Re: Who is the best "cash for gold" company?
Facts about Loss
just to clarify.
There are losses when alloy is melted. Old rings, Placer, etc. What is lost in burn off is things like
Hand lotion, soap scum, dirt, plastic fillers under stones, epoxy, enamel. Check under any stone of any ring and be disgusted by what you find. This little bit of weight does add up.
to avoid melt loss. Make it clean, stone Free. Gold its self will not be lost. But the junk on it will be. This was not gold in the first place so if your buying its important to take into account that crap on jewelry is just that. Also stones in nuggets etc. we all know that quartz is not gold.
Also, no amount of wishful thinking will improve the alloy or make it better.
If the alloy is clean. there should not be any melt loss. Some Zinc/silver can evaporate if your using a torch. If your fluxing and using an electro melt. Loss will be so tiny its only noticeable on HUGE Amounts. Or it can be blown out of the crucible.
Loss can take place if there are hangers in the crucible and the operator is in error(not all poured out). Or if there are spills or other inefficiencies/operator errors.
When doing a chemical Refining there will not be any loss if done right.
Example 1.
I had a guy bring me some self refined gold, But it was stained bad, a nasty brown coating. I told him I would have to refine it again to get that off. Regardless of who Refined it I always do it again to be safe. It was 1.5 ozt. After Refining I recovered 1.5 oz. The contaminate was so minor it affected color but not weight, Could have been as little as a tenth of % But all gold should be recovered.
Example 2.
The US Mint used to Coin your gold for Free. You took them $20 in gold, They made it into a $20 gold piece. In Some Countries, Like in Australia where the gold was high purity refining was not needed. It was just alloyed down to spec with copper, any silver was left in the coin. Mostly Soverigns. When people wised up too this, that %1 to %3 silver content became attractive...if you were rich enough to buy hundreds of pounds of soverigns.
So for a while other countries gold was refined. The Gold sent too the US mint for Eagles. And the silver was a bonus! There was no Risk as it was a chemical assay all the way. 100% Recovery of the gold so no risk.
On that matter also. The reason why Guys like me can pay 98% on gold after Refining, Is because we dont pay on the silver. On small lots it does not make sense too, But on big lots when we do 30 to 50 oz batches at a time. There can be quite a lot of silver in the alloy that is just bonus. This is why most Refiners charge a Refining fee if you want to include Silver, Platinum etc. Or have separate schedules.
Quite frankly the gold refining business is so damn transparent as to what people make. If its too good to be true, its not.
Where money is made is in volume.
For example, I am small. probably one of the smallest commercial refineries out there. But its transparent what we do with the gold. It all ends up as coins, or in jewelry. Fortunately I don't eat much so I can be as competitive as the big boys. But I am also realistic.
For example, if I am refining out a batch of 1 oz fine or more contained for a customer...they get 98% no refining fee.
if less than one oz I pay 95%. I dont Refine it, I just pay for it and add it too other bought lots.
Basically if I am going to spend the time to do it I have to make at least $30 for my time. Then I fork over piles of Ben Franklin to people who found/inherited or bought cheap at a garage sale gold. If people have problems with leaving a couple % on the table for the ones who have to do all the chemical handling work etc, I don't do business with them. use Ebay, or Retail it.
But for our bigger clients who want it coins, or have piles to sell it works out great. We generally buy outright cash at 95% all day long on unrefined. Some lots come out better than others yes. Older gold could be up to a half karat low and still be legally marked as say 14k at 13.5k. But anything after 82 should be with in 7/1000ths accurate.
Bottom line is. Any Chemical assay will get all the gold that's in the batch. And it will get all of it.
In general if a lot comes up short. Its not the Refiner that screwed you, its the maker. Who is going to know if I add some copper to a ring right?
Well the good news is now with XRF machines bad gold and alloys can be caught! Identified etc. Wont be helpful for places out of biz. But is changing the industry.
The Still tried and True best way to find out how much gold is there. Is the Full Chemical assay, but it takes time. XRF assays, sample assays, current tests, scratch plates give a good Idea of what that one spot is. But the Full assay will always get you all the gold.
Below is what I deal in...and pay out.
.I'm just curious as to what there contract states.When I called and asked what they were paying for 14k,the girl didn't have a clue.I would never even think to sell gold to them.I wouldn't even sell them aluminum!
