If you live just about anywhere in our great nation today, you know that non-essential businesses have been closed during the covid-19 crisis. Those businesses have included “we buy gold” stores and other metal-related businesses such as jewelry stores and even pawnshops. Many of those non-essential enterprises are only reopening now, and you can only enter them if you are wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing.

Everybody likes to invest in platinum. Even small quantities of it are valuable, which means you can store a lot of money’s worth of it in just a small space. It’s not that difficult to find, as we will discuss in our post today. It’s liquid, meaning that when you decide to sell what you have, you can do so fast.

And as an investment, platinum has the traditional virtues that all precious metals do. Even though trading prices can rise and fall, precious metal values have been shown to be more stable in the long term than the investments you make in stocks.

“When people have been out of work and are hurting financially, they are more likely to sell valuables at low prices, right?”

We have heard people ask that question lately. It is not a nice question to ask. It implies that when people have lost their jobs and need money – or have encountered other kinds of bad fortune – they will be eager to sell off their assets on the cheap. It also implies that a time of economic hardship for many, like the one we find ourselves in now, is a good time for unscrupulous people to take advantage of others.

Okay, you’re spending the day sequestering at home. Maybe your kids are there with you and you are looking for a fun, different project you can do online.

If you’re looking for adventure, we have a suggestion for you . . .

Beautiful warm spring weather is here! If you’ve been cooped up and developing a case of cabin fever over the last few months, chances are you are eager to get out of your house and enjoy the great outdoors.

And we have two suggestions about ways you can do just that – and possibly find gold and silver scrap and collectibles too.

As we have written before on this blog, old x-ray films contain silver that we can extract for you.

But how much silver do they contain? That’s what a number of our clients have wanted to know over the years. They have called to ask questions like this . . .

Don’t worry. When you call us to discuss sending your precious metals to our refinery for testing and processing, we will explain what you need to do to send them safely.

The purpose of today’s post is to help you avoid some of the more common mistakes people make when sending precious metals – and valuable items of all kinds – to other people and businesses.

If you have experience recycling and profiting from precious metals, chances are you have some familiarity with dental scrap. In years past (and less often during about the last 25 years), gold was often used to make fillings, caps, and even larger gold bars that were used to make bridges that were installed in patients’ mouths. Also in years past, it was common practice for dentists and dental labs to keep used gold items and, when they got around to it, to have those pieces of gold dental scrap recycled.

When your great uncle Charles retired after working for Firestone for about 50 years, he got a gold watch. And then when you saw him last Christmas, he said to you, “Can you find out whether this thing is really made of gold, and let me know what it is worth?”

There’s no doubt that the coronavirus crisis has changed everything. It has changed the way we connect with other people, shop, work, enjoy our free time, and much more.

So it only stands to reason that the crisis has changed the way we invest, and profit from, precious metals. But the funny thing is, not everything has changed. Gold scrap, silver scrap, platinum scrap and certain other investments were smart investments before the pandemic struck – and they are still good investments today. But how can you determine which forms of those scrap investments will yield the biggest return today? How can you make the smartest picks among all the precious metal investments that are available right now?

Because we are a very efficient, active and productive silver refinery, we can answer the following question for you . . .

Why is recycling silver different from recycling gold, platinum, palladium and the other precious metals?

Over the last weeks and months, people have been logging more time at home. And many of them have been thinking up new ways to spend their time. Some have been attending exercise classes online. Others have been taking piano classes. People are discovering all kinds of new interests and enthusiasms.

“Can I find a precious metals refinery that’s still operating during the coronavirus period?” a man from Ohio asked recently.

The answer is, you can. In fact, Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners is still ready to test and recycle precious metals for our customers. How can we be doing that? Weren’t we required by law to close down because we are a nonessential business? No, we can continue working, and working safely, for several reasons.

With platinum currently trading at $762, it is certainly a metal that merits your consideration as you look for ways to invest in precious metals.

To be sure, there are so many ways to invest your money today. You could buy bullion, coins, gold scrap, and more. But of all the many precious metals to invest in, platinum wire merits special consideration right now.

Have you been completely satisfied with the investments you have made in precious metals? Do you think you have invested your money in the right metals? Do you feel like you could benefit from some new ideas and new strategies to realize more income from the bullion, gold scrap, platinum scrap, silver and other investments you have made?

While we were listening to talk radio last week, we heard someone call in and ask a timely question.

“Businesses all around me are closed and some will never reopen,” the caller said, “and I am wondering whether that will create an opportunity to buy their assets and inventory at low prices?”

Let’s say that you own precious metals and that you would like to borrow against their value. If that is your situation, don’t be apologetic about it. In the current economic climate, many people need to raise cash. Some of those people are business owners who would like to be able to pay their employees until business picks up. Other people are in a crunch and need to liquidate assets so they can pay their mortgages, their children’s college tuition, or meet other financial obligations.

Okay, everybody is worried right now about the state of our economy. And one thing you have to say about the current situation, bad as it is, is that those fears are based in reality. Small businesses are hurting. Some are closing, possibly for good. Individual investors have seen the value of their assets plummet – at least on paper. Kids who are graduating from college right now are having a terribly difficult time finding jobs. Plus, many of our institutions, ranging from universities to museums to theater companies, are wondering if they will ever bounce back.

We are about to enter one of the most uncertain economic periods in modern history – one that many analysts fear could rival the Great Depression.

We don’t like to write about the negatives, we really don’t. But if we want to formulate a strategy for retaining our investments’ value, we need to consider some of the bad things that could just happen in the wake of the current virus crisis:

We just discovered a fun set of online quizzes about metallurgy, metal trivia, and precious metals. It comes from FunTrivia.com, and it is great.

Here are some of the free trivia quizzes that we enjoyed the most. You can find them all on FunTrivia.com.

Get ready to learn and have fun too.