Ebay Item #111936548261

[nickvc]

You guy are all mostly right, and i do have a lot to learn. I am a fast learner for the most part, but I think I have bitten off more than I can chew with all this. I am fortunate to have had enough success in my other businesses to bankroll this hobby, but adding up what I have spent on chemicals, glassware and lab equipment, smelting furnaces and safety equipment, not to mention materials to process,I have spent over 13,000 dollars with nothing to show for it but some tough lessons in failure that I'm generally not used to. I have been studiously reading Hoke's book, and am working on a homemade vent hood so perhaps I will give everything else a rest, but no guarantees, lol. :lol: :lol:

Now this I like to hear, recovery and refining is not simple until you know what your doing when in general it's easy, complications arise but your armed with the knowledge of how to overcome them.
All the gold you have dissolve is safe... That's the first thing to remember unless you throw it out.
Now you know you have gold and hopefully where it is, the first thing you should do is stop processing and precipitate or cement all your values, with a little study you will know what to do with them to recover the values and will soon be holding your first home refined bar.
As I have said many times recovery and refining is a huge subject, well in my opinion two, and no one knows it all, there's always something new to learn so slow down and start to enjoy it as well as making some money, it's a hard slog at times but armed with the right equipment, chemicals and knowledge you should so fine.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Nick.

I would also say that investing in the equipment is a statement of intent to do it properly and for that I applaud you. Hoke provides a great foundation for what we do but you will need to go a lot further than her words when you're recovering and refining from e-waste. She didn't have this product to deal with, and it has all kinds of other considerations that need to be taken into account. There are also many chemical advances and process specifics that you will need to incorporate, and the forum provides a great deal of the information that you need in addition to her book.

So do put it all into its relevant context as you move forwards.

 

[72chevel]

Rmwatson78 Are you in Minnesota?

Here is my exchange with this clown: I asked if I could pick this item up and what the weight of one board was.

HI ARE YOU SERIOUSIY INTERESTED IN THIS RARE GOLD PIN RACK ? I HAVE ADDED FREE SHIPPING WHY DO YOU WANT TO COME TO MY HOME??

So I responded with:

Very unprofessional! I wanted to know the weight of one board!!!! That is how it works in Gold Scrap Recovery you need to know the Weight! You don't have some magical unicorn here I see this kind of stuff everyday!!!

He then responded with:

OMG ...WHAT DID I DID WRONG PLEASE DON'T BE SO MEAN WOW !!!! Your not going to offer me what I am willing to take any way you are looking to

 

[Palladium]

Wow! 13 grand! Have you thought about karat or gold filled? I'm curious as to why you chose electronic scrap and ebay?

 

[Palladium]

I read some of your other post and see you have tried gold filled. Take your time and learn one process at a time. Karat is easy to learn first and will give you some experience so then you can move on to gf and electronics. Gold filled is a real money maker when done right.

 

[Rmwatson78]

Rmwatson78 Are you in Minnesota?

Here is my exchange with this clown: I asked if I could pick this item up and what the weight of one board was.

HI ARE YOU SERIOUSIY INTERESTED IN THIS RARE GOLD PIN RACK ? I HAVE ADDED FREE SHIPPING WHY DO YOU WANT TO COME TO MY HOME??

So I responded with:

Very unprofessional! I wanted to know the weight of one board!!!! That is how it works in Gold Scrap Recovery you need to know the Weight! You don't have some magical unicorn here I see this kind of stuff everyday!!!

He then responded with:

OMG ...WHAT DID I DID WRONG PLEASE DON'T BE SO MEAN WOW !!!! Your not going to offer me what I am willing to take any way you are looking to

I am in Tucson, Arizona.

 

[Rmwatson78]

Wow! 13 grand! Have you thought about karat or gold filled? I'm curious as to why you chose electronic scrap and ebay?

Most gold filled I have ever processed were from lots off eBay.

 

[patnor1011]

If I would be in your shoes I would definitely try to pull pins out of 1 board and make few auctions for pins say 1 oz of pins at a time. You may easily get more that way and save on recovery costs. Ebay is full of people who overpay for whatever is there, not just gold recovery related stuff.
Who knows, some people may have a use of this kind of material for some other purposes perhaps art or something else.

You may find a lot of gold filled locally, try cash for gold type businesses, local swap meets, garage sales, local advertisement papers or sites. Guaranteed cheaper than ebay and give you opportunity to have item inspected before you actually pay for it.

