Guide · Manifest
Preparing a surplus cable manifest a buyer can price
A manifest is not an inventory system. It is the document that decides whether anyone can assess your lot from a desk, or whether somebody has to walk the yard first.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Preparing a surplus manifest
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.
Why the manifest is the whole conversation
A buyer who can price from paper does not need to visit. A buyer who cannot will either visit or decline, and both of those cost the seller time. That is the entire argument for a manifest. It does not need to be tidy, and it does not need a part number for every fitting in the building. It needs to answer, for each reel, the handful of things that decide value, in a form somebody can read on a screen.
The common failure is a list that describes a pallet instead of a reel. Eight reels on one pallet are eight pricing decisions, because footages differ, sizes differ and one of them is always damaged. Averaging them produces a number nobody can act on.
The fields, line by line
Every line needs a location precise enough to send a truck: building, bay, row and tier, plus whether the reel sits behind a locked gate or inside a fenced substation yard. It needs the family and construction, the size in AWG or kcmil with the conductor count, the voltage class, and the footage with a note saying whether that footage came off a tag or off a scale.
Then condition, then identification evidence, then release. Condition should be written as what you can see, not as a verdict. Identification evidence means the tag photograph, referenced by file name or by line number, or a statement that the tag is missing and the print is legible. Release means a person with authority to sign the material out, their role, and the hours they are on site.
Condition words that carry information
Good condition tells a buyer nothing. Tagged, sealed and stored indoors tells them the reel is comparable with stock. Tag missing, print legible, wrap water-stained, flange bent is more useful still, because it tells them what to deduct and what to check. Write what a photograph would show.
Include the negatives. A reel that sat outdoors for two winters, a cut end left open, a wrap crushed by a fork pocket: each of those is a fact a buyer will find anyway. Declaring it turns a negotiation into a confirmation.
One worked line, written as prose
Line fourteen covers the rack on the north wall of Building 3, second tier, behind the maintenance shop but not behind the gate. It is XHHW-2, single conductor, 4/0 AWG, 600 volt, 1,240 feet according to a legible tag dated in the current decade, cut end taped and dry, on a steel reel with one bent flange, no visible cracking in the jacket. The tag photograph is IMG 4471, and the release contact is the plant maintenance planner, who is on site weekday mornings and signs the scrap ticket.
That paragraph lets a buyer decide whether the reel is worth a truck, what it competes with on a shelf, and who to call about collection. Fourteen lines written to that standard is a lot that can be priced in an afternoon rather than a project that sits open for a month.
Sort first, then write, then send
Group by family and voltage before you start typing. Keep one line per reel. Do not merge two reels onto a single line even when they are identical, because two reels are two lifts. Number the lines and number the photographs to match, then send the sheet with the images in one folder.
Send the manifest even if it is incomplete, with the gaps marked as unknown. A manifest with three honest unknowns is easier to work with than a tidy sheet that quietly omits the reel in the back corner.
Related pages
Adjacent cities, wire families and regional briefs.
Other seller guides
All guides- Reading a reel tagWhat the tag carries and what a missing one costs
- Estimating footage by weightWhen the reel scale is the only measurement you have
- Copper versus aluminium valueTwo metals, two sets of facts
- 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
Does a manifest need a price column?
No. Leave pricing out of it. A manifest that states what the material is and what state it is in gives a buyer something to work with; a column of the seller's own figures invites an argument about the wrong subject. Keep the document factual and let the commercial conversation happen separately.
How precise does the location have to be?
Precise enough that somebody who has never been in the building can find the reel with the line in hand. Building, bay, rack, tier and any gate or escort requirement is usually enough. If the reel is in a basement, a vault or an upper floor, say so, because access changes the logistics and sometimes the price.
What if nobody can confirm the footage?
Write estimated and give the basis: weighed, measured roughly, or unknown. Then put the reel weight on the line so a buyer can run the arithmetic themselves. An honest estimate with its basis attached is usable, while a single confident figure with nothing behind it is not.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Preparing a surplus manifest
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.