What a reel tag actually tells you.

A printed tag carries two kinds of information. The construction block gives conductor size in AWG or kcmil, the number of strands, insulation type, voltage class, jacket and any listings. The length block gives the footage at the factory, the gross weight with the reel, the net weight of the cable alone and, on a good card, the tare of the drum itself.

Around those sit the identifiers: a factory or plant code, a date code, a run or batch number, a purchase reference and sometimes a customer name. Date codes are often abbreviated to a week and year, or to a letter code that only the factory reads easily. Photograph the whole card rather than transcribing it field by field.

Tags fade from sunlight, coolant mist, paint overspray and simple abrasion on a reel that has been dragged across a yard. Read the card in raking light rather than direct light, because the printed impression often survives after the ink has gone. A phone torch held at a shallow angle across the surface will show print that looks blank head-on.

Where a corner is torn away, the missing field can sometimes be recovered from the jacket print, a factory card stapled inside the flange, or the shipping paperwork that arrived with the delivery. Write down what you can read and note what you cannot. A partial tag described honestly is more useful than a guessed one.

It happens more often than sellers expect: a reel re-tagged on site, a tag from a different reel, a jacket printed for a family that covers several constructions. The jacket print describes what the cable physically is; the tag records what someone wrote down. Where they disagree, the print usually wins on construction and the tag usually wins on length.

The exception is a genuine factory re-tag, which will normally carry the same factory code and a later date. If neither source convinces you, stop guessing and send photographs of the tag, the print and the cut end. Four photographs settle more arguments than a paragraph of description.

Where a tag and a print disagree, describe both in the manifest and let the buyer see the pictures. A documented conflict is a normal finding; an unexplained one looks like an error.

Before a reel moves, copy the readable fields onto a card and tape it inside the flange where it will not rub away. Add the site it came from, the date it was pulled and whether it had been in service. That card survives a change of staff, which the original tag often does not.

Keep the original card as well, even in pieces. Buyers read factory print, staple holes and reel branding as evidence of where a reel has been, and a damaged original carries more weight than a neat copy in somebody's handwriting. Bag the pieces and tape them to the flange.