Tips on buying sterling silver, to have melted into bars?

[Joogaler]

Any tips? What price should I buy at? What are some things to look for when buying sterling silver? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Andrew

[Kurr]

Market Harmony has his rates posted on his website. I'd startthere and work backwards.

http://marketharmony.net/services.html

[wagsthadog]

Hi there-

I've been looking into this too, but I'm kind of finding out that unless you have visions of a massive operation, it's a little difficult to melt well and for profit. In all honesty, I've invested a couple hundred bucks into setting up to do it, but I think I should have left the jewelry alone. You have a professionally made jewelry or silverware piece, clearly marked as sterling, and if you melt it, you have an ugly (in my case), misshapen blob that is a hard sell as silver to most people. I think you should try and focus more on buying for as much profit as possible, and just re-selling the jewelry/scrap as it is, without melting. Just my thoughts, though. Not trying to dissuade you in the least, just to offer insights as to the road I traveled.

wags

[Rodebaugh]

Yeah, Check out Market Harmonys pay schedual and hit up some flee markets, antique malls, and so on.

With a little time and some good buys you can send it to him and have a nice new bar sent back to you.

[Market Harmony]

Tips:
1) Stay away from China. Anything of unknown origin and/or odd markings is not worth the risk. Just save yourself the hassle and do not buy it.
2) Buy as close to pure as possible. The lower the silver content, the higher the refining charges. Staying above 90% purity will ensure the highest payouts.
3) Figure out a way to test things before you buy them, or a way to verify them upon delivery (as if you purchased from eBay)
4) Figure out your percentages first. Don't do it on the fly. Find a refiner ( ) and then work their rates backwards so that you already know what they will pay you for what you are about to buy. Then work in the amount of profit that you want to make and that either gives you an offer price, or a max bid price.
5) Don't forget to consider the hidden costs... transportation, shipping, time, packaging, provision for loss on ignition, and any other pennies that will add up to dollars in the long run.
6) Get a good scale- one that is portable and can weigh up to 3000 grams. I use 2... a pocket sized scale for smaller pieces, and a larger one that fits into a laptop bag in which I carry other stuff, including personal protection.
7) Don't be afraid to walk away from a deal. If it's not on your terms, then don't even begin to bargain.
8) Ask where things have come from. You don't want to accept anything that has been stolen.

Consider that MH will pay you 85% on sterling. There is a $25 assay fee if I buy it directly, but I waive that assay fee if you get refined metal in return. You also have to ship it to me at your expense. So you're looking at $30 cost, and then I pay 85% of the fine metal contained in your lot. Let's assume that you bought 100 troy ounces of sterling silverware...
That would be: 100 x .925 x .85 = 78.625 x silver price (let's use $27)... I would pay you $2097.87 for your 100 ozt of sterling. So, at $27 silver, your favorite refiner will pay you about $20.97 per troy ounce of sterling. If you want to make an additional 10%, then your offer price or max bid price would be $18.87 per troy ounce of sterling. $18.87 divided by SPOT will give you a good multiplier to use for future purchases...

So... 18.87 / 27= .69888888888

This means you can safely use spot price X .7 to estimate a price per troy ounce of sterling that you can pay and still make 10% on 100 troy ounces.

[Rodebaugh]

More math.....get it to the gram:

(spot X 0.7) / 31.1 = Max bid per gram for sterling.

Don't forget that the weighted stuff can burn you quick if you over estimate silver weight.

[Joogaler]

Thanks for all the tips guys! I'm going to try to take a day off sometime and hit all the flea markets, and antique stores around my area. I used to work for a guy that owns the largest antique mall on the east coast (So he says, who knows!) But hopefully he I can work out some kind of discount, and get some silver below melt!