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.

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.

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?

A customer called recently and asked us, “How much gold is in platinum?” And then he added, “I guess that is a pretty silly question, right?”

Don’t Overlook Gold-Plated Items

When most of us go looking for gold items to recycle, we look first for solid gold items, and with good reason. Even very small items made of karat gold can contain enough gold to make them worth a lot more than they appear – small items like stud earrings, tuxedo studs, lapel pins, tie tacks, and religious and commemorative medals.

“I just got a beautiful piece of silver-plated jewelry,” says a man in New York. “Is there any chance that the silver is plated over gold?”

That’s a logical question

Jewelry makers use lots of different ways to indicate the purity of the metal that they use in their products. They stamp certain pieces of jewelry as 24K gold, 18K gold, Sterling Silver, and in lots of other ways. And just as soon as you think you have started to understand what all the different terminology means, along comes this term, and you wonder what the heck it is . . .