/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>59028559
>dude I just got 100g of silver for 13$ total lol ty much... Literally went first time in my life into the local sale lol

Wow that's fuggin' awesome, congrats man! What kind of silver did you find, old sterling silverware? Usually the good stuff gets slurped within the first few hours of a sale so if you came across it on the 2nd day you were pretty lucky, things clearly stamped "STERLING" or .925 get gobbled up quick if there's local competition for cheapies. If what you found is indeed legit and it was still waiting for you a while after opening it implies that you may be in an area lacking much scrapper activity so you'd be wise to keep monitoring www.estatesales.net and try to hit promising future sales as early as you can, fattening the stack with shiny priced at just a fraction of melt feels really damn good.

>>59028686
>one near me sold some silver below spot recently. even gold coins below spot

Excellent news bongfren, I know that the 2nd hand market for old sterling and whatnot is very competitive there because of VAT on new bullion so if local auctions are selling below spot you should get in and slurp hard

>>57287845
There's no better feel than helping a fren avoid the hooked claws of the eternal nose. You've kicked ass with the slurps lately so keep it up, and if anything feels weird you must listen to your gut and either study the questionable items until convinced of authenticity or move on if you still aren't sure. Better to miss a few good pieces than get scammed on a bunch of chocolate shekels.

>>56997358
>too many playing the game in midwest

the sales in central Illinois have treated me extremely well since childhood, slurped at least a little bit of cheap silver at each of the last 4 or 5 I went to in IL.

>>56189358
I appreciate the explanation of how you usually react to Christofle pieces, on ebay almost everything I see from them is plated so I tend to ignore it too. I think you may be developing a new facet of your scrapping repertoire, maybe you can research and learn if there are unusual solid silverware items that Christofle rarely made in silverplate which you can have some efficient saved searches for?
>a wakeup call i still have much to learn and to never let my guard down.
>Any cheapie recently acquired (or about to be) on your side fren?

I'm watching several promising things including a non-hallmarked early 1800s karat gold pocket-watch accessory which may be a tasty cheapie, but a recent educational loss was a batch of 6 nice old Austrian silver spoons incorrectly listed as silverplate which I thought would fly under the radar and was looking forward to sniping, but evidently a more assertive scrapper contacted the seller and got them to change the auction to a Buy-It-Now for $15+shipping. ~5oz of silver for the price of 1 ugly pleb buffalo round is nothing extraordinary or worth crying about, but it too was a wakeup-call and reminder that I should be more proactive about either submitting a placeholder bid or messaging those ignorant boomoids directly to buy their shinies cheap and early. I haven't done it often but literally every single time I've messaged sellers before to suggest changing their listing to Buy-it-now they have agreed, however this is because I've only made such offers to sellers I had a good "theory of mind" read on based on their writing style and other items being sold and was sure I could successfully manipulate. I don't really enjoy doing it but believe being more ballsy and brazen in jewing boomers might be well worth the effort; the more bait you scatter the more bites you'll get.

>>55635279
>Interesting book

Agreed, and despite being an 18th reprinting from 1943 of the original 1898 edition it's still worth ~$30 which ain't bad for books in our modern digital era, it's a keeper for the personal library tho as my dad has a dozen 20+ year old fruit trees which need some attention and I aspire to start my own orchard someday too.

Check out www.estatesales.net and watch for the worldly possessions of boomers who got sent to nursing homes or outright croaked within a convenient proximity to be offered for sale for dimes on the dollar You can consistently get great stuff to flip on ebay, stack cheapies for a fraction of spot price and build a considerable personal library for $2 or less per book if you're not an ignorant normgroid and actually understand what you're looking at.

>>55333644
>We pay less than spot.

G'mornin Bob and yes we do, whenever possible anyway. I went out digging some more and found a particularly rare slugplate-embossed quart milk bottle, worth $100 which is pretty good for any machine-made piece. Heading out again in a few days to dig some different older spots and got permission to detect around a coach-stop tavern from the 1860s, probably been hit more than once before though. Have you detected, dug or acquired anything cool lately?

>>55031994
Sounds interesting, if it is indeed being sold by a legit larger business then it may be a lucrative arbitrage opportunity. One would expect a business to know they can sell as scrap for 95-99% of melt value but there isn't enough info to evaluate whether or not it smells too fishy. I understand you don't want any lurkers to snake the deals from you by revealing more so good luck anon.
>>55031876
If I were rich or constrained to paying retail for PMs I might be a goldbug, but hoarding cheap silver makes the most sense personally. Being hedged against crabbing and bearish paper shenanigans with a call option on the prophesied silver moonshot is super comfy. Nothing wrong with the safety of gold but I've always thought silver was more exciting.

>>54513213
Just keep an open mind and open eye, maybe someday you'll find yourself at a yard or estate sale and score a sterling silverware or tea set cheap.

>>53860852
>I gave a qt 100g of silver for her birthday. What will she think about me?

I have no idea how things work in Jeetland, do conservative QTs consider the gifting of PMs a romantic gesture? Have you talked with her about your mutual disdain for the vax? Striking up a conversation about the harm to recipients and impacts to fertility and baby health might indicate to her that you're a more conscientious and desirable man than most, I'm sure giving PMs reinforces that impression but maybe she would prefer jewelry or silverware? I bet you could find a nice old English sterling silver flower or bud vase and give it to her with whatever flowers signify romantic interest in India. In Europe and USA in the 1800s through earlier 1900s there was a whole symbolic language represented by different types of flowers and arrangements, I imagine you could come up with something meaningful to your little poojeeta.

