If I recall correctly, the price I paid was a little over half of what the spot price was at the time. And I'm still unable to check the weight. I'll be sending one to CK next week to test.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgSXg-WOEVY for some interesting information about 'magnetic' testing of silver.
That was very informative. I did a quick check with the magnet I have, which is probably not as powerful as the one in the video and the magnet did move slower on the panda bar when compared to the plastic case it came in. I also tested a 1oz bar I have and the effect was much more noticable, so not as clarifying as I'd hoped.
Well, as the man said, it's definitely a fake bar. Here is the output from the XRF: I did both sides of the bar, and as you can see the silver percentage is quite low. Ag=Silver, Zn=Zinc, Cu=Copper and Ni=Nickel These results are what I would expect from a Copper-Nickel Bar (obtained from melting old coins, hence slight nickel content) that has been electro-plated with silver. The 5.06% reading for silver is a gross over-estimate of the actual silver content, as the XRF only measures the surface to a 40 micron depth. It would be in reality less than 1%. Beware the Panda!
Well if you paid Paypal, you probably have just enough time to open a dispute, and you seem to have all the evidence you need to get your money refunded... "Goods not as advertised".
Problem with that is he never claimed they were pure silver, it was the pictures that showed on the bars "Ag .999". And they look exactly the same as the picture, technically they are as advertised.
They don't have to claim they were pure silver. If there was no mention of them being plated, or layered, or whatever other term these guys love to use, or if they were advertised in the 'bullion' section of eBay, that's considered misrepresentation, and sufficient grounds for a claim.