You’re someone who loves to invest in precious metals. But what have you been doing to keep yourself motivated about your investments while you’ve been logging time holed up at home?

Over the last few weeks on this blog, we’ve suggested some motivational ideas that will work, whether you invest in gold scrap, platinum scrap, palladium scrap, silver scrap, or something else. We’ve suggested, for example, that you inventory your precious metals holdings, review your 2019 tax strategies, or search your home for precious metals you might have overlooked.

Our phone rang a few days ago. A woman on the other end of the line asked a question that seems to be on the minds of many people just now . . .

“I’ve been furloughed from my job and I could use some cash,” she said. “Now would be a good time for me to sell some old items of jewelry, but I can’t find any gold refineries that buy from the public near me. Even those `We Buy Gold’ roadside stores in my area have shut down during the coronavirus crisis.”

People who invest in precious metals like to keep moving forward. They don’t sit around. They get out to the places where they like to look for precious metals and scrap, whether that means grabbing a metal detector and heading outdoors or driving to an estate sale to see if any treasures are waiting to be discovered.

Are you a little down in the dumps right about now? Well, we don’t blame you, but we would like to offer you a little bit of advice that applies to investing in precious metals . . .

Snap out of it and keep moving forward!

If you live in most parts of the country, you’re not supposed to leave your house, except to go to the food store or pharmacy. If that’s been your situation for more than a few days, chances are that you are itching to do something productive and energizing.

So we have a suggestion for you – and one that could be not only interesting but profitable . . .

We all just got a three-month extension for filing our Federal taxes. That’s right, instead of filing on April 15th, we now have until July 15th.

Now, you might say, “What’s the difference, I’m going to have to file and/or pay my taxes anyway, right?” But you have another option. You can take the extra time you’ve been given to take a deep breath and consider some ways to get more value and income from the precious metals and precious metal scrap you own. Whether you center your holdings in platinum scrap, gold scrap, or silver scrap, here are some issues worth considering now.

What is gold scrap, and why is it one of the best ways to invest in precious metals? In today’s post, we’ll explain.

There are different kinds of gold scrap. Let’s take a closer look.

Okay, you’re stuck at home during the current Coronavirus shelter-in-place period. Maybe you can’t take part in all your usual activities as someone who invests in silver scrap, gold scrap, platinum scrap and your other favorite investments. Go to an estate sale to look for jewelry, tableware and other items? Forget it, nobody is holding estate sales right now. Go to an antique mall to poke around? Forget it, the doors are locked.

If you like to hunt for old gold jewelry that’s worth recycling, chances are you have seen some items that match this description . . .

“It’s an old ring that’s just a piece of costume jewelry. It’s got a big fake stone in it that’s probably just made of glass. Why should I pay attention to it, when it’s probably worthless?”

As we write today’s post, we are in the midst of a near-epidemic of fear about the Coronavirus.

And this epidemic of fear is more troubling than earlier ones we remember, like the one that preceded the start of the year 2000. Why? Because unlike that false crisis, when conspiracy theorists were predicting that world currencies would crash, that airplanes would fall from the sky and that all the world’s computers would freeze, today’s crisis is based on bad things that are actually happening in the world.

What’s going on with gold prices? Here are two headlines we have seen in just the last week . . .

“Gold Prices Tumbling to Cover Margin Calls”

“Gold Prices to Surge as Coronavirus Crisis Boosts Stimulus Hopes”

But perhaps this headline is the most accurate of all . . .

A pretty good precious metal refinery might be good enough – or almost good enough – if they are recycling a batch of silver-plated tableware, candlesticks, or other fairly commonplace kinds of silver scrap for you. After all, if the refinery you are using let’s a troy ounce of silver go down the drain, which will cost you about $16.00 at today’s trading prices. Okay, that is bad, and the precious metals refinery you are using should never let any metal of yours slip away. But if you are having that refinery process, say, a few hundred pounds of silver scrap, maybe you can live with the loss of an ounce of silver.

We write a lot on this blog about platinum scrap. But what is platinum scrap, and why is it your best way to invest in platinum?

In today’s post, we’ll explain. Platinum scrap falls into several categories.

Are you an expert about metals?

Good, but let’s start today’s post with a simple-sounding question that is harder to answer than it seems . . .

What do all metals have in common?

Lots of self-proclaimed experts in the world of precious metals are saying negative things about pawnshops these days. But the fact is, many pawn shops are run by honest people. Although there are stories about people being treated poorly by pawn shops, they can be good places to sell certain items under certain circumstances. For example, they offer a chance to get short-term loans against the value of possessions that you probably aren’t in love with anyway. Although you could stand to lose those items, who else is going to give you a quick way to generate cash from them? Really nobody.

For a couple in New Jersey, it was time to clean out the basement. A corrugated cardboard box they pulled off a shelf contained some interesting metal items they had inherited, but never really examined. They found a small silver-plated candle holder and a sterling silver lid that had probably once been paired with a candy dish or some other bowl.

“Finding Buried Treasure at a Historic House,” an article Alexis Gutter wrote for the This Old House website, lists a lot of valuable old items that members of the This Old House renovation crew found in a 300-year-old house in Bedford, Massachusetts. They found bells, buttons, part of a silver brooch, buckles, a chisel, old iron ox shoes (which are kind of like horseshoes, only bigger), and plumbing fixtures.

It’s comforting to keep your cherished pieces of bullion and jewelry in your own home. When no one is looking, you can pull out your platinum, gold or silver items – maybe some of which also contain gemstones – and enjoy looking at them or wearing them.

People are buzzing about rhodium these days, for some very compelling reasons. One is that rhodium is trading at a very high price, currently $9,500 on the London Fix. Compare that to gold, which is trading for $1572 or even palladium, which is trading at $2181.

Every few years, a rumor starts to circulate about a new way to make a lot of money by recycling materials that contain gold, platinum, silver and other precious metals.

In today’s post, let’s explore some of these rumors and find out whether they are true or false.