May 01, 2015

What Your Elderly Relatives Aren’t Telling You about the Gold They Own

May 01, 2015/ Barry Lenson

Most older relatives don’t intentionally hide precious metals from members of their families. What some tend to do, however, is to underestimate the value of the precious metal items that they own. As a result, they fail to cash in on their value at a time of life when money could come in very handy for them.

April 24, 2015

The Worst Places to Hide Gold and Precious Metals

April 24, 2015/ Barry Lenson

Since the article’s advice comes from crooks, it’s pretty realistic. Here are some highlights: Don’t hide gold jewelry or other precious metals in underwear drawers. One of the criminals interviewed stated that for some reason, many homeowners think they are as secure as safety deposit boxes.Write here...

March 14, 2015

How to Make Money Buying Precious Metals on eBay

March 14, 2015/ Barry Lenson

Once a day, I get emails that display all the newly listed items on eBay that contain those words. It saves me the trouble of going to eBay daily to hunt for them. On a typical day, I get more than 100 listings that I can quickly review...

February 13, 2015

Do Old Digital Cameras Contain Precious Metals that Can Be Recycled?

February 13, 2015/ Barry Lenson

Hundreds of millions of digital cameras have been sold each year. That means that there are over a billion digital cameras waiting to be traded in or scrapped. That thought led me to research how much money can be made by recycling cameras. Here are answers to questions about camera recycling...

January 16, 2015

Should You Believe Conspiracy Theories about Gold?

January 16, 2015/ Jeffrey Simons

That could explain why over the years, precious metals have been the subject of a lot of conspiracy theories like this one: "Someone out there (a bank, a foreign government, a cartel) is hoarding a huge amount of gold in order to create demand and drive up prices. When the price rises, that evil “someone” will sell off vast reserves of the precious metal and make astronomically high profits." It sounds kind of plausible, right? And its narrative is valid on some level.

November 14, 2014

Raising Funds for Holiday Shopping: Why Not Get Family, Friends and Neighbors Looking for Precious Metals to Recycle?

November 14, 2014/ Barry Lenson

This is a time of year when everyone could use a little extra cash, right? Or maybe a lot of extra cash would be even better.

Shown: a kitchen filled with buried treasure - precious metal bearing appliances, silverware and more, that can be recycled profitably by Gold Refiners.com, a part of Specialty Metals.

So here’s a suggestion. Why not get together with your relatives, friends and neighbors, search for precious metals in your homes, and then send them to Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners? The result could be a nice big check, just in time to make everyone’s holiday shopping a lot more exciting and fun.

Why search for precious metals with other people, instead of on your own? There are some great reasons. First, it is motivating and fun to start a shared precious-metals search. Second, you will end up with a larger quantity of items to recycle, which makes it more likely that we here at Specialty Metals can quickly recycle them promptly and send you a check. Third, you could end up discovering valuable items that you would have overlooked otherwise; when other people suddenly discover a silver plate or an old pair of eyeglass frames in their homes, you could suddenly remember that you own similar items too.

Here’s a Checklist

Here’s a checklist of precious metal-bearing items that are found in many homes.

Old items of jewelry . . .

Remember that even in a batch of what appears to be nothing but costume jewelry, there could be a few items hiding that are made of 14K, 18K or even 24K gold.

Old silverware and tableware . . .

It could be either pure sterling or silver-plated. Either way, it could be well worth recycling.

Old eyeglass frames . . .

As we have noted on this blog before, eyeglass frames that were made before about 1970 are often “gold-filled” rather than “gold-plated.” That means that they contain a much greater quantity of gold.

Trophies, commemoratives . . .

Newer items generally do not contain enough silver or gold to recycle. Older items, however, usually contain far greater quantities of precious metals.

Coin collections . . .

If they’ve been set aside for years, the chances are pretty good that you will find a quantity of silver or even gold coins that are worth recycling.

Mantle clocks, pen sets, cigarette cases, lighters and other old-fashioned decorative items . . .

Not that many years ago, it was common for small decorative items to be made of silver or – sometimes – plated with gold.

Form a Team, Start Looking, then Call to Tell Us what You Found

We are always available to discuss the precious metal treasures you have found. Call us at 800-426-2344 when you are ready.

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