Gold nugget spot price + what %%%

argyle said:
Eureka Moments said:
Hi argyle, you sound like you know a fair bit about the nugget trade and values.

I cant agree with your blanket pricing on sub 1oz pieces. Might be different where you are but Victorian gold nugget purity is pretty much all higher than 22k. The Welcome Nugget, found in 1858, was 99.2% pure. Weighed 2217oz, but the purity doesnt diminish with size of the gold.

Hi EM, I'm sitting in the Central Vic Goldfields at the moment EM, having my fourth cup of coffee and waiting for the sun to rise so I can start digging.

Actually the true purity of the Welcome nugget has always been misquoted. Around 94% is closer to the mark.

My 'blanket' pricing is on nuggets we sell, to buyers that have to make make money (or collectors)and the essay/refine fee eventually has to be paid by someone at some stage. So, as I've already stated, unless the nugget has a high appeal in it's shape form, or plenty of guts to it (not flat, with a nice length /width/depth ratio) we have to accept minus -15% for dog ugly specimens, to minus -10% for the others, to offload it quickly.
The only way we get a premium is to wait longer and list them on eBay, where eBay fees and PayPal fees eat into the premium, not to mention bid-renegers.

Here's and example of a small dog ugly speciemen, found about 40 feet from where I'm digging atm. This particular area is queer spot that holds a mix of quite ugly molten ironstone/gold, flat nice nuggets, only a few with real guts to them , copper nuggets, all the way to quite beautiful rosey pink quartz/gold specimens.This gully picks up from 3 different sheds. I've yet to dig a nugget over 4oz here,

This piece will have to be dollyed with it's ugly companions. The buyers final price to me will be around minus -15% for the couple of oz's in that lot.

The purity of the Welcome Nugget may not have been 99.2%, but I have had many nuggets from around here tested. Plenty of them showed purity of 98-99% with the highest reading of 99.6%.

Without rooting around on ebay I can sell any clean nuggets instantly for spot minus 2% agw and have made many private sales of subgram nuggets for at least spot+10%. I, or anyone else, would be a fool to sell Vic gold according to your pricing formula, but I reckon you already know that.
 
Only a fool buys ordinary nuggets, regardless of subgram, at 10% above spot.Who are you selling to? Detectorists that ho home telling their wives they found it?

It isn't "my pricing formula ", merely the market. Sometimes we get great value on a good piece, most times I have to sell, and selling at an even 'spot price' is simply not how the buying market works.

However, those that fiddle/invest can forge their own market, I'm not interested in what others do for a living or side income. I Dig it.
 
Sorry, but those pics, which are on my phone, are actually in a very nice high resolution /pixel but for some reason they come out a bit blurry on this forum.
 
Altima said:
Cool. Appreciate you sharing on gold nuggets. Been wanting to buy one but I just can't justify the premium to my significant other.

Hi Altima.

If you keep track on an Aus eBay search - gold specimen - you'll find a really nice piece of quartz and gold. Especially if seller states it was found in the Castlemaine district, Victoria. While most areas of the Victorian Goldfields produce nice specimens, Castlemaine in my mind produce the nicest.
Lovely Specimens, to my eye anyway, are much better to look at than nuggets (nuggets can get boring to look at over time, except large ones haha) and are much cheaper to buy. Postage cheap to Canada too as small parcel .
 
argyle said:
Only a fool buys ordinary nuggets, regardless of subgram, at 10% above spot.Who are you selling to? Detectorists that ho home telling their wives they found it?

It isn't "my pricing formula ", merely the market. Sometimes we get great value on a good piece, most times I have to sell, and selling at an even 'spot price' is simply not how the buying market works.

However, those that fiddle/invest can forge their own market, I'm not interested in what others do for a living or side income. I Dig it.

You're the one doing the digging, but you have no interest in getting correct current market value to cover your labor and expenses.

Small high grade (tested) nuggets imo are a good way for people to buy gold. From a buyers perspective, at spot plus 10% the premiums are at the lower end of retail/resale prices for other forms of fractional gold. People have paid me higher than spot price in private sales because they know exactly what they are getting and can afford the small outlay.

Small nuggets are much more liquid than larger pieces and have better potential for future resale. 1oz and larger pieces have to compete with refined coins and bars that retail at much lower premiums than fractional sizes.

This is the market I buy and sell in, if I mostly found larger nuggs I might think differently. :P
 
Some high grade butter gold...

2939_dscf7067.jpg


Its a term used to describe the color of extra high purity alluvial nuggets. The buttery tinge is because there is no copper or iron present, only a fart or two of silver.
 
There is no such thing as 'high grade butter gold'.....

I've met pretenders like you many times over the past 40 years EM.... None of which have any idea of 'correct market value' on any given piece. Don't talk gibberish to me again.
 
5 grams of "I cant belive its not butter" nuggets from the Golden Triangle :D (98+ Purity)

DwVTGxF.jpg
 
argyle said:
There is no such thing as 'high grade butter gold'.....

I've met pretenders like you many times over the past 40 years EM.... None of which have any idea of 'correct market value' on any given piece. Don't talk gibberish to me again.

Every time I sell nuggets or specimens I offer a refund to anybody who has second thoughts or thinks they have overpaid after receiving their goods. I am yet to issue a refund, the only question ive been asked is "Got any more?". Pretty much all my sales have been by auction and I set no reserve, the bidders/buyers decide the final price. All fair and transparent.

The original reference to high grade butter gold in this thread was made by Aurora et luna. How about calling him a pretender?
 
I am not the originator of the description "high quality butter yellow".
However happy to wear it if someone wants to nail it to my moniker. :)
Also have never XRF a nugget with that butter yellow appearance and found it to be of low purity.
Just because someone claims that a " butter shade usually means a lower content " doesn't mean his assumptions is correct.
 
^^^ I only pointed it out because have proper credibility from your extensive business experience. You would have learned to pick high purity by color before xrf existed.

My opinions and experiences are from detecting, selling and/or trading as a hobby. I have an old cousin well into his 70s, long time prospector. When I mentioned a place I had been looking he said they called the alluvial nuggets from there butter gold. Also have several mates who currently detect and weve all used the phrase.

Butternut is the nugget color to beware of imo.
 
^^^ Not an expert but extremely lucky! :P
Picked up this 124 gram nugget expecting it to XRF between 93-96% fine
XRF shows 99+

6_image.jpg
 
Eureka Moments said:
mmm....shiney! said:
Eureka Moments said:
Butternut is the nugget color to beware of imo.

It's a pumpkin EM. :rolleyes:

:D

Yeah, better than a Jap but still not high grade. ;)

Mmmm, up here Japs grow better in the hot weather. Just picked two from the back yard, both over 7kg each. Now if they were made of gold that'd fetch in excess of $350 000 each, but at $1.50/kg we're lucky to get $10.
 
Hey argyle, how about showing some real guts and posting in the thread under your "real" username instead of trying to pretend you're someone new.

You think you are some sort of international man of mystery and nobody will ever notice you running different accounts here so you can agree with your own crap and drivel and launch attacks on others who dont.

You're like a poor quality nugget, cheap and full of impurities.
 
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