The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: StartSmallDreamBig on May 28, 2015, 07:20:23 PM
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Is it worth buying from there? Also if so, What in particular should I keep a look out for? There price's are SOOO low that it makes me real skeptical. Anyone have any advice or prior history of doing police auction buys?
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I'd be a little surprised if legit gold was very discounted. That stuff is pretty liquid. With other stuff, who knows.
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I see a lot of gold bars with very very low trace's of 24k gold then there are also solid gold nugs,earrings,wedding bands,watch,ect for a super super cheap price. I'm interested in bidding but I'm a tad skeptical as for how cheap it is. Anyone have any experience with police/gov't auctions?
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Good idea. This might be an exploitable market efficiency. Keep us posted on how it goes.
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Do you already have a buyer lined up? I sent some silver scrap to http://www.midwestrefineries.com/ and was quite happy with the process. Their weight was good, the purity matched my own estimate, they paid what they said they would pay with no additional fees and they sent a check relatively quickly.
Be aware that precious metals are all weighed in TROY ounces, which are approximately 10% heavier than "normal" ounces. So if you weigh out 11oz on your kitchen scale, that's roughly 10 troy ounces. Also - if you buy jewelry - be sure to discount for all non-gold in the items: Alloying metals (from karat weight), gems, and some fittings (clasps.) Another valuation problem example would be sterling dinnerware - the knives often only have silver handles, and the hollow silver handles are often filled with something else.
Get a small pocket scale to weigh the items before bidding starts (if you can) and discount appropriately.
You will probably want to build up several thousand dollars worth before sending it in.
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Some small-time local jewelers will buy gold scrap for cash at very good rates. Call around. I did this and made out better than one of the mail-in companies.
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Some small-time local jewelers will buy gold scrap for cash at very good rates. Call around. I did this and made out better than one of the mail-in companies.
Sounds good. I checked around locally and didn't find anyone competitive.
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Do the police check to see if its really gold and of what purity? Or do they just chuck any yellow-looking metals into the "gold" bin?