Russiandood said:
But besides that I wanted to see if people here actually bought things from eBay knowing people are selling at ridiculous prices. I was only looking in the area for fingers. I haven't checked to see other scrap parts like s/n bridge chips or IC's or so on. The less to non visible gold scrap.
I find a few decent buys on FeePay, but I have to work for them. It's not so much that people are
selling at ridiculous prices (though there is some of that), but that people are
buying at ridiculous prices.
If you search for obvious terms like gold fingers, you're one of many people looking at those same auctions, and you'll usually be outbid by someone. If you want to find the occasional bargain, you usually have to get creative. One popular technique is to search for misspelled words, so instead of searching for "gold fingers", you might try "glod fingers", or "gold fingres", or some other variation. But like I said, this is a well known and popular technique, so you still won't be alone in your searches, and it takes a lot of time trying all of the various combinations.
Another approach is to try to sift through the mountainous haystack looking for the needle. Be prepared to look through hundreds of auctions just to find one or two that are worth bidding on. Also, be prepared to be outbid on the one or two you find. You can spend several hours a day and not win a single auction.
But every once in a while, you can get lucky. Here's an auction I was fortunate enough to win yesterday:
Whole Lot's of Old Vintage Silverware All Stamped Sterling. 5 pounds 11.2 ounces of sterling
should produce 76.87 troy ounces of fine silver. My final cost with shipping is right around $15.00 per ounce.
But I'm not home free yet. There is always the chance it's not all sterling as advertised. In that case, you have to try to negotiate a settlement with the seller, or you have to return the lot (usually at your own cost) for a refund.
There is no easy way to find good deals. You have to work hard for them.
Dave