that's [censored]. china's economy took off in the past 5 or 6 years. first it was steel(it tripled in price around 2003), then copper, then lead. they started paying top dollar for our scrap, smelting it down, then selling it back to us at greatly inflated prices.

speaking of which, ever notice how the quality of pencil lead has gone downhill? i used to be able to mash it down thin enough to pull loose from a snap swivel when snagged up, the stuff on the market now is extremely hard.