Realcent.org

I've been thinking about buying and selling scrap gold as a hobby/second income. I figure there are plenty of people doing it and making big cash ripping people off so maybe I can be one of the honest buyers and make a little money and have fun doing it. I have seen several electronic gold testers and was wondering if anyone here had had any success using one. I know an XRF scanner would be the way to go but that is out of my price range. Everything else I have seen has had mixed reviews. I'm not opposed to acid testing, but I fear losing customers by wanting to dig deep on their jewelry to be for certain it is not a chinese rip-off. I'm completely green on this subject so any advise is welcome. Thanks.

You should visit the local gold buyers and see what they do with your scrap jewelery. Then you will know how the professionals run their business. Take plated gold and silver for even more entertainment.

I would imagine people who are going to sell their jewelery for scrap would be willing to submit to an acid test.

GT-3000 by Tri Electronics is a great, cheap machine.

We use them in all of our stores.

fasTT wrote:GT-3000 by Tri Electronics is a great, cheap machine.

We use them in all of our stores.

nice new logo

GT-3000 is good, but I prefer the GLX-24.
It's a little more money, but easier to read.

TXBullion wrote:

fasTT wrote:GT-3000 by Tri Electronics is a great, cheap machine.

We use them in all of our stores.

nice new logo

Check out the new website

www.LondonGoldBuyer.com

I have previously looked into both of those machines but these reviews threw me:

This review is from: Tri Electronics GXL-24 Pro Gold Tester (Misc.)
I'm in the coin business and buy a lot of scrap gold and silver. I thought this thing would stream-line my tried-and-true method of acid/scratch testing: It does not. I tried it multiple times to verify known standards (24k credit suise bar and 22k gold eagles) and it does not come back with the correct measurement consistently. Out of ten measurements and ten cleanings maybe it was close about 20% of the time. Most of the measurements came back low and that is unacceptable...unless your intention is to rip people off. Not accurate enough for me. I even measured some 14k samples and it came back 16k and 18k a few times...that's ok if you want to rip yourself off.

Most of the vendors that I saw selling this unit WILL NOT accept it back for a refund if it has been used at all: How are you supposed to know if it works if you don't use it? My original unit was purchased from a vendor that also sells on the most popular of all auction sites (I still payed about the same for it). And, my unit's power switch broke off the second I took it out of the box. I contacted the seller and he didn't want anything to do with the busted unit and that any defects have to be resolved with the manufacturer. The manufacturer is in my same state of CA and they didn't get to fixing my unit until I called and yelled at them a little...after all I only had about five days left of the ten days to return the item for "credit" or an exchange. What a joke. The seller by the way was iGem, and I purchased the high-end GXL-24. I know this is a review for the GT-4000, but they all have the same testing electronics with in them. All of them are junk.

This review is from: Tri Electronics Gold Tester GT-3000 (Misc.)
This tester is not reliable. It gives false positives and cannot distinguish gold-filled from solid karat gold. It gave a reading of 721 on a US gold eagle coin and a reading of 945 on a sterling ring electroplated in 18k gold. Out of three readings on the same piece of plated Chinese fake "10k white gold" it read 435, then 509, then 415. When I put 18k testing solution on the piece, it started to cook out, with yellow smoke and green bubbles, after the GT 3000 tester had given three readings within range of low karat gold.

It also gives false negatives and low readings on known high grade gold coins and bullion bars.

If I had known what an unreliable piece of junk this thing is, I would never have bought it. Too bad that one star is the lowest rating available, or I would have given it a negative 3 stars.

Of course anyone, competitor included, could have left these reviews or they may not have used the device properly, but reviews like that make me second guess a product. I see fasTT and Nickelmeister that you each operate gold buying businesses so your recommendations have swayed me back into considering a device from Tri Electronics. Thank you for your help.

Mark and I have bought over $10 Million worth of gold between us using them. We would not use them if we did not think they worked.

Just like anything, you have to learn how they work and be careful, but for most day to day use, they are a great tool.

After reading those reviews I am reminded of the old saying:

"It is a poor musician who blames their instrument"