Hey! I can tell you all about what doesn't work LOL! When it comes to the refining the scrap you buy out of a store, here's the pros and cons: If you send your scrap out to someone else, they are going to get the silver, copper and anything else that is in the gold which could include pgms. That's additional profit you can't afford to lose, if you're running a store. Next, if you send your scrap out to get refined by someone else, here's the returns you should expect: 10k-39%, 12k-47%, 14k-55% and about 73% for 18 karat. Those will be the numbers you'll have to base the stores buys on in order to buy profitably. Back to the benefit of refining though, if you refine it yourself you're going to get return percentages that are much closer to where they should be. But, there's another problem that will pop up when selling the gold you refined yourself to the larger refiners. When you send in pure gold, there is no silver in it for them, no pgms in it for them, no copper in it for them. That's where they make their money and how they can pay the 97-98% of spot that they do. A lousy 1-2% of what you sent in is all they get. It'll take weeks to get that lot back because there's no money in it for them. In my experiene, those lots took as long as 6 weeks to get back vs. 10 days when sending in karat scrap thats profitable for them. I won't deny the possibility that they could push it through quickly since it will be easy and they can get it out of the way in a hurry but, I wouldn't bet on it. I'm fortunate enough to have an NTR close by so I can run it in, scan it, sell it and run back to the bank with it. The payouts there are 98% gold, 90% silver and I think 95% on pgms. I guess to answer your question in short, refine it yourself and find the buyer that will turn it most quickly and honestly for you. If I can help out any more with this, let me know. I've made more than enough mistakes to know what definitely doesn't work and why. I'm more than happy to share those experiences with someone thinking about opening their own store.