# Items that typically sell below spot price



## scrappappy (Apr 12, 2016)

With all the info about things that are better to sell than refine.. I thought it might be good to start a thread about stuff that typically sells below the spot price and is always safer to refine than to sell.

1.) Karat watch cases. I typically buy these at estate sales and they almost always sell below the melt value. I remove the crystal and movement and they almost always value more in gold than what I paid for them. I was curious and checked on ebay for the same model numbers and they were selling for below spot on ebay also. I guess people assume the non gold-materials weigh more than then actually do?

2.) Two-Tone Jewelry. I've tried to sell some jewelry marked 925 & 14K on ebay in the past and always end up disappointed with the final sale price. I've done the specific gravity on some of them and they've sold below spot.

My advice would be to refine these items rather than trying to resell. I actually do the opposite with a couple common items in these categories and find the weight and gold value for them and buy them when they show up for auction.

Hope this is helpful and maybe others can add to the list. Good luck!


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## Topher_osAUrus (Apr 12, 2016)

As far as ebay? I stay away from that like i owe it money.. 

I dont think its worth my time perusing all the bs to find the one gem.

I made adverts around my city(online and flyer) for buying gold, gf, dental, class rings, anything high value scrap really. 

I simply tell them whatever the karat is, negate 1k(as Harold has mentioned there is a .5k tolerance, plus another .5k if its soldered(almost all is)... Then i pay half of spot for that (sometimes just a bit more if its k gold vs. Gold filled)

Everytime i repost my ad, i get like 20 emails the first week. After emailing bsck and forth a couple times, i give them my number... This lets me get a feel for them, to make sure its not something they stole...or "borrowed" and are wanting me to fence it for them.. 

Ive had good luck with this so far...its served me well enough to always have something decent to process... And, if i hit a lull, i start to refine the massive amounts of escrap ive accumulated for free from my "i recycle electronics" advert.

My (usually) only cost for the lab is chemicals, electricity(until i get my wind turbines and battery bank done...eventually..) and other small miscellaneous things.

Sorry this wasnt the great post of hot ticket items you were looking for, but, maybe it will help another newcomer


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## scrappappy (Apr 12, 2016)

Thanks Topher.. I kinda gave up on the hot ticket items but getting stuff for half off spot sounds pretty awesome to me. I usually have to go out looking for stuff to resell from estate sales to get anywhere near 50%, which isn't easy after all the % from FeeBay, PayPal & Taxman. I guess that's why escrap is usually the way to go? I've been working on making some inroads in the telecom and IT world, but that isn't easy either, even while working in that industry.


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## Topher_osAUrus (Apr 12, 2016)

Personally, i think escrap is not the way to go... At all.
Unless you get it for free.

Try making flyers of your recycling services/business.
Hang them up at starbucks or any other yuppie coffee houses where tech geeks go. Make a few business cards. Go to small computer shops and the like.. 
Even goodwill/dav...some dont sell electronics like that, some do. Just visit then regularly, they will save you(they do me) old cell phones they cant sell and broken towers. When i started, i paid for escrap...huge mistake, but, like any education, this one costs money... That cost can be offset if you are a quick study and a great refiner. Part of that is, learning your materials... I had to learn the hard way, that escrap doesnt pay big bucks like everyone on ebay wants you to think.

Dont get me wrong, there is gold in the stuff, obviously. But, if u were to do it again, i would spend the money on karat scrap orgold filled, as gold filled usually wont be purchased by a pawn shop or gold place. So people let it go cheap. Sometimes i even buy costume by the bag...get lucky, there may be one ring thats real...thats a win..if not, i spent maybe ten bucks on it....ive spent money on worse.

Also, jewelry stores. Small ones, those that make their own goods....get in with the owner.. The first. 3 times i went to a local one, he showed no interest in anything about me...4th time he asked me if i could refine his scrap and sweeps in a more reasonable time frame and price point than where he was sending it. He just wanted gold back. Pt, Ag, Pd were all mine.. I took him in all of the gold and told him other metals covered the cost of refining, and he was smile ear to ear.