 

[rrantique]

I just did some pins like these from a late 70's PM2000 controller and after several different test it's safe to say that each pin had around 14mg.
You may want to pull a few and test them. I just used a side cutter to open up the gold to expose the base metal. I then used nitric acid to dissolve the base metals the gold was plated on. The ones I did where plated on copper. I collect the foils and lay them out for a few days to dry then weighed them one at a time.
I did strip some in a cell but that didn't work so good keep kicking the battery chargers out and took about 5hrs to get most of the gold off just a hand full.
That batch ended up with a 7.5 gram gold nugget

 

[necromancer]

let's do the simple math

seller says 6 to 7 oz of gold contained in the whole rack
it was worth $3500 dollars 3 years ago

3 years ago the price of gold per oz was $1600 plus or minus a few bucks pending on the exact day in march 2013
$1600 X 6oz = $9600 (RED FLAG sellers math does not work out)

now in march of 1977 gold was $145 oz
$145 X 6oz = $870

with the company name & part numbers you could have tracked down the specs for the boards / pins /fingers & slot contacts
did some simple math, figured out the total amount of gold, sent a best offer.

my guess 1 & 1/4 ounces tops. of pure gold

please keep us updated on this.

historical gold prices "http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.plx"

 

[macfixer01]

Moral of the story?

Watson, nobody here had any intention of coming across as presumptuous. The only intention was to get you to slow down a bit and avoid mistakes. All here want to see folks succeed and do well more than anything. Hell, I think they may even think that about me!

Grumpy? That can be debated! Especially if before coffee or after a days work. :mrgreen:

I can see what his conflict is. I'm sure Watson would have preferred to ask for opinions 'before' buying that scrap. He was probably reluctant though, since if he brought it to everyone's attention it could be bought out from under him by somebody here. You have to realize though that if you saw some great looking scrap on Ebay, the chances are probably 90% that anyone here who would be interested in bidding on it has already seen it?

 

[UncleBenBen]

I do agree. Although I hope I wasn't part of that conflict.

I didn't spend the money Watson did coming in to this but I did spend enough to learn my lesson! The money I did spend on "scrap cell phones for GOLD RECOVERY" will never be recovered.

Although, after all the studying and testing so far, the only things I will buy from eBay are items I am looking for that aren't listed for gold recovery.

Example: Saturday I won an auction for a lot of way outdated data jacks. The $17 USD I spent will yield about 2 grams of gold. I only know this because I've tested the same material.

It's probably a lesson that most everybody that comes here learns the hard way. Don't buy from eBay if it is listed as scrap unless you know exactly what you will get from it. The good ones you learn to be patient and search for. The half dozen or so purchases I've made since those cell phones are the ones that I know I will at least double my money on.

 

[ettran]

Step #1 Pay for auction
#2 Receive item
#3 Notify seller ( Item not as described )
#4 Return item and receive refund!

If it's as good as he says he should have no problem selling it again!

I second that.

 

[macfixer01]

I do agree. Although I hope I wasn't part of that conflict.

I didn't spend the money Watson did coming in to this but I did spend enough to learn my lesson! The money I did spend on "scrap cell phones for GOLD RECOVERY" will never be recovered.

Although, after all the studying and testing so far, the only things I will buy from eBay are items I am looking for that aren't listed for gold recovery.

Example: Saturday I won an auction for a lot of way outdated data jacks. The $17 USD I spent will yield about 2 grams of gold. I only know this because I've tested the same material.

It's probably a lesson that most everybody that comes here learns the hard way. Don't buy from eBay if it is listed as scrap unless you know exactly what you will get from it. The good ones you learn to be patient and search for. The half dozen or so purchases I've made since those cell phones are the ones that I know I will at least double my money on.

No UncleBenBen, I wasn't saying anybody here had anything to do with it. He had already agreed to a buying price before he came here to see how he'd done. I was just saying that I can see why someone might be reluctant to ask ahead of time, since it would be calling unwanted attention to the auction they were interested in. Yeah deals are getting harder and harder to find on EBay. I rarely find electronic scrap worth buying anymore, and seem to be picking up more jewelry and gold coins. In the last week I managed to get a 22k ring for almost 20% under spot with free shipping. I also got another 9k Albert style gold pocket watch chain which I have a small collection of. This one is 53 Grams, every link hallmarked 375 as they often are, free shipping, and paid just a few dollars over spot price after figuring in the EBay Bucks and Ebates rebates. Those chains normally sell at a pretty good premium over spot price on EBay. I have no plans to process them, just more of an investment for now.

