Looking for scrap to sell to a refiner.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Over the past few weeks i have been heavily researching 'merchanting' with good scraps, and so i have come here to gauge your opinions.
My plan is to purchase small lots of gold jewelery of all karats and then sell to a refiner that i have already contacted. I plan on purchasing this jewelery from Ebay.com.au. I am a little unsure of the price i would be required to pay, however. In general, i can count on the refiner (who owns a shop front) purchasing the gold for approximately 80% of the stock price.
My question concerns the prices that i should be expected to pay on ebay.
Furthermore, how do the prices of other purchasers, such as Cash converters, and online gold buyers compare with an 80% spot price purchase price?

I am new to this forum, and i hope it will turn out to be a good relationship i develop with the people here.
Pleased to meet you,
Jake.

 

[qst42know]

Hello Jake.

After you are signed up It is easy enough to research completed auctions on eBay. When you do you will likely find it is difficult to buy with any profit margin left let alone 20%. That's not to say you can't find a deal once in a great while. But most of the time items sell for all or more than they are worth. Many here watch for bargains, myself included but I don't find very many.

 

[goldsilverpro]

I agree. Ebay would be the absolute worst place to buy from. If there is any margin at all, it would normally be very tight. After dealing with a refiner, you would be lucky to make any profit.

Although you see a lot of different numbers tossed around, I doubt if places like cash4gold pay more than 30-40%, on the average.

Buy from individuals, if you can.

 

[leavemealone]

Welcome to the forum Jake.
You may want to also check craigslist and your local newspapers as well as little advertising papers like ,thrifty nickle,orangepeel gazette,etc. for people that just need quick money.Some of the time you end up getting it for about the same price that a pawn broker would end up paying.Just make sure you are very familiar with what you are buying,and who you are selling to.
Johnny

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Thank you for your quick replies.
So from what you guys have said, it appears that Ebay is not a good place to get a lot of gold from. If this proves to be the case, then i will probably start looking in the weekend shopper and other places like that, but because i don't have a car (i am only 16 tomorrow), this might prove difficult. But thanks for your help anyway guys.

 

[aflacglobal]

Happy birthday Jake

 

[butcher]

Gold buying and selling in my opinion would take alot of studing and learning to be able to profit, if this is your goal, learn testing, calculating prices (Based on current spot), find the gold before the public sell to pawn shop or gold dealer, there are many people selling and buying gold now (economy) but getting to it before it goes through several hands making a profit on it every exchange, may prove challanging, I guess you could advertise but then you also send up red flags to people looking to rob you. you will also need to find a good refiner and learn the ropes of that potrtion of the buissiness, not to discourage you in this venture but it may not be as easy as you percieve, but if you are good at business and HONEST, and learn the ropes before putting all your eggs into one basket you can make a bussiness, but there is alot of established competition, as you know,
and starting is sometimes the hardest part, maybe do all your homework then start out as a hobbie and once your expierenced expand from there. I am not good at buying and selling (tend to give everything away) so this would not be my ball game. 4nines has some good posts on refiners and there is alot of great info on testing, Harold and GSP have good info on Karat gold.

maybe start out buying gold bearing electronics and selling that also, it may prove to be profitable (ebay goes nuts for that stuff and any gold and usually pay more than it is worth.
Best of luck on your Quest.