How to sell carbide, from the first photo to the money in your hand

You can fill in the form standing next to the bucket. Each part asks for one thing:

1. What form it is in. Tick every picture that matches: inserts, end mills and drills, rods and blanks, brazed tools and saw tips, dies and wear parts, mining and road bits, grindings, sludge and powder, mixed carbide or exotic metals. Ticking exotic metals opens a line where you name them.
2. About how much. A weight in pounds or kilograms, or just a count such as two pails and a coffee can. A bathroom scale reading is plenty.
3. Photos. Up to six. Take one of the whole lot so we can see the size of it, then close ones that show the pieces: coated or bare, solid or brazed onto steel, dry or caked in coolant.
4. Ship it or pick it up. Pick one and give your city, state and ZIP. Pickup is open in California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada.
5. How to reach you. Name, phone, and a company name if you sell for a business. The notes box takes anything else: grades off the boxes, whether there is steel or braze attached, how it is packed.

If you are not sure some of it is carbide, tick mixed carbide and say so in the notes. Our guide on how to identify carbide covers the checks you can do at the bench. You can also email the same details and photos to help@carbidebuyersusa.com, or call (877) 899-5778 and talk it through.

California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada all regulate scrap metal purchases, and the rules land on the buyer, who has to collect your details at the sale. None of the four statutes on file names carbide or tungsten. California's general record rules cover "all ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals and alloys"; Utah's cover items made mainly of nonferrous metal; Arizona's law has no metal list at all; Nevada's definition names nonferrous metals and stainless steel. Expect to be asked for the following.

Sources: California AG Information Bulletin 2025-DLE-12; California Senate Public Safety analysis of AB 476 (2025); California Assembly B&P Committee, 2025 Legislative Summary; Arizona Revised Statutes 44-1641; Arizona Revised Statutes 44-1642; Utah Code 76-6-1402 (definitions); Utah Code 76-6-1403 (records); Utah Code 76-6-1405 (identification, age); Utah Code 76-6-1406 (hours); Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 647.

A machine shop clearing out its tool crib meets slightly different rules than one person with a coffee can of inserts. Put the company name on the form, and have the business details to hand at the pickup.

• California: the section written for copper, copper alloys, stainless steel and aluminum does not apply when the buyer has the selling business's name, physical address and phone, its business license or tax ID number, and a copy of the driver's license of the person handing the material over.
• Arizona: an industrial account is a business that files monthly transaction privilege tax returns and can be expected to make the scrap it sells, such as a shop selling its own worn tooling. Industrial accounts are outside the seven-day hold, and outside the mailed-payment rule if they preregister their authorized sellers every year.
• Utah: a licensed business with an established account is outside the rules on government property and suspect metal items if the dealer keeps a list of its authorized employees and deals only with them, holds proof that any verified employee may sell, or pays by check to the business. Every purchase still goes in the dealer's log.
• Nevada: when a business seller is paid by check, the check is made out to the business by name.

Put the company name on the quote form, and the rest of the sale runs the same way as any other: our quote, then shipping or a pickup.

Sources: California AG, Secondhand Dealer and Pawnbroker Laws (2012); Arizona Revised Statutes 44-1641; Arizona Revised Statutes 44-1642; Arizona Revised Statutes 44-1644; Utah Code 76-6-1403 (records); Utah Code 76-6-1406 (business accounts); Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 647.