gold filled, calculated vs. actual gold content

Would some of you who have refined gold filled scrap care to share the amounts of actual gold recovered vs the amounts of calculated gold in a pile of scrap?

for example 200 grams of cleaned (no screws or material that isn't gold filled) 1/10 12k eyeglasses should yield 10 grams of pure gold. Now obviously there will be less do to wear and a small amount of refining loss. but i am curious how close to the calculated amount people actually are seeing ?

One of the reasons I ask is I have been watching ebay and the scrap sold on there and I see the vast majority being bought right at or closeor even more than the calculated price. how are these guys making any money ? If they aren't making money and only hoping for the price of gold to go up so they can earn some profits why would they even bother refining ? just buy the pure gold. Not everyone can be buying it because they enjoy refining so much they don't mind losing a little money. Is this just the way it is with ebay and the majority of everything is overpriced.

Sorry if my questions seem dumb, but I had hopes of buying scrap gold filled on ebay and making a 10% profit. Maybe i will just have to refine the little amounts I can buy in person.

timmadsen said:

One of the reasons I ask is I have been watching ebay and the scrap sold on there and I see the vast majority being bought right at or closeor even more than the calculated price. how are these guys making any money ? If they aren't making money and only hoping for the price of gold to go up so they can earn some profits why would they even bother refining ? just buy the pure gold. Not everyone can be buying it because they enjoy refining so much they don't mind losing a little money. Is this just the way it is with ebay and the majority of everything is overpriced.

Sorry if my questions seem dumb, but I had hopes of buying scrap gold filled on ebay and making a 10% profit. Maybe i will just have to refine the little amounts I can buy in person.

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Ebay is a piss poor guage to use for buying gold. A majority of the gold buying done on ebay, especially with gold filled and plated scrap is driven by sheer ignorance. So sometimes the scrap is overpriced and other times bidding just gets out of control. Keep your eye on the watchband auctions. For the amounts they go for I'm pretty sure the winners dont take into consideration that most of the weight is made up of stainless steel. Many also buy all this stuff not knowing the first thing about refining and end up here asking a bunch of questions without doing any research. :roll:

Keep your eye on the watchband auctions. For the amounts they go for I'm pretty sure the winners dont take into consideration that most of the weight is made up of stainless steel

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exactly, I tore the tops off a butt load of watch bands and kept close track of the weights. my average (using equal parts of mens and womens) was about 33% of the weight is gold filled material.

Ok no doubt ebay sucks. but what kind of percentage are you guys getting of actual gold vs. the calculated amounts. ? is 10% for wear and loss enough ? and I know from experience with karat and sterling scrap that just because something is marked doesn't always mean thats what it is. If I had a nickle for everytime something was marked sterling or 925 and turned out to be 80% lmao

Ok, its good that you know that the items are under karat; so when you calculate take off more. (You used 12k, .500 in your math.)
The 10g you came up with, I think, is a bit too high. I come up, @ best, 9g. Now, I would have calculated: .05 x .458k x 200g = 4.58g. This way I have 4.42g to leverage with, & thus, finish negotiating a price were I would have a profit.

"is 10% for wear and loss enough?"
My opinion, no!

I hope this helps, take care!

Phil

There is no easy answer to that question. Each piece itself and by type will be different.

Necklaces are worn against the skin and the links grind together constantly, average the most wear.

Rings and watches are rubbed on everything and against the skin are a very close second.

Eyeglasses because of the glass are sometimes treated slightly better by the former wearer and usually have a higher karat and fraction of gold, but still worn against the skin.

Pins and broaches are worn the least frequently and away from the skin so the foils are often found whole and recognizable after the base metals are removed.

My opinion only and your results may vary widely of course.