In “What Is a Smelter” and other posts we have published in the past, we have explained what a smelter is and what a smelter does.

So what do smelters do? The quick answer is, smelters smelt things. In general, that means heating up piles of scrap and powder and chemicals that contain metal. Once that “stuff” reaches the melting point of the metals it contains, those metals melt, clump together, and can be separated from surrounding materials.

Your husband gives you a new tablet for Chanukah. Or you get a new gaming console for Junior as a Christmas gift.

There’s no doubt about it. The holidays are the time of year when older electronic devices get replaced by new ones – often dozens of them at a time. And you have a choice. You could stick all your old devices in your dresser drawer, or you could gather them up and send them to Specialty Metals Smelters and refiners and have us recover the gold, platinum and silver they contain. Before you dismiss this suggestion because you have only five or six items, let us ask you a question . . .

that’s Right, Tossed!

With platinum trading for nearly $900 on the London Fix, why would anybody throw it away? But the fact is, people do toss platinum for several reasons, including . . .

Let’s say you’re roaming through an antique store and you find two eyeglass frames. One is stamped “gold filled” and the other has no markings.

What is the difference between them, and which contains more gold? Don’t worry, in today’s post, we are going to tell you.

If you’ve been around for more than a few years, chances are you have fielded phone calls from pushy companies that try to get you to buy silver coins and all kinds of other “investments.” The usual pitch centers on opportunity: some trend is about to make today a great time to buy some investment. And if you don’t, you are going to lose money or overlook an incredible investment opportunity.

We’d like to start this post by reminding our readers that silver is a precious metal.

You knew that already, of course, but have you forgotten that you can make a lot of money by recycling silver? If you have, it’s probably because silver is trading at such low prices compared to gold, platinum, rhodium and silver’s other precious brothers and sisters. Silver is not very glamorous.

A caller to our office asks, “What are the most profitable items to scrap?”

That is a very intelligent question because when you stop to analyze it, you see that it contains several other questions that are also very smart to ask:

In most parts of the country today, “We Buy Gold” stores have become common sights. But chances are you haven’t seen any stores that post prominent offers to buy platinum, rhodium, or even silver.

So what are you supposed to do if you have platinum scrap that you would like to sell or recycle?

“Is there such a thing as gold alloy?” a caller asked us recently. He then went on to explain, “I was at a coin collector’s event last month and a rather angry gentlemen told me that there is no such thing as a gold alloy. I didn’t want to get into an argument with him about it, but what’s the story? Is there really no such thing as a gold alloy?”

Have you ever been to a pawnshop? If you have, chances are you have been surprised to see that a pawnshop looks just like any other store. There are display cases, counters, cash registers, and other familiar fixtures. Chances are you were greeted by a polite individual who treated you respectfully, and who was happy to discuss the details of your transaction.

People have been asking us a lot of questions about platinum over the last few months. So as a service to you, our readers, we will devote today’s post to answering some of the most common questions we have heard.

In today’s post, we’re going to tell you some insider’s secrets on how to extract more gold from old, used gold plating tanks. But because we know your time is valuable, we’re going to start out by telling you one of the most important things first . . .

and Other Questions to Ask at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. We would like to make a suggestion. Instead of trying to avoid talking to old Uncle Edwin about politics while you chew your turkey, why not spend your time profitably by asking some of the questions we will explore in today’s post?

Who near you buys gold-filled jewelry, gold-plated jewelry, solid-gold jewelry, gold scrap and other gold items? 

Those questions might be the first to come to mind when you have gold items that you want to sell. But did you know that there are other, more important questions?

Don’t Be Tricked when You Sell Your Platinum . . . Be Treated Honestly Instead!

Trick or treat! Those words might be used on Halloween. But they are also worth keeping in mind when you sell platinum scrap. Will you be tricked when you sell it, or treated fairly? Here are some things to consider.

Platinum comes in many forms. There are nice bars of platinum bullion that sell at high prices. (After all, platinum is trading for $872.00 on the London Fix . . . why shouldn’t bullion bars be selling for a lot of money?) Platinum can also be found in catalytic converters, in some aircraft components, and in used laboratory testing equipment. 

Recently, a man wanted to sell some old gold filled jewelry that he had inherited from an elderly aunt. There were actually quite a few items - a bracelet, a few old rings, a necklace with a pendant attached, a small decorative pin, and a few other items. So the man put all those items in a Manila envelope, got in his car, and drove to a store that displayed the sign, “We Buy Gold.”

If you have precious metal items that you would like to refine for profit, “Where is there a precious metal refinery near me?” is a logical question to ask. The problem is, it might not be the right question to ask. Here are some of the reasons.

“Smelting” sounds like a form of melting . . . but it isn’t!

“Smelting” also sounds like going fishing for shiny little fish that are called smelts . . . but it isn’t that either!

So, What Is Smelting?

Every few months we hear another story about a crime involving precious metals. Another one came along last week, when the Metropolitan Museum in New York packed up a golden Egyptian coffin it owned and shipped it back to Egypt, from where it was stolen in 2011. The Met acquired the coffin in 2017 from an antiquities dealer. The only problem was, it still belonged to Egypt. (You can read the full story in “Ancient Gold Coffin Returned to Egypt from New York as Looted Antiquity,” an article that was published by the Associated Press on September 25, 2019.)