The Best of Ebay

[macfixer01]

Wow, somebody really took a bath on these! 57 Pentium Pro's for $1800. At best they might get about $800 of gold out of them?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300948330555

You're right, they took one hell of a bath, at today's prices, if the person refining them was able to recover every little bit of Au, that is about 800 worth of Au, or around there. Sometimes people buy them because of the perceived value, with no intent to recover the gold. It's much more difficult to fake a CPU than it is a gold bar. I'm sure if they turn right around and put them back on ebay, and gold prices continue to go up, someone else will come along and buy it up for even more.

ebay works in mysterious ways!

Scott

Very true. I thought they might plan to resell them piecemeal at higher prices, but making up a $1000 loss would be quite a stretch.

 

[macfixer01]

I get so sick of this crap on Ebay. Here's somebody trying to sell a gold plated fake 1oz bar for $300. I even entertained the thought maybe she got scammed and doesn't know? But then I looked at her feedback and see she just bought it from a seller in the UK for 3 GBP (USD $4.67), she can't have possibly have even received it yet, but she is reselling it on Ebay and using the other seller's photo to do it! Of course her auction has 'none' of the bold red warnings about it being plated and not solid gold, which the UK seller gave in his auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=231038955369

She apparently bought it here, and this auction just ended today? Hmmm I've seen that photo somewhere else...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181201899324

I guess I'm just in a funk because I got screwed again twice recently on Ebay. I bought a box of military style (AMP/Bendix/Canon type) connectors and just received them today. I found many had the pins already pulled, and many appear to be brand new shells with plastic caps still on them but they have no pins installed? The last connector lot I bought from a different seller were advertised for gold recovery, but only maybe 3% or 4% of the connectors even had gold pins, the vast majority had silver plated pins. And then there were the several connectors corroded beyond recovery (which went straight into the trash) along with the empty shells, scrap wire, an old transformer, and miscellaneous other garbage found in the box.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Somebody is going to be very dissapointed.

I've seen this item listed over and over again for months. He finally got lucky and some poor schmuck bid on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Silver-Copper-Nickel-Palladium-Platinum-Rhodium-Scrap-911-35-dwt-w-Assay-/151122177764?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232f956ee4#ht_64wt_1219

Unless I'm way off on my calculations, there is maybe 20 to 30 dollars worth of PMs there.

Dave

 

[niteliteone]

Somebody is going to be very dissapointed.

I've seen this item listed over and over again for months. He finally got lucky and some poor schmuck bid on it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Silver-Copper-Nickel-Palladium-Platinum-Rhodium-Scrap-911-35-dwt-w-Assay-/151122177764?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232f956ee4#ht_64wt_1219

Unless I'm way off on my calculations, there is maybe 20 to 30 dollars worth of PMs there.

Dave

I've dropped a $50 bid on that bar a few times over the last year, but was always outbid or didn't meet the reserve. The owner keeps changing and they have finally offered an XRF reading that shows it "might" contain 36 grams of gold, not to mention the other PM's contained.
Looking at the XRF readout, it looks like it could be a mixture of gold filled and gold plated stuff melted together into a mess that will now cost more to recover than the original material would have.
Kind of like those "gold drops" they sell that are melted gold plated pins.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

I've dropped a $50 bid on that bar a few times over the last year, but was always outbid or didn't meet the reserve. The owner keeps changing and they have finally offered an XRF reading that shows it "might" contain 36 grams of gold, not to mention the other PM's contained.
Looking at the XRF readout, it looks like it could be a mixture of gold filled and gold plated stuff melted together into a mess that will now cost more to recover than the original material would have.
Kind of like those "gold drops" they sell that are melted gold plated pins.

I may be wrong, but to me it looks like the XRF reports .026% Au. Notice that Cu is about 63% and Ni about 12 and a half percent.

911.35 dwt / 20 = 45.5675 troy ounces
45.5675 * 0.00026 = 0.0118 troy ounces of gold (0.36 grams)
$1,325 per ounce gold * 0.0118 = $15.70

Be happy you didn't get it at $50.00.

Dave

 

[niteliteone]

I've dropped a $50 bid on that bar a few times over the last year, but was always outbid or didn't meet the reserve. The owner keeps changing and they have finally offered an XRF reading that shows it "might" contain 36 grams of gold, not to mention the other PM's contained.
Looking at the XRF readout, it looks like it could be a mixture of gold filled and gold plated stuff melted together into a mess that will now cost more to recover than the original material would have.
Kind of like those "gold drops" they sell that are melted gold plated pins.

I may be wrong, but to me it looks like the XRF reports .026% Au. Notice that Cu is about 63% and Ni about 12 and a half percent.

911.35 dwt / 20 = 45.5675 troy ounces
45.5675 * 0.00026 = 0.0118 troy ounces of gold (0.36 grams)
$1,325 per ounce gold * 0.0118 = $15.70

Be happy you didn't get it at $50.00.

Dave

I humbly reply with egg on my face as I forgot those 2 "zeros" when I did my math for this post. I placed the $50 dollar bids on the overall PM content and not just the gold. It has been several months since I last bid on it. As I mentioned it keeps selling with different owners and this last price is one of the lowest it has sold for.
I still feel the source material was gold plated and filled material, as I have seen somewhat similar numbers from those materials when tested. One of the sellers claimed they recovered it from the remains after roasting a bunch of ore they mined and heated. At least this seller didn't embellish the source as others have done.

