WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO GET THE MOST OUT OF SCRAP PRECIOUS METALS

[DaChief]

I am starting to find Gold, Silver, Platinum and the like while water hunting. Except for what I keep for personal use or give to my wife, where would be the best place to get the most money for anything I decide to scrap. I know that dealers in such things will be trying to make as much as they can on their purchase from me. How do you determine what a good price is for your scrap precious metals and do any of you have a recommended dealer or jeweler that you use?

Thanks,

DaChief

 

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[jewelerdave]

Depends on what it is. And how fast and how much you want or need for it, Anything you find obviously you have a zero cost in expert your time. For jewelers, brokers etc they have to get some margin out of it to make it worth there time. For us its about turn over, Id rather make $20 on a product 50 times rather than get say $75 once. So it has to be a good deal to turn.

If you have the time and its not a total loss sometimes its worth while to repair and consign jewelry, or have it restored, particularly if it was found, and just needs a good clean, polish and maybe some professional hand work, it can make a scrap $100 ring into a retail $600 ring, and consigned to a jewelry store may bring you $300 over the $100. Making maybe $30 to $40 in repair worth while.

Just remember that NO ONE EVER EVER EVER EVER pays full retail on such things, they are always on sale, and always sell for less than the appraised value.

Anything that is of scrap value you will get scrap price on.
Refiners have to charge fees for the service and have bills too. Some will buy out right at say %90 to %95 of the value, others will pay 98% but charge you $50 to refine, pawn shops will give you say %60 to %80 back. Just like when you take in Aluminum cans or copper.

Depends on the quantity too. small lots are not worth it, Big lots are. Bigger lots justify the refining costs, otherwise take what you can get.

 

[DaChief]

Thanks for the information. I hadn't thought about the consignment route. You are right about the profit margin on things found. My wife deals with a consignment shop relative to clothing that she no longer wears and does quite well with that. I will look into that first and then scrap anything that doesn't look like it would be salvageable for resale in that manner. I sell other things on EBAY but looking at Jewelry there, it doesn't look like it does all that well. Thanks again for the input.

Jim

 

[fiatboy]

Well put, Jewelerdave.