It is a no brainer that tungsten weights are a much better choice than lead simply because of the smaller size, incredible sensitivity, and environmentally friendly attributes. What is it that makes these tiny hunks of tungsten metal so expensive? The answer revolves around a few key factors: Manufacturing, Importing, and running a business.
Unlike lead weights which can simply be melted and poured in your home garage, tungsten weights are NOT melted and poured into a mold. Tungsten is a very hard metal with a melting point of over 6000º F. (For reference, lead is melted at around 621º F) Instead, our tungsten weights are actually manufactured entirely different using expensive advanced machinery to form each weight that is extremely time consuming.
Another contributing factor for the high cost of tungsten fishing weights is actually getting our hands on the weights themselves. As everyone knows, tungsten weights are only manufactured in China due to the nature of the raw material being mined in that area of the world. Just like many of the products we all use in everyday life, these weights must be imported which comes with high tariffs and shipping costs.
Something that the consumer does not take into consideration a lot of the time is the cost of running a business. In order for us to sell our products we have to have consumers to sell them too. Factor in advertising costs, shipping costs, packaging costs, website costs, product design costs, marketing agent costs, the list goes on and on.
Running a good tungsten business (or any business) can be very expensive often resulting in low profit margins even with the high costs of tungsten. Factor in all of the costs above and you can see why the price of that ounce and a half weight costs what it costs. Hopefully this helps break down the reasoning for the hefty price tag on tungsten products.