>>53439419
>I see posts everywhere about people finding sterling silver at their local thrift stores but whenever I go to mine I can only ever find silverplate flatware if anything. Where do you guys live that they're chucking out sterling??

I've found scrap in every state I've been in but some areas have entrenched and experienced competition that has been doing it for years and knows the restocking schedule of the different thrift stores, so they probably just get to it before you do. For example my Goodwill rolls out fresh carts of stuff every day whereas the other thrift restocks while closed over the weekend and opens at 11 on Tuesdays, so that's when i go in for the best chance at cheapies. Talk to the shop owners and figure out their schedules. Over time you'll learn that different shops have varying degrees of proficiency with PMs and are better at screening out certain types of stuff. I've never found sterling spoons or forks at either local shop but have found good silver and gold jewelry at both and lots of big hollow-ware and weighted silver items at Goodwill. In a neighboring town is a shop that's good at screening jewelry but they let sterling silverware and even once a bar of bullion go cheap. You're not going to find fat loads of sterling or karat gold every day with minimal effort, it usually requires more time and strategy than the posts talking about good scores let on. I have had the best luck with the least time investment going to estate sales at opening on the first day looking for cheap silver, your chances of finding awesome goodies are far better when rummaging through the stuff people kept until death versus stuff people didn't want to keep and then donated to a thrift store. Pic related is an estate sale haul I enjoyed, it was a loaded house and they had a room full of jewelry, surely a ton of gold but it got swarmed by boomers so I ran around the rest of the house scooping up the sterling while the competition was busy. Good luck anon.

>>52711564
I have several thrift stores on my list that I know don't screen out the PMs, at least not very thoroughly, so those are always more worthwhile than a typical Goodwill or salvation army that usually does pull the good stuff. For estate sales you want to be in line before opening on the first day because the good deals disappear in the first 30 minutes unless it's tucked away out of sight in some back room or has really obscure hallmarks most people don't recognize. You might have lots of well seasoned competition in your area that knows exactly what they're doing so it'll be hard to get deals if they're always first in line. I'd monitor estate sales more actively if the thrift stores there remove all the good stuff, and IRL estate auctions where you bid with a number card can be really great too. The early bird gets the worm, leaving subsequent birds thinking there are no worms to begin with. Adjust your timing or strategy a bit and hopefully you'll finally get a good load.

>>51548529
A few anons do it as a lucrative side-hustle, one buys batches of "scrap" jewelry from a refinery for close to melt then resells on Etsy or eBay. I sell pieces occasionally but mostly hoard the nice jewelry. You can find good deals at estate sales or in batches of jewelry in good shape that are sold as scrap by weight on eBay, old southwestern turquoise jewelry, nice vintage Mexican baubles and pieces from in-vogue designers can fetch worthy premiums. The last piece I sold was a 37g sterling cuff bracelet I got for $2.66 and flipped for $85, before that a 28g Tiffany bangle bracelet for $250. Nothing wrong with selling PMs when the proceeds pay for far more PMs.

>>51267177
Most shops screen out silver and gold so you'll rarely if ever have luck there, I much prefer estate sales and auctions as my local IRL source of scrap. The majority of my cheapies are bought online, but it's a dangerous realm for the inexperienced so I'd recommend monitoring your area on www.estatesales.net and showing up before opening time on the first day.

>>50978367
>Do you jew the person you're trying to buy shit from?

No I don't like haggling, what I often do is look for things or situations where the seller has no idea what they have. When they don't recognize the value or importance of something you can get real bargains if you know what you're doing.

>>50562450
>I will start sterling cheapie stacking on the side

Good on ya anon, for a chance at the absolute cheapest of cheapies you should monitor your area on www.estatesales.net for estates of dead vaxxioid boomers coming up for sale. Get there a few minutes before opening on the first day and beeline to the jewelry and/or kitchen and tableware areas for karat gold and sterling stuff. My lowest price for sterling was about 12 cents per troy ounce at an estate sale, hard to go wrong with stuff like that. eBay if full of competition but if an estate has sterling and you get there at opening you'll have an excellent chance at getting a big fat pile of inexpensive goodies.

>>50428112
>Looks like a second job

Nah, it's an enjoyable and rewarding hobby if you're wired for it. I figure that anons won't be interested in my secrets while spot is below $20 but when we break $50 everyone will jump aboard the cheapies train. Best get started now anon.

>>50210902
>How much cash do you bring with you on any given outing?

Unless you're in the market for antique furniture and riding lawnmowers ~500 should be more than enough, these days lots of estate sales also take credit/debit payments but if not you can always have them hold a pile for you at the cashier table if you are short cash and need to run to the bank. I've done pretty well at thrift stores but the best source for cheapies is definitely estate sales, you want to be there right when they open 1st day for the best chance at finding deals, but they are often worth going back to on the 2nd or 3rd day when everything is 25-50% off. Good luck!

>>49615550
>I want to pick up some more metal as my purchasing power shrinkflates

Estate sales nigga.

>>49511557
You want estate sales where the old boomers finally kicked the bucket and everything they owned is being sold, not garage/yard sales which only rarely have good stuff. This one was in Wyoming but I was visiting family back in Nigville, Illinois and scooped tons of cheapies like picrel there too, it's simply a matter of being there at open, having a keen eye and a sharper mind than the competition. I was watching some retarded half-blind tired old boomer use a loupe on obvious plate while i ran circles around him scooping all the good stuff, it was quite amusing. Those oldfags need to stick to their good goy $40 ASEs, I however actually intend to profit from my stacking.

>>49511870
>being in FL

Yeah there are lots of competitive and professional estate liquidation companies down there because of all the ripe old boomers, but even at pro sales I still find stuff they overlook, ya gotta be there right at open first day, good luck!