$23.25 buys $300 in Silver and Gold.

[billjustbill]

Precious Metal Found on Friday and Saturday

Friday's local newspaper listed 58 garage sales, plus many more that just put out signs..... Plus, there were 4 upscale neighborhoods that put in one ad, but had 15 to 20 individual garage sales. What I do really, really enjoy are the Neighborhood Sales! For a grownup, going to garage sales all in the same neighborhood is just like being a kid again and going from house to house "Treat-or Treating".....
It was great!!

The most I paid for one jewelry item was $1.00 for a flower necklace. The flower isn't stamped, so I didn't count it, but the necklace had the .925 Italy stamp. Is there any way to test if something is Sterling??

Then, at one of the neighborhood sales, I saw a plastic Zip-Lock baggie Marked for $1.00. I could see inside that it had a half a dozen pieces of jewelry. With my pocket magnifier I saw ".925" on the rope bracelet, but because the jewelry was inside the garage, the dim lighting was terrible and I couldn't read anything else...
The rest of the silver .925 pieces found Satruday morning were purchased for 25-cents each.

TOTAL SPENT FOR ALL JEWELRY ON SATURDAY:
$3.25

Weight of Alloy 74.00 Grams - 47.59 Dwts - 2.379 Troy Ozs
Alloy Silver of 0.925 Purity
Weight of Metal 2.201 Troy Oz of Pure Silver
Price Used 22.01 USD / Troy Oz
Value of Metal $48.44 USD


I actually ALMOST asked to buy just the silver rope bracelet out of that plastic baggie and leave the rest, but I was in a hurry and gave the nice lady the Dollar Bill for the whole thing....

When I got home, after looking at the sterling rope bracelet, I took one of a pair of earrings and saw the marking:
14kt..... .583 stamped on one, and then saw it stamped on the other.
Weight of Alloy 1.70 Grams - 1.09 Dwts - 0.055 Troy Ozs
Alloy Gold of 0.583 Purity
Weight of Metal 0.032 Troy Oz of Pure Gold
Price Used 1,318.75 USD / Troy Oz
Value of Metal $42.03 USD


Saturday I Spent $3.75 for $90.00 in Gold and Silver


In view of this being considered "Another Fish Story", below is a photo of Saturday's gold and silver finds. The silver is on the scales.
Above those 14kt. gold earrings are two unmarked pendants I pulled off their sterling necklace chains, also an Avon heart lapel pin, and a stretchy bead bracelet.

Friday morning I found the earrings for $5. The bottom picture are the morning's sterling earrings, and the afternoon's dollar coin, and both 10kt and 14kt gold I found Friday afternoon as I went though old costume jewelry laying on an old dresser at an Estate Sale: $15 for the two gold rings and herringbone necklace. 6.8 grams of 10kt gold in a ring and herringbone necklace, and a 14kt. ring that weighs 3 grams...
The Cross is unmarked, even though the slide was on the Herringbone necklace, I didn't weigh or count it in the totals:

Friday: Spent $20 for just over $200.00 in Gold & Silver

[Gator-Flea]

Now that's what I call yardsaleing..............................

[trdhrdr007]

Looks like some nice finds. With that many sales I'm not at all surprised.....around here an average weekend has between 10-20 sales & I have almost never been skunked.

Are you sure the cross isn't marked? The most likely place for a mark would be on the slide, sometimes it's inside the slide.

[Tuberale]

Nice way to cherry pick your gold and silver!

[billjustbill]

Looks like some nice finds. With that many sales I'm not at all surprised.....around here an average weekend has between 10-20 sales & I have almost never been skunked.

Are you sure the cross isn't marked? The most likely place for a mark would be on the slide, sometimes it's inside the slide.

(Sigh).... I used two different magnifing glasses, with one up to 16x power, but not even a scratch one could wish was a number.... The bail is silver-shiny, so I hunted down my magnet to see if the bail was magnetic... The bail followed the magnet with an odd amount of pull, so I turned the cross around so the bail was farther away only to see the whole thing stuck to the magnet.... (Double Sigh)... but at least the Herringbone is 10kt...

Thanks for sharing your insight and to get me to check farther... Now, we both know for sure...

Bill

[trdhrdr007]

In my neck of the woods it's pretty unusual to have a non-gold item on such a nice chain. Still a heck of a good deal.

[cyberdan]

Is there any way to test if something is Sterling??

I use a Tri-electronic GT3000 gold tester for testing silver. Very accurate but they do not advertise it will do that. If you buy one $200+ drop me a line and I will explain.

[Nashoba]

Now THAT is the way I like to roll!!!
NICE JOB

Nash

[billjustbill]

Is there any way to test if something is Sterling??

I use a Tri-electronic GT3000 gold tester for testing silver. Very accurate but they do not advertise it will do that. If you buy one $200+ drop me a line and I will explain.

Thanks for the offer, I'll take you up on the "How To" experience. I've just got to peel the other set of sterling candlestick holders and a few more things to get the this tester. Is there a good place to order both the machine and good pricing for the testing gels?

Thanks, Bill

[cyberdan]

Is there a good place to order both the machine and good pricing for the testing gels?

I buy mine from IGEM.com right now the GT3000 is less than I paid 2 years ago and the gel GXL18 is a pretty good price. (kit comes with one tube)

I bought mine on ebay through them. sometimes even a little better price.

They are back in NJ (I am in CA a 1.5 hour drive from tri-electronics) and I still use them because they are cheaper.

[trdhrdr007]

I also bought my tester from IGEM. Be sure to check the price on their package deals. I bought a kit for coin dealers or something close to that. For just a few dollars more than the cost of a tester I got a lighted loupe & a scale.