properly, photograph it early, and you keep a reel in inventory instead of watching it price as scrap.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Reading a reel tag
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Lot details
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.
What a reel tag actually carries
A reel tag ties one physical object to a manufacturing record. It usually carries the manufacturer, a part or catalog number, the conductor size in AWG or kcmil, the voltage class, the length wound at the factory, the date of manufacture or a date code, and the listing marks. It also carries a reel number, which is how that cable was tracked from the plant to your rack.
Read the length field as history, not inventory. On a partial reel the tag still states the original length, so a reel that left the factory with a thousand feet and has had three hundred cut off it still says a thousand. That number decides the price. Write the cut on the tag in pencil with the date, and say so when the lot is offered.
What a missing or faded tag costs
Without a tag, nobody can confirm footage, voltage class or age without doing work. A buyer in that position is not looking at cable. They are looking at an unidentified roll with an unknown history, and it gets priced the way unidentified material gets priced: on metal content, with a deduction for the labor of proving it out.
Tags fade because they sit in sun for years, because a flange gets washed down, or because a paper label was stapled to oak and the staples rusted through. A faded tag is still evidence. Photograph it before anyone cleans it, and keep solvent away from it.
Rebuilding identity from the jacket print
The jacket is the second document. Surface print repeats along the length and typically gives the manufacturer, the type designation, the conductor size, the temperature rating, the voltage rating and the listing mark. When the tag is gone, walk the reel until a clean run of print appears and read it end to end. Print often survives abrasion that destroys a paper label.
If both are gone, the cable can still be placed by measurement. Strip a few inches, count and gauge the strands, take the conductor diameter with a caliper, and measure the insulation wall. A buyer can normally name the family from that, though footage and date stay unknown.
Photographing a tag properly
Shoot in shade and turn the flash off. Flash on a laminated or metal tag throws a white rectangle over the text. Hold the camera parallel to the tag rather than at an angle, and fill the frame with the label. Then take a second frame that includes the flange, so the tag is tied to a particular reel and not to the rack behind it.
Dust comes off with a dry rag. A torn tag should be photographed where it lies, in pieces, before anyone gathers it up. Two clear frames, one of the tag and one of the print, are normally enough for a buyer to say what a reel is worth reviewing for.
What to send with the offer
Send the tag photograph, one frame of the jacket print, the reel weight and the reel number, and say whether the drum is steel or wood. If the tag is missing, say that plainly rather than describing the cable as new. A buyer would rather hear that a tag is gone today than find out after a truck is booked.
Every reel you can identify is a reel that gets compared with new stock instead of with scrap, and that comparison is where the money sits.
Related pages
Adjacent cities, wire families and regional briefs.
Other seller guides
All guides- Estimating footage by weightWhen the reel scale is the only measurement you have
- Copper versus aluminium valueTwo metals, two sets of facts
- Preparing a surplus manifestThe line items a buyer can actually price
- Photographing a reelSix photographs that answer most questions
- Medium voltage cable safetyIsolation, grounding and handling before removal
- Storing cable to protect insulationUV, water, ozone and reel orientation
Questions sellers ask
What happens if the tag is missing but the jacket print is clear?
The print usually carries enough to place the reel: type, size, voltage and listing mark. Footage and age then come from a weight estimate and from how the reel has been stored. A reel in that state is still reviewable, but the footage has to be described as estimated rather than tagged.
Does a handwritten tag count for anything?
It counts as a lead, not as a record. A legible hand tag with size, type and footage tells a buyer which way to look, and it will be checked against the jacket print and the scale. Keep it attached to the same reel, because a loose tag found on a bench explains nothing.
Where on the tag is the footage normally written?
Near the reel number, usually stamped or handwritten at the time of the cut rather than printed with the rest of the label. Look for a field marked length, feet or FT. On older wooden reels it is often on the flange in chalk or paint as well, which is worth photographing even when it has faded.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Reading a reel tag
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Second look at the lot
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.