So a guy wanders into my shop a few months back with a plastic bag of mixed jewelry, all of it gold, albeit various karats. He says he’d like to sell it. I separate the karats into individual piles and start weighing and adding things together in order to come up with a price for him. As I’m doing this I look at the bag and realize the total weight I came up with is written on the outside of the bag rounded off to the nearest whole number. Underneath that number was the number 236. Before I totaled my numbers, this didn’t mean anything to me as plastic bags are used and reused many times in the jewelry business so random writing is common to see. I realized that this fellow must have taken this gold elsewhere first. When I asked him about it, he confirmed that the 236 was his highest offer. He was shocked when I offered him $687. Did he sell his gold to me? No. After he walks out, I comment to my secretary that I thought I was being more than fair as his gold was pretty clean. A couple of days later he returns to sell me his scrap. I wonder if he went back to the place that gave him that offer to see if he could get them to come up. My guess is they tossed him out.
A girl comes to me several weeks ago, referred to my business by a another customer. She said she was told that I was real honest and would give her straight information. She pulls out a small bag of silver coins, about nine or ten dollars. There were Kennedy half dollars, a few quarters, maybe a dime or two. So I look over the coins and realize that most of them are dated after 1964, meaning that they are not silver, but nickel clad over copper. You can easily tell by looking at the edge. Continue reading →