# Buying Sterling on eBaY?



## mikeinkaty (Dec 29, 2012)

Here is some things you need to do if you do obtain some items:
1) Start a computer file or folder of successful purchases. Date, auction number, who from, cost, shipping, weight, and copy-paste the sellers pics to your computer.
2) When received, check items and total weight against sellers listing.
3) Acid test and magnet test each item. Doubtful you can get your money back if they don't test up to par but at least you can black-list that seller.
4) Suggest that you keep items from each auction in the original package along with paper work. 
5) If you plan to melt then remove everything not Sterling, cut them into pieces, and return to original package.
6) If you make cornflakes then keep them in a container with the original auction number and weight on it. You can do another acid test on a few of the cornflakes to see if they stand up to the original test. It's easy to miss problems like some items having just a thick sterling plating with lower silver content inside.
7) If everything checks out, then label the items or cornflakes as ready for refining or for whatever you plan later.

I make a folder on my hard drive for each eBay auction. I keep everything pertaining to an auction in its respective folder. My silver test solution has just arrived and I'm now starting to test each auction batch of cornflakes. In the future I will also be testing before melting.

Mike
ps- If you plan to make a lot of profit this way then forget it UNLESS you think the spot price for silver is going to increase in the future. Many ebay buyers are currently paying pure silver prices on the Sterling weight as if the Sterling was pure silver.


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## element47.5 (Dec 29, 2012)

I did this for a few years back when silver was $11-26. It is today and was then fiercely competitive marketplace. Over that time, I developed a database of the specific weights of name-brand and style teaspoons, salad forks, spoons, and forks. From there, I could figure out the expected weight of any style I was unfamiliar with using averages. I ended up with about 300 lbs of flatware this way. I sold a load of it at Ag $39.50 and have traded scrapman1077 Jay maybe 30-40 lbs of forks for "his" silver rounds. It was rare, rare, rare to acquire anything better than maybe a buck under spot (considering the refiner's cut and all shipping costs, in other words, all in) It is a viciously competitive marketplace. And anyone who is interested in actual replacement value of Gorham Chantilly or Towle Candlelight or any of what I would call the "top ten" brands/styles will outbid you every time. 

As it took considerable time to search for these auctions (not that there aren't a zillion of them; there are) I figured I was working for about $2 an hour to acquire a somewhat undesirable form of silver. Thus, I stopped. I believe if you want silver you just go buy generic rounds or bars when you can find them on sale, sometimes just under a buck over spot, and buy them and be done with it. That's just my opinion. Ordinarily, one would think sterling is a nice form of silver, after all, it has (allegedly) more silver content than junk silver coins, and, it is stamped STERLING on the back so it would seem to have a self-assaying aspect. Not so fast. Lots of sterling assays closer to 91.5%, whether it is legal or not...or, your refiner will find he has a 1% "pot loss" on your batch. Or both. By the time you futz around with these auctions and have a problem with ONE OR TWO of them, you are better off buying .999 rounds, if it is your intention to acquire and stack silver. Again, this is my opinion, but I have done what you are talking about for hundreds of hours and IMO it is simply not worth it.

And you hint at the other aspect, which is, that all it takes is for one fool to ignore shipping costs or act like silver is going to the moon tomorrow and you will win few of these auctions. When I figure the input effort divided by the results output, I don't get a worthwhile activity. But again, that's my opinion only.


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## element47.5 (Dec 29, 2012)

> If you plan to make a lot of profit this way then forget it UNLESS you think the spot price for silver is going to increase in the future. Many ebay buyers are currently paying pure silver prices on the Sterling weight as if the Sterling was pure silver.



Not to mention ignoring incoming freight charges.


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## metatp (Dec 29, 2012)

It used to be worth buying silver scrap on ebay. there were these rebate places like Bing and others that gave you up to 8% back. Now people pay way too much on ebay. I think some think sterling silver is 100% silver. I actually had better luck buying silver contacts than sterling silver. Not anymore. I did most of my buying when spot was $11-$16. When I bought scrap sterling (mainly jewelry), 90% on average was actually sterling. Some of the non-sterling stuff was easy to tell with just a magnet, others were found by acid test and some were even mark "925". 99% of the seller gave me a refund for the non silver pieces i sent back. The biggest issues were mostly bracelets. One a good note, I also got a lot of nice pieces that my wife kept.

Tom


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## mikeinkaty (Dec 30, 2012)

I have set my limit at 200 ozT and I'm about halfway there. My total outlay so far is 5% under spot for the silver content. And, yes, it has been extremely hard and time consuming to do that. My main objective it to have something to do and the refining will be challenging and fun. My intent and hope is to get the silver to 999 grade using copper then electrolysis. Then I will probably sell the bars during a price jump and buy marked bullion during a low. Or heck, I may just give the bars to my kids and grandkids as birthday presents!

Mike


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## mikeinkaty (Dec 30, 2012)

Oh yeah, since my silver test solution has arrived I have noticed that all the cornflakes resulting from one seller seems to test lower than 925. More like 800. It gets a medium brown real quick. All the others are showing a dark red color like something close to 925. I also noticed that that sellers cornflakes are slightly darker in color than the others this with all of them having gone through a 15% hcl soak.

I have some 999 Engelhard bars I need to test for comparison.

Mike.


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## mikeinkaty (Jan 8, 2013)

Over the course of 3 weeks I have bid on over 100 sterling silver auctions on eBay. Of that I 'won' 21. Including shipping, my average cost was $27 per troy ounce of Sterling. If it was all 925 sterling then my cost would be $29.20 per troy ounce of Silver. I tested everything and it all appeared to be 925 or better except for one small buy and there it appeared to be 800.

Now, I'm anxious to see how much Silver I can actually recover. Once I get all the powder I'll compute the final cost, including supplies and hardware. 

I did not enter into this as an exercise in making money!

Mike


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## MysticColby (Jan 9, 2013)

occasionally I'll go on a silver spending spree  I seem to get the best prices from silver contacts. I just won't bid more than ~85% of spot (including S&H). I win like 1/10 of the auctions I bid on, but at least I'm probably getting a good deal  I'm not too in need to good prices anyways, it's just a hobby. I probably come out even in the end, as there are almost always some with waffle patterns (If I recall, they're a silver/tungsten alloy that you can eventually dissolve the silver out of?)


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