Gold flakes on eBay

junkcenterhome

Tenderfoot
Jul 27, 2005
6
0
Maybe a strange question, but here goes. There are lots of people selling vials of "gold flakes" on ebay. If this is real gold, will it show on my metal detector if I run it across? I bought a few vials and none of them register on my detector. So I'm starting to think I got swindled. And yes, these vials also have the 'liquid' in them.
Thank you in advance for all answers.
 

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Hoser John

Gold Member
Mar 22, 2003
5,854
6,721
Redding,Calif.
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Could be. Detectors read flakes like most chains,a flake or a link at a time and therefore don't work so good. NEVER buy ebay gold,go to goldbay.com and buy a 1/2 dwt. nugget to use and glue it to a poker chip for easy retrieval. What detector ya using?? Remember also air test proves nothing 99.9999% of nugget hunting depends on your units ability to ground balance out harsh ground conditions,hot rocks and black sands. Tons a au 2 u 2-John :o
 

rustycoinUT

Jr. Member
May 13, 2005
88
2
Tulsa, ok
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have also bought some of those vials of gold from ebay and think it is real....Who did you buy it from?



rustycoinUT
 

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junkcenterhome

Tenderfoot
Jul 27, 2005
6
0
I've bought from several different people. I recently went to a gold mine and also purchased a vial of flakes. This vial is highly yellow versus the one's from ebay are a darker yellow. I do know that the place I purchased from here stores their gold flakes in alcohol. Which might be the reason for the difference in color. I am taking the vials I purcashed on eBay to this place and see what they think.
I don't want to list the names of the seller's here. I'd rather email you personally to tell you that.
 

wmas1960

Sr. Member
May 17, 2005
260
2
Chicagoland
I don't know if any of this is the case, just taking a stab in the dark. Whether it is the source for some vials of gold, or just an example of the effect of gold being in vials of clear liquid, maybe this is some interest for this discussion.

Reading this thread I had thought of a liquor that I have seen called Goldschlager. It is a cinnamon schnapps that has gold flakes in the bottom of the bottle. I did a search on the net for it and found one amusing site where some people had a party to try and find out how much gold was in the bottle. Of course, to get the gold out, they would have to drain the bottle and thus have ample opportunity to drink the schnapps. While suspended in the bottle of clear alcohol, it looks like a fair amount of gold. However, it seems, after filtering out the gold, through a coffee filter, the amount of gold appeared to be very little. The girl who weighed the gold said that it was too little to register on her kitchen scale. She guessed it to be less than 1/10th of a GRAM or less than $2 in value. The flakes were, obviously, very thin. Advertisements or reviews of Goldschlager claims it to be 24k gold leaf flakes. In the end, it was mentioned that all the gold was able to be smeared on the end of one of the girls fingers. Far less than what it seemed when floating in a bottle of clear liquid.

So, I just had the thought of whether some of these vials might be gold from Goldschlager or, perhaps, scraps from gold leaf projects that are shredded up into tiny flakes. They may actually be 24k gold flakes but might be very insignificant in quantity and value. Then suspended or packed in some clear liquid to make it appear more than it is. Open a vial and see if it smells like Cinnamon. Think about it. A vial of clear liquid might have a certain magnification effect. Thus, small, insignificant, flakes could appear greater than they really are.

Looking, right now, on eBay, I see 3 listings for "Gold Flakes" Vial. All are not responding. Then there is a miners bottle with a fancy top and some gold flakes in it. To me, it looks like a souvenier bottle from UTAH, where there are similar flakes, maybe the same as the Goldschlager, that are suspended in a clear liquid. They look quite large in the bulb shaped bottle. However, I wonder, when drained if they might not be equally insignificant.

The bottle in the UTAH bottle mentioned above, lookes kind fo cool and might be worth $5 or $10 as a souvenir item. However, I wouldn't expect it to be much of a gold purchase.

Finally, I wonder, if these vials do have such a small amount of gold, say only a fraction of what is in a $23 bottle of Goldschlager (750ml), would that small amount of gold register on a metal detector. Say a 1/10th GRAM amount from the bottle, divided in 2 or 4 vials, you could be talking as little as 1/20th or 1/40th of a gram or probably less.
 

AZBirddog

Newbie
Aug 25, 2004
2
0
North-West Arizona
junkcenterhome said:
Maybe a strange question, but here goes.? There are lots of people selling vials of "gold flakes" on ebay.? If this is real gold, will it show on my metal detector if I? run it across?? I bought a few vials and none of them register on my detector.? So I'm starting to think I got swindled.? And yes, these vials also have the 'liquid' in them.
Thank you in advance for all answers.
That Gold you bought on E-Bay is most likely Gold leaf in Oil. ??? It will not register on you metal Detector ;D. That stuff is so thin you can almost see through it. Try buying a small nugget, 10 grains to 1 gram. These will show up on your detector. Good Luck AZBirddog
P.S. what kind of detector are you using?????
 

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nebraskadad

Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2005
287
9

nebraskadad

Sr. Member
Jan 8, 2005
287
9
Hoser John said:
Could be. Detectors read flakes like most chains,a flake or a link at a time and therefore don't work so good. NEVER buy ebay gold,go to goldbay.com and buy a 1/2 dwt. nugget to use and glue it to a poker chip for easy retrieval. What detector ya using?? Remember also air test proves nothing 99.9999% of nugget hunting depends on your units ability to ground balance out harsh ground conditions,hot rocks and black sands. Tons a au 2 u 2-John? ? :o

john,

I've bought dirt from a guy in Cooper Landing AK on ebay, I've found nice pickers in his stuff, I found nearly 4 dwt in one of his 5 lb bags. I don't know I'd get into buying nuggets on ebay, but for the fun of panning something out some guys have some decent cons on there. Some better and cheaper then felix. Of course there is nothing better then being on stream in Co, or WY and finding it yourself!!!
 

AzSports

Full Member
Feb 16, 2005
181
11
Tucson, Arizona
Detector(s) used
White's Gold Master, Garrett Infinium
Gold is extremely malleable, so some very, very thin flakes will look impressive but be of little to no value in weight.

We have a stream here in AZ thats literally sparkles gold, you can see hundreds of pieces dancing in the water but you'd go nuts trying to collect much.
 

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