Definitely not trying to refine myself. Just trying to figure out how to value the boards. Apparently, they are too old for boardsort and CFES and they don't have a history of buying them in quantity for this age.
For the record, Boardsort (me) does buy them. In quantity as well.
Looking back through my emails I do see where I sent a quote out a few weeks ago for a mix of a blank gold, copper, silver and tin board collection just like this, although the person requesting the quote suggested it was for their "customer" so I immediately assumed that the person I was corresponding with does not have the material in hand and is relaying the information back to the owner. Broker?
This introduces a few considerations into my quote, not red flags, just things I need to keep in mind when formulating an offer.
The person that is describing the material and providing the pictures (at least in my email conversation) may not be the material owner and potentially would not be able speak to the accuracy or the completeness of the sort. Looking at the pictures that were provided to me (not as many as being shown here) it was difficult to visually assay the boards beyond my standard offering. 10,000 pounds is a lot of weight. The person who collected these board may not have been keeping them based purely on the recovery value but instead for other "difficult to profit from" reasons, be it collectors or some other market and I'm in it for the PM's.
It would be difficult if not impossible to determine a true value of this entire lot without an in person, hands-on experience. I see where there was already an offer made by a legitimate buyer to come out to the sellers location and make an offer in person. This is the only way to purchase this material with any realistic prospect of accuracy. Either ship it out and trust the buyer, or the buyer travels out to the seller. The seller should seriously consider that offer.
Ultimately, a bulk buyer such as myself will always be extremely skeptical in the value of a mixed lot such as this based solely on pictures. I say this not on a personal level as the seller here seems very legit and I would feel totally comfortable doing business with them, no issues there at all. None. However when pricing large odd lots, the gold glitters more before the sort. Always.
Therefor looking at a unique collection such as this requires more information than what is typically practical via email, particularly during the initial contact when the details are limited. Because of this, I would (and did) offer a lower price that considers the unknowns and from that point the seller can demonstrate that the value is greater by providing additional information and allowing me to step up in price as those facts become known.
By methodically going through the entire load, an experienced buyer should be able to come to an agreement with the seller as to a fair value for the boards after all things (travel, sorting, cleaning etc...) are considered. But pictures of piles will never produce a quality quote, and 5 tons is a big pile.
I post this not only to clarify that boardsort does buy this type of material, but more so to stress the importance of presentation and circumstance. There is a level of regret on my part that I was not able to help the seller more when they first reached out to me. After reading the details and seeing more pics on GRF I see that my offer was not the strongest, but I had to operate within the reality that was presented to me at the time.
Steve's offer from NobelMetalsRecovery would be this sellers best bet, in my opinion.
