# Advice on Sterling Silver sale websites/eBay/Etsy?



## Mouseman1016 (Oct 29, 2021)

Hello! I have recently transitioned form casting aluminum, copper, and bronze to silver. I buy silver jewelry and scrap (all stamped) and melt them down into bars. However, this gets expensive quick and I was looking for a way to make some money back. I try to buy at under 50-60 cents per gram. 
Selling casting shot on eBay, trading into refiners and making other interesting casts such as skulls, symbols, or pendants on Esty all look promising. I have been reading up on this forum as I am a new member and its been a huge help. Do any of you have any advice on what the best method to make a return on sterling silver is? Am I wasting my time and need to purify it before I gain any profits? I'm trying to avoid getting burned by sketchy refiners as well as making shops and simply not getting any sales. Any advice or opinions are welcome.


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## FrugalRefiner (Oct 29, 2021)

First, simply melting silver jewelry and making bars or anything else is a bad practice. It leads to porosity in the finished item. Silver and other precious metals should be refined first.

The best way to make a profit is by adding value that you can charge a premium for. If you try to sell bars, you're competing with a lot of people who have the equipment to do it much more inexpensively than you. Casting art objects allows you to charge above the spot value of the silver., but that also requires an investment and time to learn those skills.

Dave


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## pawnshop (Oct 30, 2021)

Mouseman1016 said:


> Hello! I have recently transitioned form casting aluminum, copper, and bronze to silver. I buy silver jewelry and scrap (all stamped) and melt them down into bars. However, this gets expensive quick and I was looking for a way to make some money back. I try to buy at under 50-60 cents per gram.
> Selling casting shot on eBay, trading into refiners and making other interesting casts such as skulls, symbols, or pendants on Esty all look promising. I have been reading up on this forum as I am a new member and its been a huge help. Do any of you have any advice on what the best method to make a return on sterling silver is? Am I wasting my time and need to purify it before I gain any profits? I'm trying to avoid getting burned by sketchy refiners as well as making shops and simply not getting any sales. Any advice or opinions are welcome.


Sell it to me. I pay 90% of melt. Today that is .64/gr, nice profit, and no labor. And I will send the shipping label.


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## Ducky'sBT (Oct 30, 2021)

Mouseman1016 said:


> Hello! I have recently transitioned form casting aluminum, copper, and bronze to silver. I buy silver jewelry and scrap (all stamped) and melt them down into bars. However, this gets expensive quick and I was looking for a way to make some money back. I try to buy at under 50-60 cents per gram.
> Selling casting shot on eBay, trading into refiners and making other interesting casts such as skulls, symbols, or pendants on Esty all look promising. I have been reading up on this forum as I am a new member and its been a huge help. Do any of you have any advice on what the best method to make a return on sterling silver is? Am I wasting my time and need to purify it before I gain any profits? I'm trying to avoid getting burned by sketchy refiners as well as making shops and simply not getting any sales. Any advice or opinions are welcome.


I would like to buy scrap sterling?


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## Mouseman1016 (Oct 30, 2021)

FrugalRefiner said:


> First, simply melting silver jewelry and making bars or anything else is a bad practice. It leads to porosity in the finished item. Silver and other precious metals should be refined first.
> 
> The best way to make a profit is by adding value that you can charge a premium for. If you try to sell bars, you're competing with a lot of people who have the equipment to do it much more inexpensively than you. Casting art objects allows you to charge above the spot value of the silver., but that also requires an investment and time to learn those skills.
> 
> Dave





FrugalRefiner said:


> First, simply melting silver jewelry and making bars or anything else is a bad practice. It leads to porosity in the finished item. Silver and other precious metals should be refined first.
> 
> The best way to make a profit is by adding value that you can charge a premium for. If you try to sell bars, you're competing with a lot of people who have the equipment to do it much more inexpensively than you. Casting art objects allows you to charge above the spot value of the silver., but that also requires an investment and time to learn those skills.
> 
> Dave


Awesome, thank you Dave. I appreciate the advice.


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## Mouseman1016 (Oct 30, 2021)

Ducky'sBT said:


> I would like to buy scrap sterling?


You would like to buy my scrap silver?


