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.