In regards to where to find scrap, I'll offer up where I get mine, but throw in a few mistakes made along the way.
When I started, I only purchased sterling and gold "scrap" from Goodwill's auction site. I started with their crap jewelry section, and then moved on to their flatware where I usually only bid and purchase sterling flatware. Now for the horror stories:
1.) My latest mistake was to bid and win on some Elton and Hall “Coin Silver” spoons. They did not take close-up pictures of the stamps and did not provide an XRF readout screenshot with the item on the scanner, which Goodwill usually provides (I do love the free assay). Needless to say, the spoons, a set of 10 show up and low and behold, they are stamped quite clearly as “German Silver” which is basically copper, nickel, and zinc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver Why they chose to not put this information in the listing and advertising it as both Coin Silver and Sterling silver is beyond me. Needless to say, I got lucky, wrote them that what they advertised was not what was listed, and I got a refund (which I did not expect to get). I would likely not have this luck with Alibaba, and doubt I would have it again with anyone else. Lessons learned
2.) Bought some fake ivory handled serving/flatware. The band on the collar was stamped sterling and sure enough it is, but all of the blades, spoons, and tines were silver plated. Once again, it was stamped as such, but the seller only photographed the “sterling” stamp. Lesson learned, stop buying weird flatware with multiple components. I still got it fairly cheap, but won’t recoup the full value spent.
3.) Snipers, snipers, everywhere… Needless to say, starting out, I used to get sniped on auctions that would put their bids in at the last minute. To solve this problem, I wrote a small script, that gives me the maximum amount I’m willing to bid on a piece, dependent on the mass given. I usually set it at 80% of spot price and just put in the bids and if I get them, I get them, if I don’t, oh well. With a lot of people stacking silver right now, it’s been a bit harder, but since this is an idle hobby for a chemist turned IT professional, it’s fine.
I’ve had ideas of finding other sources of scrap, but honestly just telling other people what I do has had a multitude of offers of people willing to just give away their old sterling. It’s a unique hobby, and doesn’t evoke the same responses as let’s say gardening or scuba diving. For those people, I’ll take their sterling, refine it and return them a small ingot. Most people seem thrilled by this and it’s another “odd” source of raw materials.
All and all, good luck finding your raw materials. I have a few other sources now but this is where I started.
Elemental