Used corny keg prices

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55x11

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so I bought a whole bunch of 5 Gallon kegs (7) over a period of a month or two, maybe 3-5 months or so ago, and I never paid more than $35 per keg. Even with shipping it was about $40 or less.
I need to expand a bit and used keg prices have gone up. I have read that there is a shortage of kegs from soda distributors.

Is that cyclical or is this a permanent trend where we will see less and less used 5G kegs? Anyone has any idea on what the supply/demand balance is here?
 
As vendors / merchants switch to bag-in-a box for their postmix soda systems there will of course be a dropoff in the availability of used cornies. What I have seen is an increase in the availability of new kegs. I bought my first cornies for about $20 each (this was about a decade ago). Haven't seen then anywhere near that price in ages. Honestly $35 is a steal (for ball locks at least). I've seen pinlocks for about that. Last kegs I bought were 3 gallon new ball locks and they were $100 each form my LHBS.
 
I expect the vast majority of retailers have long since switched to BiB, but there are still the rest to service, plus the premix folks.

My lhbs has what's now become at least a ten year running joke that "that stack of a thousand kegs are the last we'll see"...and then the next thousand kegs are delivered.

And I guarantee there's a two story high stack of them there right now.

I bought my first keg for $30, and my 14th keg a couple years later for $50. My lhbs is now selling them for $95 on up.

It is what it is. I wish I had invested in kegs twenty years ago, it would have beat the hell out of my IRA ;)

Cheers!
 
...........It is what it is. I wish I had invested in kegs twenty years ago, it would have beat the hell out of my IRA ;)

Cheers!

LOL! Agreed!



In 2012, I bought six ball locks from McEver Distributors, on eBay, for around $212 shipped. I can't remember how much I paid for the the last six I bought from the them, but I think it was like 10-15 dollars more per keg. I know it wasn't over $300/6 but it was close to it. I sold three of my kegs recently for $45 each to some club members.

It sucks that the used market is drying up, but it seems the new prices are also coming down. Granted, you can't get new for $35-$45 per ball lock like I did, but I can remember some of those new kegs were over $100 each. Now you can get new kegs for $75-$80 from AiH and MoreBeer.


I just wished the 1.75-3 gallon kegs would come down more. Those prices are too close to what you'd pay for a 5 gallon keg.
 
The prices have sky rocketed as the demand outstrips supply.

I bought my first four kegs at $15 a piece, and I wish I had bought far more! I think $50 or so is the going rate now.
 
If you have great patience and use Craigslist you can still find some really good deals. I bought four kegs, from two different sellers, for $20 a piece about a month ago.
 
you could become friends with someone who works for coke or pepsi! I found out a guy I fish with occasionally delivers for coke, so, after a 12 pack, jokingly asked if he could get me some kegs for cheap, and all he said is how many do you want! He ended up trading me 4 used kegs for 3 6 packs of homebrew!
 
At this point I've switched to just buying new. I have the same LHBS as day_trippr, he's right that they approach $100 a pop. The best deal I got from them was some ultra beat up cut-handle ball locks selling 2 for $100, that was a couple years ago and the deal is long gone.

AIH consistently has fantastic new ball locks for $75 each. No cleaning or o-ring swapping needed.
 
If you can find them for $50 it seems like it's a steal these days. I found a guy on Craigslist who had closed up a LHBS and sold me a couple for $50 each, no tax. My LHBS seels them for $80-90 I believe... plus tax....

AIH consistently has fantastic new ball locks for $75 each. No cleaning or o-ring swapping needed.

That sounds like a pretty good deal, the ones I've seen new are $100+, I would pay a little extra for new kegs. So shiny...
 
If you can wait, keg connection and aih sale pin locks cheap on occasion. $35 or less. Shipping from both is reasonable as well.
 
So, yeah my LHBS is also selling them for $90 each for the Pepsi style. I wonder, when you can get new for that price in less than a week, how any of the LHBS's unload any of the old ones anymore? I haven't bought in a few months, and really I don't need many more (10 for a 4 tap system is plenty).. however I never went more than $45 ea for the true balls and no more than $40 total for Pin+conversion kits. You have to be ready to bull the trigger when the sales pop up and not being picky on the style and condition (as long as they hold pressure) helps a lot.
 
AiH's price is $83.67 shipped to my front door and the torpedo kegs are $89.99 shipped (qualifies for free shipping) from More Beer.


IMO, anything higher than $90 is too much for a new keg. Why burn the gas to go to your LHBS when you can sit at home and let AiH or MoreBeer send them to you for equal or less? :confused:


Not knocking the LHBS out there. I wouldn't hesitate to get some of my ingredients at mine (even though it's an hour away), but I don't have to get everything I need there, especially something expensive like kegs.
 
I bought my first keg 3 years ago for $40 and now I see them for $60-75! It's crazy I just bought 4 from home brew supply for $230 shipped. I had to jump on that. I wish I had bought more back then also.
 
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