Henry11 said:
FrugalRefiner said:
Welcome to the forum Henry.
We'll need to know a bit more to be able to help you. You say you're new to the scrap gold buying and selling business. Are you buying karat gold jewelry, old ewaste, manufacturers' waste, etc.?
To be able to walk in and talk to a reliable gold refiner may be difficult. Are you buying and selling ounces per day, week, month? Ounces, pounds, tons?
I'm not trying to be difficult, but those factors will affect any advice you might get. I know nothing of the L.A. market, but others may be able to help if you can provide some additional details.
Dave
I thought I the question was pretty simple: Can anyone recommend a gold refiner in the Los Angeles area who buys scrap gold (jewelry), one that I can walk into and talk to a live person?.
Yeah, really simple. Get a business license, have each piece of jewelry you purchase documented and comply with your local law enforcement agency (Each piece of jewelry needs to be photographed usually, a picture sent to the police department along with the proper paperwork form that discloses the name of the person and their pertinent information, who sold it to you. Make sure you have on file your Patriot Act declaration for buying or selling gold (you need this if it's over 10k worth of gold, accumulative). Wait whatever time is required by law (in my area it's 10 days after the police department receives the proper documents and pictures) and then sell it to a refiner like Elemetal formally "NTR". If Elemetal still has the program going, you can get 98% spot, and then trade that metal straight across for hallmarked bullion or rounds which you can sell for a lot more than spot if you are industrious. Or just sell for 98% spot.
Website:
https://elemetal.com/direct
If you are really serious, then you will deal with a large scale refiner outside California. Problem in California is that the laws are so incredibly strict, nobody wants to operate a large refining operation in this state. So companies like Elemetal purchase material in California, and then ship it out to their refinery in Texas or whatever state they might exist in. What you really should be doing is accumulating enough material to make it profitable to ship your material, insured of course, to a large refinery that will pay you the highest spot price, and then represent your material as it's being processed. Although Elemetal does a great job in the market they are in, you cannot represent your material at their small offices. They just melt via induction, and pay out on assay on the spot. They use XRF which may not express the exact values in your material. Also, if you have stones in your material worth any value, you will want to also recover the stones. Working with a refiner that does stone removal can increase your profits substantially.
If it were me selling jewelry, I would accumulate enough to make a trip worthwhile, and then fly to a trusted, respectable larger refiner that will allow me to represent my material during the melt and assay process. Also, I would make sure a representative sample was taken for their assay, my own assay and for a ref assay if there is any issue with the difference between my assay and theirs. In this way you are recovering the most value from your material.
If you choose to use this method, the first few times I would hire a consultant to work with you, so that you might learn how to properly represent your material. It's a learning process, but it can make a huge difference in the amount of money you are able to sell your material for.
Scott