I now see him monthly and he has given me another customer.
Word of mouth is the best you can get.

Be courteous...professional...honest and live up to your word.

My father used to say "all a man has in this world is his word, live up to it, and the world may return in kind"

I never really knew what that meant as a kid, but now, it resonates in my mind from its accuracy. There are few good men in this world of theives and liars.. The burden of proof is on your shoulders.. And persistence most certainly pays off in the end. If they see you are serious, and your work is good, good work will surely follow.

Good luck, i hope this rant lends you further aide. (mostly everything i mentioned, i learned from this forum)


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## Anonymous (Apr 12, 2016)

Topher_osAUrus said:


> Personally, i think escrap is not the way to go... At all.
> Unless you get it for free.



And that Sir is where our opinions diverge. I buy all my product. I pay reasonable prices for it and do very well from it. I can understand where you are coming from with regards to low grade waste because unless you have the "out" for the remainder of what you buy the returns overall are very slim. However once you know your product well you can target what you buy. The better the grade of product the worse the traders and refiners are at keeping higher percentages and therefore paying less for. The high end stuff is what you can pick up for 50% - 60% of it's refined value and THAT is what you should aim for. 

Yes it costs more, but wouldn't you rather spend $1,000 and turn it into $1500 in one weekend than spend $250 and spend three weeks to make $100? 

Jon


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## Topher_osAUrus (Apr 12, 2016)

spaceships said:


> Topher_osAUrus said:
> 
> 
> > Personally, i think escrap is not the way to go... At all.
> ...



I agree Jon (my last message was a bit convoluted, as my father in law was preaching to me while i was trying to be concise)

I just bought a tub of cpus and ram and north/south chips... I paid for it, because the gentleman who sold it to me, took the time to break it down and seperate it. 

What i dont/wont pay for, is junk desktops, printers, and the like. They have an incredible amount of work involved in them, and that cuts into profit big time, or at least extends the return time to an undesirable length.

100% spot on though, you have to know your scrap and its approximate yield. Otherwise you will be struggling to catch your breath and never do more than tread water.

This discipline is exactly that. A discipline. With many fields to this branching off from one another... Karat refining..dental...pgm...escrap...catalysts.. Jet scrap.. Costume.. Each requiring their own nuances and idiosyncrasies to be conquered.


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## nickvc (Apr 13, 2016)

E scrap can be very lucrative if you can find the volumes and are set up to handle them.
Jewellery can be harder to buy cheaply but is usually easier to refine.
Gold filled is another great material if you know what your doing and can find decent amounts.
Silver can be very good the downside for many is access to nitric.
I think the trick is to find a source of material that is outside of the norm, precious metals are used in many applications it's finding them that's hard, for instance one of my largest customers when I worked for a refiner was a glass window manufacturer who used big volumes of silver, the silver was I believe sputtered onto the glass to help retain heat.
I always advise people to look around their own area and find out exactly who produces or works with what, you may just find a good constant source of material to work with, ask people hat they do and if they work with any plated items or material or use PMs in any of there items.
I know that parts of a Jaquar car are heavily gold plated, I suspect the pieces that are plated are used by a supplier fitted to whatever part it is and shipped to the company for final assembly.
I have vague memories of another company that made some sort of plastic items which had gold content, plated some sort of thin sheet, and that came out in bag loads.
The ceramics industry use gold paints and other PMs.
Think of any application that precious metals can be used for and then find out who the producers are.
Read all the adverts from the big refineries on the Interweb carefully and see if there's anyone near you who may fall into one of the groups that the adverts are aimed at, it is also good to look for specialist refiners to see who their customer base could be.
The material is out there you just have to find it, I am sure we have members who deal with unusual sources of material or shall I say unexpected sources, finding out the applications of precious metals is the key to finding customers so check out the big bullion dealers and look at their industrial sites, they all supply industry not just jewellers.
I would think if you live in a fair sized town or a city there will be at least one company working with PMs to some degree or in some application the hard part is finding out who.


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