I saw one tiny piece sticking out of a plastic bag and grabbed it.

[cyberdan]

I saw one tiny piece sticking out of a plastic bag and grabbed it. It was at a rummage sale that had been going on for a few hours and it still had not been taken out of the bag, so I asked the lady how much? $3.00 I thought about asking for two but kept my mouth closed, paid and left. The bag was heavy with several things inside. I waited till I got to my car to take a real peek.

two weighted silver candleabras
two weighted silver small candlesticks
and 4 pieces of heavy silverplate pieces

I decided to take before and after shots to demonstrate teardown. Hope t-net puts them in the order I download them. as usual the photos are out of order but you can get the idea.

 

[Punatic]

Great post! Very cool to see the process? I ask because I'm ignorant, but could you have gotten more for the candlesticks if sold intact or non scrap?

 

[palidin20603]

Could you have gotten alot more for those candelabras as is?

 

[inspectorgadget]

Ya WTH? Those candlebra's would have sold for more than scrap at a local auction house around here. I'm always trying to get silver for under spot at auction houses & you just can't do it (at least not around here). That large pair would have sold locally for $100 minimum on up to $150 where I am & the small ones would go for about $30. So that's $130 to $180 they would have sold for. (double the scrap price!) Stripping them down seems nutty to me unless they were damaged. Scrapping shouldn't be the only option it should be the last option if you can't sell them any other way. It gets no easier than dropping them off at a local auction house, it's even easier than ripping them apart!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gorham-638-sterling-Weighted-Candelabra-Candle-Sticks-E106-/121370712165?pt=Antiques_Silver&hash=item1c42421865&nma=true&si=adrFt7hfRFZSZkEZ5AWM7fqB69k%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pair-of-Gorham-Sterling-Candelabras-/131214564706?pt=Antiques_Silver&hash=item1e8cff5d62&nma=true&si=adrFt7hfRFZSZkEZ5AWM7fqB69k%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[diggummup]

Yeah, please tell me they were damaged and that's why you destroyed them. Because I couldn't see any damages in the pics when I enlarged them.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I don't mean to knock this post I just think people on here should not be taught to do this to perfectly good silver that is worth well more than spot silver price unless their goal is to turn a guaranteed $1 into $0.50 cents (if your lucky)! You cant even get spot price out of them when scrapping them! You only get 90 something % if you deal with the best of the best people. Or you could sell them as-is & get about 2 times spot price! That should be a no brainer!

 

[Drmad7]

I'm assuming they were damaged CyberDan, but for anyone else out there that comes across sterling "weighted", "loaded", or "reinforced with cement" candle holders or candelabras…post pics here first to see what the experts think. I just sold a pair of 6 inch Dunkirk silver candleholders for a quick $20 and then realized I didn't mention they were loaded. Apologized to the buyer, gave them 4 days to respond and then delisted them with the correct details (and some dings also) and ran it as an auction. They sold for $50 and only weighed 11 oz loaded. And it appears that they could have sold for more. I shudder to think about the possible value that is lost when some things are just scrapped. But thanks to this sight AND YOUR POST, we all live and learn!

 

[cyberdan]

first off they were not Gorham they were a cheaper brand that were selling for about $80 a pair in ebay. I thought about listing but weighed them knowing I would get about 8-10% of the weight is silver (got 9%) and the two numbers matched after all the ebay-paypal fees. To me it was a no brianer. Same money without all the ebay-shipping work.

 

[cyberdan]

Great post! Very cool to see the process? I ask because I'm ignorant, but could you have gotten more for the candlesticks if sold intact or non scrap?

See my other post above. I always check on ebay to see what simular ones go for and compair. these would have been about the same.

 

[packerbacker]

Curious.....what did you tear them apart with?
and the 4 heavy silverplate pieces you put on ebay and didn't take apart?? I have some old silverplate stuff that the guy at the coin shop didn't want at all so I didn't know what to do with the stuff. Give it away??

 

[inspectorgadget]

Curious.....what did you tear them apart with?
and the 4 heavy silverplate pieces you put on ebay and didn't take apart?? I have some old silverplate stuff that the guy at the coin shop didn't want at all so I didn't know what to do with the stuff. Give it away??

No! Silverplate will usually sell for brass scrap price at your local scrap yard ($1.75 Lb range). Any nickel base metal silverplate is worth more than brass scrap price & will usually sell online if not over priced.

 

[diggummup]

Certain silver plated pieces will sell too. Always check everything before scrapping.

 

[trdhrdr007]

Cyberdan was scrapping silver before I came to this site & I'm pretty sure he isn't in the habit of leaving money on the table. I see a lot more items selling on ebay for the same, or even slightly less, than what I can sell to a refiner for once fees are calculated. I also sell at the local antique mall where very few sterling items will sell for enough over scrap to justify the booth space. I don't have a local auction house where I could sell sterling for twice melt......if I did I'd spend my time buying those items for slightly over melt from ebay & dropping them off for resale.

 

[kali_is_my_copilot]

I'm with Cyberdan on this one, for sure. I picked up a sterling-handled carving set by Gorham for $25 (fork, knife & steel) knowing that I could get more for them one way or another. Realistic sales $ on ebay would have been 50-80 before fees etc, and they would have been an awkward pain in the ass to ship. Broke them down instead and ended up with around 110 grams of sterling scrap, it was worth it to me.

 

[diggummup]

Personally, I don't (and wouldn't) sell ANY silver at the moment unless it will command 4-5 times scrap value at bare minimum. The price is just too low. It's a buyers market. Scrap and common stuff goes into the "vault" for the future. By the time silver prices rise again (and they will someday), I will be sitting pretty. All the while, watching my stockpile continue to grow. I actually scrapped a Gorham candelabra a couple months ago, but it had a twisted and dented base. I just can't see destroying something that isn't already damaged just for the metal value alone, but that's just me.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I agree 100% dig I have a nice pile of silver but I wont even consider selling any of it until silver is at $45 an oz or higher again. At $20 or less an ounce right now it's well worth the wait! A buyers market it is & a sellers market it just isn't right now.

 

[kali_is_my_copilot]

That's a great point, we're too cash-poor most of the time to hold on to pm's scrap or otherwise. Hoping to get ahead a bit by the end of the year, then I can start in on my hoard!

 

[jnkhntr]

Personally, I don't (and wouldn't) sell ANY silver at the moment unless it will command 4-5 times scrap value at bare minimum. The price is just too low. It's a buyers market. Scrap and common stuff goes into the "vault" for the future. By the time silver prices rise again (and they will someday), I will be sitting pretty. All the while, watching my stockpile continue to grow.

I'm with you diggum , I usually am satisfied with small profit quick return, but I can't part with silver at these low prices.

 

[trdhrdr007]

I don't believe we are going to see a huge run up in spot price anytime soon. Prices were stable from approximately 1980 until 2004, which is about when the current run started. The price rise between 2004-2013 just wasn't sustainable. IMO we have now reached somewhere close to the new normal & prices will remain within a few percentage points either side of where they are now for quite a while.

 

[dejapooh]

IMO we have now reached somewhere close to the new normal & prices will remain within a few percentage points either side of where they are now for quite a while.

I Think I agree. Not 100% sure just yet. It all comes back to Inflation. With Inflation, Silver is the poor man's gold. I have a large cookie jar that gets all of my scrap. Once the jar is full, I will start to think about what to do about it. As of now, it is about half full, and I've been working on it for over a year.

Those who are certain that Gold/silver are going up should be running out and hitting up Glenn Beck's sponsor for all that cheap cheap gold.