Where to Look for Precious Metals When Cleaning Out an Old House
If you are cleaning out a house, don’t make the mistake of tossing items that contain gold, silver, or other valuable metals. Here’s a checklist of the places you should be sure to look.
Electronics
Computers, modems, monitors, printers, and other computer peripherals contain gold and silver.
Televisions, both old and new, contain gold and silver in their printed circuit boards.
Appliances
Stoves, refrigerators, and air conditioners contain printed circuit boards that contain gold, silver, as well as short thermocouple wires that can contain gold, copper, and even small quantities of platinum.
Virtually all small kitchen appliances, including toasters and toaster ovens, have printed circuit boards that contain gold.
Home Systems
Heating and central air conditioning systems have thermocouples that contain gold, copper, and even small quantities of platinum.
Home security and alarm systems have printed circuit boards that contain gold and silver.
Home wiring contains large quantities of copper, which is currently selling for about $3.50/pound.
Kitchen and Serving Items
Sterling Silverware: knives, forks, and spoons.
Silver bar items such as shot glasses and stirring sticks.
Silver punch bowls and serving plates.
And Don’t Forget to Look for Hidden Valuables
If you have been storing valuable items in a safe or other secure place your own home, you know where to find them. But if you are cleaning out a house that was owned by other people like elderly relatives or strangers, you might not know if they have hidden valuables.
Be sure to look in the following areas:
Behind panels and false backs in closets.
Underneath drawers in dressers and desks.
Behind loose bricks in the foundation.
Under false floors in basements.
In safes that are hidden in walls.
In containers that are hidden in fireplace flues and behind bricks in fireplaces.
In hollowed out books, which are among the most popular places to hide cash and small valuables.
In paint cans, soup cans and other innocent-looking receptacles in storage areas.
What to Do with those Valuables
Call our precious metal refinery at 800-426-2344. We will explain how you can send your discoveries to our labs for testing and evaluation.
Don’t let precious metal items slip through your fingers. Give us a call instead.