Macfixer01

 

[upcyclist]

It's probably a lesson that most everybody that comes here learns the hard way. Don't buy from eBay if it is listed as scrap unless you know exactly what you will get from it. The good ones you learn to be patient and search for. The half dozen or so purchases I've made since those cell phones are the ones that I know I will at least double my money on.

....He had already agreed to a buying price before he came here to see how he'd done. I was just saying that I can see why someone might be reluctant to ask ahead of time, since it would be calling unwanted attention to the auction they were interested in. Yeah deals are getting harder and harder to find on EBay. I rarely find electronic scrap worth buying anymore, and seem to be picking up more jewelry and gold coins.

I think it's actually the same argument--I understand that reticence to reveal his ebay find, but the truth is he paid a high price. None of the experienced buyers here would have given him any competition (as he now unfortunately knows). And the same applies in an auction situation--most buyers here would back out at a certain point, assuming the bidding even started below that point. His competition is eBay, not the people here.

I like BenBen's & MacFixer's approach--if it's advertising that it's for e-scrapping & gold recovery, just stay away from it.

Personally, the only e-scrap I mess with is that which I come across for free--then I know my naiveté won't result in me overpaying

 

[UncleBenBen]

I like BenBen's & MacFixer's approach-

Haha! I've been wondering how long it would take for someone to call me that!

BenBen is a bit of pet/nickname family and friends have called me since I was 6 or 7 years old. I had a younger cousin that started using it when she couldn't quite say Benjamin and it just kind of stuck.

That's awesome, thanks for the grin upcyclist!

 

[Rmwatson78]

I sent the seller the following message:

"After speaking to some professionals on the gold refining forums online it has come to my attention that your description of your item may not be completely truthful and if you are willing to guarantee at least 5 ounces of gold are there to be refined, which is lower than your claim of at least 6 or 7.....I will continue with the purchase.

He replied:

You have strung me along for a week now. Enough of your lies. People like you should not be allowed to buy or sell on E-bay you are waisting a lot of valuable time. First your friend says it's not worth the money. You send me an e-mail saying it was not worth it. It's funny how Google says Robert Watson is deceased are you using a dead persons identity? Your the second person in a row that used a deceased persons name for the same exact item back to back. You are probably that same person trying to pull a scam. Your lucky I didn't take your word and ship this item to you . I would be on a plane right now heading their with the police in tow. All your e-mails are being turned over to e-bay and they will review. I am not waisting my time with you any more. You re very dishonest and people like you think your a leading authority on scrap gold. Do not send any more e-mails you are in dishonest violation right now. Don't e-mail me anymore stick a fork in it, you're done.

Thanks everyone for possibly saving me from making a big newbie mistake. I got an unpaid item mark on my flawless ebay record but I think I'm better off.

P.S. My father and grandfather were both named Robert Watson and I' m quite certain google says there are a buttload of deceased people with the same name.

 

[jimdoc]

He has it relisted again.

Jim

 

[Barren Realms 007]

I sent the seller the following message:

"After speaking to some professionals on the gold refining forums online it has come to my attention that your description of your item may not be completely truthful and if you are willing to guarantee at least 5 ounces of gold are there to be refined, which is lower than your claim of at least 6 or 7.....I will continue with the purchase.

He replied:

You have strung me along for a week now. Enough of your lies. People like you should not be allowed to buy or sell on E-bay you are waisting a lot of valuable time. First your friend says it's not worth the money. You send me an e-mail saying it was not worth it. It's funny how Google says Robert Watson is deceased are you using a dead persons identity? Your the second person in a row that used a deceased persons name for the same exact item back to back. You are probably that same person trying to pull a scam. Your lucky I didn't take your word and ship this item to you . I would be on a plane right now heading their with the police in tow. All your e-mails are being turned over to e-bay and they will review. I am not waisting my time with you any more. You re very dishonest and people like you think your a leading authority on scrap gold. Do not send any more e-mails you are in dishonest violation right now. Don't e-mail me anymore stick a fork in it, you're done.

Thanks everyone for possibly saving me from making a big newbie mistake. I got an unpaid item mark on my flawless ebay record but I think I'm better off.

P.S. My father and grandfather were both named Robert Watson and I' m quite certain google says there are a buttload of deceased people with the same name.

I would rather have the non payment mark aginst my account than loose a lot of money the way you were about too. Ebay would have probably stuck by you in the end and had the seller refund your money. You are better off either way not having that load of material.

 

[nickvc]

I'm no expert on eBay protocol or procedures but I would be tempted to do as this guy is claiming to do and report the matter to eBay and see what they have to say, perhaps if they feel he has been less than honest they will restore your record, perhaps a few seasoned ebayers can comment.