NM-B cable buyers for surplus and job offcuts
Every residential job in the Carolinas ends with a stack of NM-B coils in the trailer, and the only question that matters is how many of them are still full.
- 600 V nonmetallic cable
- Copper conductors only
- Dry locations only
NM-B is the cable that wires houses: two or three copper conductors with a bare ground, wrapped in a PVC jacket, sold in 250-foot and 1,000-foot coils and pulled through studs and joists by the tens of thousands of feet. It is 600 V, it is dry-location only, and it is the most recognisable cable in the residential trade, which is why so much of it accumulates in trailers, garages and connex boxes.
The temperature story is a trap for anyone describing a surplus lot. NM-B conductors are 90°C rated, but the cable’s ampacity is limited to that of a 60°C conductor, which is why a 12-2 NM-B circuit is a 20-amp circuit and not more. The 90°C marking refers to the conductor insulation, not to what the cable can carry, and that distinction matters when a coil is sold to a contractor.
Sizes run 14 AWG through 2 AWG, copper only, in two- and three-conductor constructions with ground. There is no aluminium NM-B in ordinary residential use, which simplifies the review. What complicates it is volume: this is the highest-count, lowest-unit-value material in a residential contractor’s leftovers, and it is almost always a counting job rather than a measuring job, which is a different skill from the one that filled the reels.
What we buy in this family
Condition and documentation decide the basis, not the family alone. These are the forms this material usually arrives in.
- 14/2 and 12/2 full coils
- 14/3 and 12/3 remainders
- 10/2 and 10/3 for dryers
- 250-foot and 1,000-foot coils
- Tract housing site leftovers
- Coils with factory labels attached
Counting coils beats measuring them
A residential leftover lot is a count. Twenty coils of 12/2, six of 14/2, one of 10/3 and a bag of tails. Nobody is going to pull a tape through a coil of NM-B, and nobody needs to, because the factory labels give the original length and the remaining proportion is visible. A buyer reading that list knows what the lot is within seconds.
Where the labels are gone, the coil diameter and the number of wraps give a working estimate. What is not useful is a photograph of forty unlabelled coils taken from six feet away. Sort them into sizes, photograph each group with a tape measure across the coil, and the lot reviews in one pass.
Jacket damage, sun and the limits of dry-location cable
The jacket is the product. NM-B dragged over a slab, stapled too tightly or cut on the edge of a stud will show damage that matters, because the jacket is the physical protection the cable relies on. A coil with a split jacket at the outer wrap is a length somebody has to cut back before they can use it.
Sun is the other problem, and it is common where material sits on a pallet beside the house for a month. NM-B is not rated for exposed outdoor use, and a jacket gone chalky and stiff has lost plasticiser. Coils stored in a garage or a connex are fine. Coils that spent the summer on a driveway are described as weathered.
What a volume lot looks like when it is done well
The best residential leftovers arrive as a written list by size, with full coils counted separately from partials and a note on where the material was stored. That list is worth more than a pallet photograph because it lets a buyer plan: full coils go to a contractor, partials to a service van, tails into a bundle.
Where a builder is clearing several finished subdivisions at once, the same applies at scale. Full coils in factory wrap are inventory. Opened coils with unknown remainders are recovery material, and a lot that separates the two on the same pallet is reviewed as two lots rather than one blended number.
Where this cable turns up in the two states
The growth markets are where the volume is. Horry County around Myrtle Beach, the Bluffton and Beaufort corridor, and the new subdivisions ringing Raleigh and Charlotte all run NM-B at tract scale, and each finished phase leaves coils behind at the site trailer. Coastal humidity is the local complication, since a coil that sat in an unfinished house through a wet spring takes moisture on the jacket surface.
Custom and renovation work adds a different mix. Renovations in older Columbia and Wilmington neighbourhoods produce partial coils in ones and twos along with knob-and-tube and legacy cable that is not NM-B at all. Keeping the modern material apart from the old wiring is the first sorting step in those markets, and it saves an argument at the other end.
Coverage
North and South Carolina
Every city page carries the local industrial base and access notes. Start from a state hub if you are not sure which one applies.
If the material is in one of these states
NM-B cable questions
Why is 90°C NM-B limited to 60°C ampacity?
The conductor insulation is rated 90°C, but the installation code limits NM cable ampacity to that of a 60°C conductor, reflecting the jacket material and how the cable is installed. The practical effect is that 14 AWG is a 15-amp circuit and 12 AWG is a 20-amp circuit. A seller should quote the size, not the temperature rating on the jacket.
Can I sell partial coils with only a few feet left?
You can, and they will be bundled and reviewed as cut-offs rather than as coils. Short NM-B lengths have a steady market with service electricians and maintenance shops, but the value sits in the bundle rather than in the individual piece. Count them, keep the sizes apart, and describe the bundle as short lengths.
Is NM-B made in aluminium?
Not in the ordinary residential product. NM-B is a copper cable, made in 14 through 2 AWG, and the aluminium branch-circuit cable that existed decades ago is a different and much older product. If a coil is marked aluminium, it is not NM-B as the trade uses the term today and should be identified by its print.
What does weather do to a coil of NM-B?
Sun makes the PVC jacket chalky, stiff and less resistant to abrasion, and repeated wetting and drying can leave the outer wrap looking dull and feeling brittle. The copper inside usually survives. That is why a weathered coil is not scrap, but it is not new stock either, and the difference belongs in the description.
Send nm-b cable details
Construction, footage, condition and pickup city. Photographs can follow once a buyer has replied.
Or email saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
- No fee and no obligation to sell.
- Written lot terms before anything moves.
- Pickup scheduled around your access rules.