Selling gold scrap? watch out.

[JohninCT]

I just sold off some scrap to a refinery in the Midwest (Michigan.) which was recomended by some people here. I got a check today for around $120 less than I was offered in this area by a local coin dealer. And he wasn't a high priced payer. Kitco even had a higher price which figured out to 33 cents more per gram than the coin dealer.. But I took the word of a few here who said these guys are fair. What these guys did is receive my gold on Monday, then refine it, and cut me a check 5 days later, when the price went down over .55 cents a gram.. Normally you should get the price on the day it arrived. I sent it priority mail to make sure it would arrive on Monday which it did, and the price actually went up on that day. But, you have no choice but to go on what they say. So maybe you think you did ok, and on 1 or 2 rings it may not matter much, but I sent in over 300 grams of 10k and getting beat for just over $200 wasn't a good feeling. I emailed them and they came back with a lame excuse. Just be careful with these mail order refinerys, they can get you and you can't do a thing about it. I have known this to happen before with some refinerys, and this is just the old "big prices paid and we beat anyone", etc. hulabaloo. Don't believe it..

 

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[Vrent]

being in CT you should access to a few refiners in the CT, Mass, Ny area, not coin dealers they have to make a profit, too. MHO people who sel to coin dealers deserve what they get. Off the top of my head there is a small refiner in newton mass, who will take any and all, I would reccomend quanity as he takes a 100$ refining fee, but that is all he takes. and pays spot for day of receipt. you should be bale to find his name and address in the phonebook. I will check my notes when I get home and see if I still have his address. for large quanity such as 300+ grams Hoover and Strong google it they are THE refiner period.
question did their report jib with 300+ grams of 10k for purity there is a lot of jewelry out there that is n ot the karat it is marked.

goodluck Vrent

 

[gldhntr]

pay to sell don't sound too good to me either, believe i had rather give it away and save myself the trouble......i sell to a local jeweler, who pays me whatever the going rate is at the time i take it to his shop. he is happy to get it, and i have my money then, and if the price is too low i have the option of taking it right back out the door when i leave...........i have heard of several of the ''mail me your coin'' types will hurt your wallet also..............gldhntr

 

[Vrent]

ask the jeweler what the going rate is and then go find out what the spot is. I can sell 1 pound or fifty and onlyh pay 100$ for refining charges. plus I get to take my pay off in either cash or 24k gold or any karat and shape I choose like 18k 8 gauge peach gold wire ect.
if you need to sell one ring go to a pawn shop.
what I dig outa the ground I do not sell at all.
what is scrap from making jewelry or what I buy from people who need to sell one ring I save till I hit a pound then wait for the spot to hit a number I like then sell

if that jeweler gives you 10a gram for gold that is worth 14$ a gram on the spot market, how much does he have to buy to pay for his 100$ refining fee?
I hope you do not think that he buys and does not sell to a refiner at a profit.
the orginal post was talking about what 300 grams that is close to a troy pound and a 100$ fee to get your money for that is cheap. since gold is 439.10 atroy ouncefor 24k right now. 100$ to refine 300 grams of gold at a 41.67% purity, 1 ounce avoirdupois (oz av) = 28.3495 g = 18.229 dwt = 0.911 oz . So 300 grams is approx 11 troy ounces at 439.10 an ounce is approx 4800.00$ at 41.67% purity is equal to apprx., 1550.00$ so less refining fee it is 1450$ aprox. where as the jewler will give you 10$ a gram for 14$ worth of gold, his fee would be what 400$? hmmmmmmmmm I would go with the refiner.

best advice I have for anyone selling gold save it until you have enough to make it worth selling, otherwise use it for your retirement fund. It will not lose value in this market. And perchance if someone like the HUnt brothers cause the market to go nuts as they did in the eighties sell off all you have at that time.

here are 2 tables for you this one is weight conversion:

1 gram (g) = 0.643 dwt = 0.0032 oz t = 0.035 oz av
1 pennyweight (dwt) = 1.555 g = 0.05 oz t = 0.055 oz av
1 troy ounce (oz t) = 31.103 g = 20 dwt = 1.097 oz av
1 ounce avoirdupois (oz av) = 28.3495 g = 18.229 dwt = 0.911 oz t


and this is fineness conversion:

