Gold flakes - worth buying?

[pudi.dk]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10g-grams-Pure-GOLD-Leaf-Flake-Bullion-scrap-/220736736573?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3364ef4d3d#ht_3755wt_1139

No way this is 10k-24k of metallic gold flakes for that prce, or what?
Seems like I've missed something, he does however write:
"This beautiful gold leaf flake is not designed to be melted down. We do not make any claim as to the percentage of actual gold contained in this flake"

Would it be worth buying?

 

[jimdoc]

Would it be worth buying?

No.

Jim

 

[Irons]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10g-grams-Pure-GOLD-Leaf-Flake-Bullion-scrap-/220736736573?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3364ef4d3d#ht_3755wt_1139

No way this is 10k-24k of metallic gold flakes for that prce, or what?
Seems like I've missed something, he does however write:
"This beautiful gold leaf flake is not designed to be melted down. We do not make any claim as to the percentage of actual gold contained in this flake"

Would it be worth buying?

Gold is the color, not the content.

 

[Drewbie]

"Flake does contain actual gold"

 

[Harold_V]

"Flake does contain actual gold"

Which, no doubt, magically disappears if you melt it.
My money says stay away from deals like that.

Harold

 

[Drewbie]

Absolutely. The BIN price says it all.

 

[Oz]

Drewbie, I am going to hold you to task for a moment. Seeing that you so readily said “absolutely” and agreed with Harold, why would you have originally posted “Flake does contain actual gold” to a new member here if you were aware of the typical deceptions perpetrated on the uninformed?

The primary purpose of this forum is to teach refining without all of the misinformation typically found on the net. Secondly we try to keep those new to precious metals with easy money in their sights from falling for the typical scams. I personally would be amazed if someone were to purchase 100 lots from different sellers of “24K gold flake” if they recovered 1 gram of gold per 100 grams of flake. It is for this reason that I cry foul as to your first post in this thread as it would only have encouraged pipe dreamers when now you are clearly stating that you knew better in the first place.

After all sea water contains “some” gold.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Total scam and the seller is a total liar. This is easily proven by doing the math and by knowing that there's never a free lunch in this type of stuff. These guys buy imitation gold flake (copper alloy) in bulk, which costs them about $.75/gram, and try to double their money. They might add a pinch (a few cents worth) of real leaf just so the statement, "flake does contain actual gold", is true. Also, 10K leaf (if they even make it) would be nearly a white color. I've done a lot of posting on this scam. Search for gold flake under my name.

Oz, Drewbie was just quoting what it said in the listing.

 

[Drewbie]

Drewbie, I am going to hold you to task for a moment. Seeing that you so readily said “absolutely” and agreed with Harold, why would you have originally posted “Flake does contain actual gold” to a new member here if you were aware of the typical deceptions perpetrated on the uninformed?

That's a very reasonable question.

When I read the eBay auction, I swear it read "flakes do not contain actual gold", and I cut and pasted it into the thread to prove it was a scam. I was wondering why no one else picked up on that sentence - the guy was admitting right there that they had no gold in them!

It wasn't until I saw my actual post later that I realised I'd mis-read it. I put it down to probably being 4am in the morning when I looked at the eBay page and maybe some sort of psychological brain stuff where you see what you want to see on a page when you should really be in bed curled up fast asleep.

My apologies.

 

[jimdoc]

I put it down to probably being 4am in the morning when I looked at the eBay page and maybe some sort of psychological brain stuff where you see what you want to see on a page when you should really be in bed curled up fast asleep.

My apologies.

Its that 4am psychological brain stuff that the seller probably counts on to find buyers.

Jim

 

[pudi.dk]

Thanks for the replies, did the right thing asking here.
It bothers me that it's hard to get from the description, that this isn't in fact metallic gold, but something else.
The only thing that says otherwise is my previous quote from the seller, and the actual price of the product.

- Nic

 

[patnor1011]

A lot of auctions are worded exactly for that purpose - to deceive buyer. It is better to read slow, think and if it do not look right just watch item for some time. Do not buy items on impulse.

 

[butcher]

If it sounds too good to be true......

 

[Harold_V]

Its that 4am psychological brain stuff that the seller probably counts on to find buyers.

Jim

To say nothing of the inherent greed many have. Regardless of how you spell it out, there's still a percentage of people that think there is a free lunch.

Harold

 

[pcecycle]

I recently bought some junk silver off ebay and the seller included 12 vials of "gold flakes" as a freebie. Guess he was fishing for good feedback or just wanted to get rid of them. Out of curiosity, I dissolved the contents of one vial in HCL. In less than a minute, the flakes were gone, leaving what looked like tiny strips of clear plastic. The solution was a pale yellow green and the stannous test was negative.

Mike

 

[joem]

I recently bought some junk silver off ebay and the seller included 12 vials of "gold flakes" as a freebie. Guess he was fishing for good feedback or just wanted to get rid of them. Out of curiosity, I dissolved the contents of one vial in HCL. In less than a minute, the flakes were gone, leaving what looked like tiny strips of clear plastic. The solution was a pale yellow green and the stannous test was negative.

Mike

most likely foils stamp used for embossing during a printing process.

 

[AuMINIMayhem]

I bought a couple bottles a long time simply to experiment, knowing full well they would not contain much, if any gold. I only spent like 10 bucks at most. I was trying to figure out what the "source" of the "gold" was. I thought perhaps people were buying cheap (low karat) "gold" leaf and filling the bottles with that.


What I found was ZERO gold and LOADS of copper.

Shortly after, I was in a local art-supply store buying some supplies and saw they had "gold" leaf there, which to my surprise had "no gold content" listed on the package. After some quick googling, I found that indeed there is plenty of "gold toned leaf" out there which is predominantly copper/zinc/tin, etc. (basically that would make it brass, right?)

 

[goldenchild]

A lot of auctions are worded exactly for that purpose - to deceive buyer. It is better to read slow, think and if it do not look right just watch item for some time. Do not buy items on impulse.

If I have to read it more than once I skip it. Reading it more than once is when the 4am brain fart kicks in. Reading it over and over, you will eventually make it read what you want it to say. Especially if it's a too good to be true type deal. It's very easy to give a clear and concise description. 9 out of 10 times tricky verbiage is used purposely.

 

[joem]

Here is your anwser to the foils.
A layer of plastic covered with
a thin layer of coloured foil on top of a thin layer of silver coloured backing with a final layer of heat setting glue (white)
I seriously doubt any real gold content since you can get these rolls in just about any metal colour.
14 rolls costs me only 20 dollars but we do use this for heat stamping images onto paper.
I can grind up 1000 grams of this stuff and sell it on ebay for .99 and still make a profit. :shock:
I'll post a picture when I get home.

 

[jimdoc]

Here is a picture of the gold leaf I bought a while back. As far as I know this is the only size you will find that is real. One pack of 25 leaves 3 3/8 x 3 3/8
weighed out at .35 grams after I stuffed them all in the little plastic bottle.

Sorry for the crappy webcam picture. But it will give others an idea of what to look for.

Jim