Pull Tab Trivia: In case you ever wondered...

[Metaldetective1975]

In case anyone ever wondered about the cost of pulltabs (I don't really know why anyone would), I recently weighed some (I was bored). They average about 300mg each. That's about 1500 per US pound (avoir). Scrap aluminum cans are currently being bought at 86 cents per pound. That makes each pulltab valued at 0.0005 cents each.

 

[Flintstone]

Thanks, that helps me alot, i will start saveing them.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[Metaldetective1975]

By the time I save up 1500 pulltabs, the price may be up to 90 cents per pound....
I'll bet it costs more than 0.0005 cents in detector battery life just to dig them up.

 

[chuck ky]

where are you getting .86 lb. been .58 here for several weeks.

 

[Metaldetective1975]

Saw that price on a website, and it coincided with that price on another page, so I assumed it was correct, although the prices varied slightly by US region (East, West, Midwest, etc.)... I'm in NJ.
But at .58 per pound, that makes each tab now worth about .0004 cents.
I'll bet that in 200 years, detectorists will still be finding them.

I wonder what detecting will be like then....
Perhaps future detectors will be drone-like, able to spot a coin from 100 ft in the air, tell you the depth, composition, date and value. Maybe use a lazer to drill a hole for you to extract it, without even getting your hands dirty.
Or maybe there will be no more metal left at all (all consumed), and money, especially coins, might be plastic (as in credit cards) or some man-made material we can't even think of yet, if they are even needed at all. But there will still be pulltabs...

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I don t know about battery life expended in digging a pull tab but the Human Energy that this 73 year old man expends digging make them far to expensive to dig. I would not have enough energy left to dig good targets if I dug every pull tab that I pass a coil over. I do dig them at the beach but usually pass them by in the dirt.