Karat Gold Parts Gold Percentage Gold Normal European Stamping
9 kt 9 in 24 37.50% 375
10 kt 10 in 24 41.67% 416
12 kt 12 in 24 50% 500
14 kt 14 in 24 58.33% 583 or 585
18 kt 18 in 24 75% 750
22 kt 22 in 24 91.67% 917
24 kt 24 in 24 99.99% 999 or .99999


HH Vrent

 

[JohninCT]

$4800. X 41.67% = $2000. so I believe there is an error in your calculation. That would make the price $1900 after the $100 fee. Like I say be careful. with refiners. You won't get the 41.67 % either, They cut it back as usual, due to impurities in the metal, you might average 38.50%, then there is loss of weight due to melt. Where that goes, is a good question. I dealt with a reputable coin dealer for years and until they retired, I never had a problem. Fortunately I only gave the Midwest refiner some of the gold scrap I have. I still have way more 14K and 18k. I do not recomend a jewerly shop either. Better off with Kitco (just check if the price they offer, is on delivery,before the melt and if there any additional fees from them) or a legit coin shop probably. If the refiner paid you on a spot price on day of delivery and up front, then you might be ok, but with the percentages they are able to take and cut you back on, and you can't really prove the purity or percentage of losses, then you might be better off going elsewhere.

 

[gldhntr]

jeweler pays the value as it is in the newspaper on the day it is sold.......good enough for me

 

[JohninCT]

If that is good enough for you then fine, but a jewelry store rarely pays as a high pecentage of the gold spot price, as a legit refiner or a coin shop will. The higher percentage of the spot price is what matters, (as long as there are no hidden fees or missing gold due to whatever excuses). As I said, on a couple of pieces of gold, it doesn't matter much, but when you have several ounces, it is major. If you walk into a jewelry store or coin shop, you can always say no thanks if you don't like the price, but if you send it to a refiner, you have no way to get it back. So anyone should just make sure you know what you are getting into before you send it out.

 

[Vrent]

$4800. X 41.67% = $2000. so I believe there is an error in your calculation your rigt I was guesstimating with no calculator, without one math is not my forte. for a ring maybe a jeweler would be good Gldhntr apparently you have a decent relationship with one, for a piece at a time.

but as John says for quanity the best place is a refiner, I would go with a good pawn shop before a coin shop personally.


John when you melt metal a certain amount does really go up in smoke and as for purity not all gold is the actual percentage it is marked, like anything else there is an acceptable variance in karat quality. if 10k is suppose to be 41.67 then 40.55 to say 42.21 would be an acceptable spread. not the exact figure, but an example.

if you take a large number of rings, chains, etc. and combine them together the percentage will vary, add into that there is a certain amount of gold that is deliberately mis marked you will get a diffrent reading as purity than you would expect. you can scratch test gold , but that is not 100% accurate, ask any coin dealer or jeweler, the only accurate test is refining.

you can search the net and make your own home refinery. if I were going to set up my own I would use an acifd method and disolve the gold into solution and then percipitate it out, what would come out of solution would be 99.99%

for quanity I would recommened tryingto get in with Hoover & Strong, they may or maynot do business with you. They are very fussy, but they are THE refiner. You are right about Kitco.

personally I save everything I find, it doesn't sit well with me to sell my finds. I do buy scrap and make jewelry, when I am home long enough, but my finds are stockpiled.

I do congradulate you on timing your delivery to hit a peak as opposed to a valley on the spot price, but you are correct the refiner did you wrong by holding back and paying you for a valley. they should have paid for time received not refined.

I hope you do better in the future.

HH vrent

 

[FISHEYE]

Ive been in the gold recycle biz for over 30 yrs,fact is every refinery WILL rip you off.you are better off selling whatever gold you get on ebay.right now is the time to do it as recycle gold prices are going up higher as everyone now wants to process thier own gold.there are many processes being sold on the net,only a few work,but most people really dont know if they really do work,they are happy that they even get some amount of gold for what they paid for in scrap.there are buyers on ebay that get a 99.9% return on thier gold prices,they will be the high bidders.so whatever you do dont bother to send to a refinery and get ripped off on thier inflated fees.also they will lie to you an tell you theres very little gold content in what you sent them.