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## Mouseman1016 (Oct 30, 2021)

pawnshop said:


> Sell it to me. I pay 90% of melt. Today that is .64/gr, nice profit, and no labor. And I will send the shipping label.


You want to buy my casted sterling silver at 90% market price?


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## au-artifax (Oct 31, 2021)

pawnshop said:


> Sell it to me. I pay 90% of melt. Today that is .64/gr, nice profit, and no labor. And I will send the shipping label.


Wait. How can you make a claim that he will make a profit if you don't know what he paid for it? Your estimate is based on the profit YOU would make if dollar per dollar you bought 925 silver for the price of what effectively would be 900 silver. For example, if he paid $24.00 for 33.63g of sterling (equal to 1 toz of fine silver) and spot was $24 per toz of fine silver, and you paid him 90% of melt, that would mean you paid him $21.60 for what he paid $24 for. How is this a profit for him? It would give you a 10% return on your investment, and he would lose 10% on his. But the thing that urks me is that you tried to make him think he would make a profit.


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## pawnshop (Nov 1, 2021)

Mouseman1016 said:


> You want to buy my casted sterling silver at 90% market price?


Sure will. Email me at [email protected]


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## pawnshop (Nov 1, 2021)

Mouseman1016 said:


> You want to buy my casted sterling silver at 90% market price?





au-artifax said:


> Wait. How can you make a claim that he will make a profit if you don't know what he paid for it? Your estimate is based on the profit YOU would make if dollar per dollar you bought 925 silver for the price of what effectively would be 900 silver. For example, if he paid $24.00 for 33.63g of sterling (equal to 1 toz of fine silver) and spot was $24 per toz of fine silver, and you paid him 90% of melt, that would mean you paid him $21.60 for what he paid $24 for. How is this a profit for him? It would give you a 10% return on your investment, and he would lose 10% on his. But the thing that urks me is that you tried to make him think he would make a profit.


He said he is paying 50-60cents per gram. I will buy it for 90% of melt. As I am writing this silver is $23.97/ounce or .77/gram. (.77gram x .925 x .9 = .64/gram) If his average cost is .55/gram and I pay .64 and shipping, then his gross profit is .09/gram or 14.06%.


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## Ducky'sBT (Nov 2, 2021)

Mouseman1016 said:


> You would like to buy my scrap silver?


Yeah Im interested. [email protected]


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## upcyclist (Dec 1, 2021)

Another way to add value to your silver would be to refine it and sell it as either Fine silver shot, or re-alloy it back to Sterling. For example, at a spot price of $22.89/ozt, Rio Grande sells .999 shot at $6/ozt premium and .925 shot at a $6.71 premium over spot. Note that you'd have to use part of that $6.71 to pay for master alloy or at least pure copper. 

If you're simply melting down sterling jewelry, you're including silver solder in the mix, which makes for a very poor casting alloy. And if the maker didn't use plumb solder (at least 92.5% silver), you're also ending up with less than .925 fineness.


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## cejohnsonsr1 (Dec 2, 2021)

upcyclist said:


> Another way to add value to your silver would be to refine it and sell it as either Fine silver shot, or re-alloy it back to Sterling. For example, at a spot price of $22.89/ozt, Rio Grande sells .999 shot at $6/ozt premium and .925 shot at a $6.71 premium over spot. Note that you'd have to use part of that $6.71 to pay for master alloy or at least pure copper.
> 
> If you're simply melting down sterling jewelry, you're including silver solder in the mix, which makes for a very poor casting alloy. And if the maker didn't use plumb solder (at least 92.5% silver), you're also ending up with less than .925 fineness.


There's no reason to believe that Sterling silver contains any solder of any kind unless you can see some sort of visible repair. Not very likely.


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## FrugalRefiner (Dec 2, 2021)

cejohnsonsr1 said:


> There's no reason to believe that Sterling silver contains any solder of any kind unless you can see some sort of visible repair. Not very likely.


Note that he's talking about "sterling jewelry". If it's a cast piece that was cast in the final size needed, there won't be any solder, but if it has been sized there will be. If there have been repairs, there will be more. If it's a fabricated piece, there will be a lot more.

Dave


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## cejohnsonsr1 (Dec 2, 2021)

This is true. I didn't see anything about jewelry, but I could be mistaken. If so, I stand corrected and thank you for pointing out my error.


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