hello all. i am a newbie, although i have been browsing the site for a little now while without registering. i recently made the decision to purchase my first bit of silver. was tossing up between some 1oz coins or a bullion bar, and ultimately saved up for a 1kg bar due to lower cost per oz. but now i wonder whether i made the right choice. maybe i wouldn't want to sell the whole lot in one go especially if, as some people suggest, the price may appreciate somewhat over the medium/long term. i would use it as my insurance against hard times and sell a bit when needed. but obviously that is not possible now - it's all or none. so my questions are as follows: how do bullion companies or personal buyers such as on ebay or here buy silver? (i assume they have some kind of testing equipment ???) does it have to be in a minted or cast form from a well known company, or does it not matter? would i be reducing the selling price per oz by melting it into smaller lots? (my friend has a furnace which i could use.) would a melting of a known brand bar turn the metal into what's called "scrap"? all silver regardless of being minted/scrap is tested by buyers, right? would melting it (in a brand new crucible) contaminate the silver in any way and subsequently reduce purity and its value? those are the questions i can think of now... i'm sure that people will know more than me and answer some that i have not even thought of yet! pouring your own bars sounds like a whole lot of fun anyhow. any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.
Hi and Welcome to SS forum Where are you locate? I wouldn't recommend melting your own bars. Firstly, many bars do have Brand and Hallmarks, by melting them down into a blob , no one will buy from you as you will loose the hallmark/ maker mark. Leave them in theirs original form, whether smaller bar or larger bar. As for testing, Verifier or XRF devices can be use to test them. They are expensive device. Depending on where you are locate, you may able to use these device at little cost or free.
thanks for the reply chipmunk. it hit me today that you all must still be partially deaf from the alarm bells going off after my post! a new member, first post, no trades, unknown location, asking about melting down metal bars....!!! and my chosen username doesn't exactly instill trust either does it? (hey, it's all i could think of at short notice!) maybe i'll change it in due time plus add some other details to my profile. i'm in melbourne. it's a 1kg bar from ABC bullion in sydney. i have no doubts about its purity (bought directly from them) so that's not an issue. but i still cannot get my head around it since they would test it's purity before buyback right? can i assume it would all go for remelt anyway? for 999x pure isn't a bullion dealer's buyback price spot minus a margin regardless of the mark, or lack of, on it? re: "...no-one will buy from you..." - for private buyers i understand, as it would be harder to determine authenticity. but would that principle apply for bullion dealers too? in the end though i trust in your experience/suggestion to not remelt into my own smaller bars. it stays as is. looks like i'll have to start saving for a few silver coins now.
I think it was too many questions in the OP. Required too much effort to reply. lol You could make a business out of it by pouring your own...just look at yeager's prices....absurd.
You can do what you like with it. There are others here in the forum. Likewise thinking, doing theirs own refining in the end wasted too much $$$. Cost involvement in melting them will actually cost more than you buying smaller bars. Thingz that you will need to consider are the moulding, equipments like torches, oven, chemicals like Borax. A bit of educations likes books, time, hall mark stamped. Unless, you already have a previous background on these topics. Ready on the go. I have make enquires from The Perth Mint, on their buyback. They don't buy back unknown Ag Blobs. Even Au Blobs. Maybe you can sell them in the forum.
Sell the bar in the for sale section here and that will give you a trade score. or Swap the bar here for smaller pieces. or Walk into a shop in melbourne and do a swap. Your main reasoning is because you want to be able to cash out a little when you really need cash yeah? Well, $20 is hardly enough to go to the trouble of selling, so when you need money it'll most likely be around $100 So your perfect match is more like this.. 3 x 5oz Silver Bars 2 x 1/10oz Gold Coins That gives you the current GSR of around 75:1 if you stuck to that plan, 1oz gold for every 75 oz silver you stack, it'll be super sexy for you. The gold will satisfy your eventual curiosity and the 5oz Engies are very liquid $100 pieces and easier to buy, $100 purchases sounds like your comfort level so stick with that each purchase, our eyes are always bigger then our wallets, rather then stretch to go up a notch it's much more fun when you set a comfy limit, get your silver fix and still be cashed up to share pizza with your mates.
Welcome. The biggest problem I can see is that when you go to sell the bar as you are not a 'refiner of precious metals' then your bar would attract GST. Therefor a dealer would offer you less for your hand poured bars than for a bar that has an ATO ruling. If you want to do it for fun go for it but a better idea maybe to sell the bar to a dealer and buy some silver shot to mess around with, And yes I know that GST Bullion and the ATO are a nightmare of conflicting legislation and interpretations.
If you melt it and even made most beautiful bars, without a reputation of your own, the only people who will buy will be those who can test and they will pay you a scrap price, which you would expect to be under spot. Bars with original markings you can sell to a much wider market and will attract current 'retail' prices. This will be spot + some form of premium, but will probably be both at least 20% higher than a scrap buyer AND far easier to do. If you regret the purchase of a single large bar and wish you had smaller, then put up the big fella in the sales forum here for sale or trade. You will lose ounces, but nowhere near as many as if you were to melt it. Try purchasing the XAg ounces for low premium small or perhaps 5 or 10 ounce bars - they are a good compromise between premium and divisibility. Finally - don't melt it, sell/trade it and buy smaller.
Hi, and welcome. Well, yes. But it would be very high purity "scrap". I went to 3 places in the Melbourne CBD a couple of months ago, with this "blob" of gold that I had refined myself. [imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/17223_golda.jpg][/imgz] I wasn't intending to sell, just trying to find out how stuff works. All three, with no prompting by me, immediately put it on their XRF machines and made me an offer. (it was .999+) One was a coin dealer/"we buy gold" type who offered 4% under spot. The other two were bullion dealers, and their offers were both spot plus 4.9% I don't know how that works... (I want to start a thread to discuss this at some point) I also had a similar blob of silver, but it attracted less interest than the gold. I was a bit flabbergasted by the offer, and didn't discuss the silver much, so I don't know if a similar situation would apply to silver. No, It should not. Use a graphite crucible or a properly "seasoned" fused silica crucible, and a graphite mold. (all clean) It is! Molten precious metals are beautiful!
thanks to all who replied. i get it now. not worth the time/expense even i can the use the equipment for free. better to buy a few coins on the slow. that should suffice for me. i think one day though i will melt down a 1oz coin of some kind just for fun - make silver pendants for the little ones. cheers.