 

[g_axelsson]

0.026% must be within the error margin of an XRF. It also only measure the surface composition. For all that it matters it could just be plated with the plating rubbed off.

I would never trust an XRF reading under 1%, it's too inexact and close to the margins and it is probably not calibrated close to that alloy.
My view on XRF can be read here. http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=12763&#p186739
That thread showed an analyze with -0.5% copper which is of course impossible but within error margins.

Göran

 

[macfixer01]

I've dropped a $50 bid on that bar a few times over the last year, but was always outbid or didn't meet the reserve. The owner keeps changing and they have finally offered an XRF reading that shows it "might" contain 36 grams of gold, not to mention the other PM's contained.
Looking at the XRF readout, it looks like it could be a mixture of gold filled and gold plated stuff melted together into a mess that will now cost more to recover than the original material would have.
Kind of like those "gold drops" they sell that are melted gold plated pins.

I may be wrong, but to me it looks like the XRF reports .026% Au. Notice that Cu is about 63% and Ni about 12 and a half percent.

911.35 dwt / 20 = 45.5675 troy ounces
45.5675 * 0.00026 = 0.0118 troy ounces of gold (0.36 grams)
$1,325 per ounce gold * 0.0118 = $15.70

Be happy you didn't get it at $50.00.

Dave

No, actually it shows Nickel as only 0.125 or an eighth of one percent. I was looking at the numbers carefully since there seems to be about 36% of the weight totally unaccounted for? The picture seems bogus to me also. The ridges on whatever is in the black and white photo on the XRF report run across the short dimension, but they run the length of the item in the auction photo? And now that I look at it again, how do you get a negative percentage of platinum?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

No, actually it shows Nickel as only 0.125 or an eighth of one percent. I was looking at the numbers carefully since there seems to be about 36% of the weight totally unaccounted for? The picture seems bogus to me also. The ridges on whatever is in the black and white photo on the XRF report run across the short dimension, but they run the length of the item in the auction photo? And now that I look at it again, how do you get a negative percentage of platinum?

You are correct, Ni is only .125%. Those pesky zeros got me too!

I believe the negative percentage is due to the error margin of XRF as Göran has explained.

Dave

 

[MysticColby]

no, you guys are supposed to take the absolute value when calculating ebay prices, and misread the results. Nickel is indeed 12.5%, but gold is also 2.6% and platinum is 3.9%. this puts the total value well above $4,000. you're getting a great deal at $190. yes, that produces 103% total weight, but that's ok as it's ebay math.
/end sarcasm/
I doubt gold filled would give you that much gold. isn't gold filled usually like 5% gold (1/20)? the missing 30-some% is probably zinc or tin to produce the silvery color. at least he doesn't claim that the unknown 30% was unknown because it could be californium ($27 million per gram)

 

[its-all-a-lie]

Anyone interested in 4.7 grams 18k for $500? I contacted the seller and told them they need to revise the listing because it is clear from the pictures this is not solid 18k but rather gold filled. The response i got was "I listed it as 18k because it has already been tested". Is Mexico City joining the African gold scammers?



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400562555047&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

 

[etack]

Anyone interested in 4.7 grams 18k for $500? I contacted the seller and told them they need to revise the listing because it is clear from the pictures this is not solid 18k but rather gold filled. The response i got was "I listed it as 18k because it has already been tested". Is Mexico City joining the African gold scammers?



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400562555047&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123

I wonder how well his "double your money back guaranty" is for gold content.

Eric

 

[goldenchild]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Processing-...293?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c737deff5

 

[jimdoc]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Processing-...293?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c737deff5

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Soul-of-Soil-A-Guide-to-Ecological-Soil-Management-by-Joseph-Smillie-/200969120209?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item2ecab169d1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-processing-scrap-DVD-/200969839699?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ecabc6453

 

[chlaurite]

The picture seems bogus to me also. The ridges on whatever is in the black and white photo on the XRF report run across the short dimension, but they run the length of the item in the auction photo?

If you look at the top left and bottom right of the two normal-scale pictured of the bar, you can see a small area that looks ground down. That small area appears to match the XRF image, including the shape of the valley inside the ground down area.

But really, we don't need to question the legitimacy of the assay - At best, that bar contains 3.6g of gold. The seller has literally doubled his money, even with everything shown 100% legit.

The world has no shortage of bigger idiots. :lol:

 

[niteliteone]

If these bidders are not already members here, expect to educate another ...
( I won't say) The $5 is mine.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221334171737?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1426.l2649

 

[maynman1751]

Stupid,stupid,stupid !!!!!!! :roll:

 

[rickbb]

The 2 people that bid the price up have zero feed back. $100 says they won't pay if they win and could even be the seller doing it.

 

[niteliteone]

Looking at that sellers completed listings, This is the fourth time selling the same item and the other times he received good feed-back on that same item :?:
This one really looks shady. :roll:

 

[silversaddle1]

So looking at the seller feedback. The same buyer won 5 of this seller's auctions, all within the same minute, on the same day, and that buyer has 0 feedback? So this seller gives no feedback to a customer who just bought 5 items? Horse hockey!