Price of Silver!

[stingray_65]

After hearing about soaring silver prices, I took a few old "cull" coins from my collection and sold them to a gold and coin dealer in Toledo.

$6.60 in face value of silver quarters and dimes got me $181.50!!

While the giving value of 27.5 x's face value seemed high, they were still making a 30% profit margin vs. the Monex spot quote.

The wait was over 2 hrs in line! I figure I was making close to $75/ hr figuring in cost of gas, time and initial investment.

Not a bad return on 10 quarters form 1962,3 and 4 that were so wore that George looked more like a silhouette and 41 dimes (8 mercs from 1944, the rest Roosevelts from 58-64)

Most were found in spare change (my local bank tellers keep an eye out for me) and a few from buying a cull lot when silver was $13 and change.

I saw one lady sell a beat up silverware set for $3500!!


Ray

[Willabe]

Very nice Ray.

I went last week and sold off some coins and a little gold, plus some old sterling silver. Did real good.

Dad had a small bowling ally and saved any silver coins that he would find while working, all the other bar tenders and counter people did the same.

Anyway, I sold them $62.90 in silver dimes, they gave me $1572.50 for them. Did very well with other things as well.

Bought some parts from Doug and Mouser, paid this months and last 2 months mortgage ( saved the house from foreclosure), paid the property taxes and some bills, still got a little left over. Thank You!    

You never know gold and silver could drop tomorrow or could still double or triple over the next few years.    

4,5 years ago we needed some $ and I sold off 40 or so silver 1/2 $'s, would have got at least 3 to 4 times what I got then as I would have now. Had to do it then and had to do it now, so I don't feel to bad. I'm thankful  

BTW 80 to 85 % of what I brought in was rejected, as it was only silver or gold plate, yet there were a few things that were gold or sterling. My parents were depression era kids and held on to --- everything ---. I'm soooo glad they did. If I wouldn't have let them go thru all of it I would have lost a good $1K. They didn't mind and were very helpful.
 
The sterling stunk up the store/coin shop and I said "I'm sorry about the smell". The guy said "don't worry I'm just glad you did so well". Even got my wedding ring buffed while I was there.


           Brad      

[PRR]

Copper is up. When I buy house-wire I poop a brick. When I tear out copper plumbing, it is highly worthwhile to drive over the hills to the scrapyard.

The downside is that guys are axing ground-wires off utility poles. On our long lines, that can lead to huge stray ground voltages, or even floating grounds. Which could be dangerous to us power users. (And the axe-men, but I think that's fair.) This is not new. One of the major suppliers sells ground-wire with a security code burned onto the copper. Scrappers will be told they can't buy it without a note from Hydro, they should let police know.

[RicharD]

In nerd terms, the price of copper is so high, I had to add cell width to my wire cost estimating spread sheet.  It's scary.  Look at the inflation associated with fluorescent lamp tubes.  Estimating is edgy these days.

[EL34]

I have 750 feet of 3 pair copper wire from my water well laying here in a big coil

There two large #4 (not sure, but they are fairly large) wires for the mains and one smaller for the ground.

I figure it is about 80 to 100 pounds of copper

Problem is, it all has rubber jackets and they give you alot less for it with the jacket on.

Maybe time to think about selling it?

[Madison]

Me thinks there will come a tipping point when you won't want to trade a hard commodity for pieces of paper.
I could be wrong.......but just sayin'

[EL34]

or food?

I don't want to be around if it comes down to that.

[PRR]

> they give you alot less for it with the jacket on.

Just saying: in Oregon(?) the scrapers are not supposed to take burned wire without a note from the fire department saying your house burned down. Apparently people will burn insulation off and that is a pollution.

[stingray_65]

> they give you alot less for it with the jacket on.

Just saying: in Oregon(?) the scrapers are not supposed to take burned wire without a note from the fire department saying your house burned down. Apparently people will burn insulation off and that is a pollution.

same here in Michigan and Ohio.

[EL34]

No burning for me
I don't even know how you would burn a 750 foot coil of 3 conductor wire
There's no way to expose all the wire surfaces.

Time to invent a electric wire stripper?

Feed the wire in and out it comes onto a drum spool.

[stingray_65]

You'd be re-inventing the wheel!

Most recyclers have them. for the time vs payoff I myself would just take the lower grade.

do't forget, as you strip off the insulator the weight goes down!

so what seems like a large difference in price, isn't all that much when you consider insulation weight loss.

I kind of been doin this reclaiming stuff since I was a kid.

I have a 15 gal grease drum in my shop. Ever wire clipping, cord, pigtail etc. that I deem no longer useable goes into it.

it takes a little more than a year, but I'll typically get $100 out of it.

Drill bits and other HSS cutters go into a large shoe box. HSS is bought by the pound.

Carbide goes into a peanut butter jar. also by the pound, and will bring about $200 when full. A quick hit with an OA torch will de-bond the silver solder on carbide tipped cutters. shanks go into the HSS box.

I go to one recycler, I learn their grading system, (Bring the graders a nice cold Coke on a hot day or Coffee and a doughnut on a chilly one, and see how well your scrap grades!),The better you get at matching the way they grade, the easier their job gets, the less likely your load will be degraded for an improperly sorted load.

[EL34]

good tips, thanks

I think I'll hang onto the copper
It's one of those deals where I don't need the money and it will only go up in value the longer you hang onto it.

I'm sitting here wishing I had all the big silver bars I bought in the 80's after the hunt brothers got done trying to corner the silver market and then the market collapsed.

I had maybe 50 pounds of large silver bars purchased when it was real cheap. 

[PRR]

> how you would burn a 750 foot coil

Un-coil it?

Might need to cut in shorter lengths and stack over a very dry pine bonfire; most insulation is hard to burn. (I suspect electric stripping would cost more than the wire is worth.)

Or sell it as-is. They pay less per total pound, but when you figure just the copper content, you are just paying a modest service-fee to use their stripper and to dispose of the plastic.

> it will only go up in value

I was just reading how to wire your farm. Copper wire was $19 per 100 pounds, or $0.19 per pound. In 1915.

BTW, city-electricity was $0.10-$0.15/KWH, which is spot-on today's price.

[bigsbybender]

> it will only go up in value

I was just reading how to wire your farm. Copper wire was $19 per 100 pounds, or $0.19 per pound. In 1915.

BTW, city-electricity was $0.10-$0.15/KWH, which is spot-on today's price.

Probably why they only had 1 lightbulb per room and many rooms didn't even have a single electrical outlet at that time. I've renovated many 1890-1930 homes, most had that original wiring. You wouldn't even think of central electric heat in those days, though the technology was there.


j.

[Ritchie200]

Yeah, back in the late 70's my band used to regularly play in an old OLD grain mill - converted to a dance club/bar.  Freezing in the winter and hot in the summer....  All wood.  All knob and tube.  Outlets used to be very hot at the end of the night.  AND we used to have flash pots.  After setting up, I spent the rest of the afternoon checking polarity on everything so we didn't weld our lips on the mics.  The place finally burned down, thank goodness there were no people in it at the time.  Electrical fire.

I like the one scene on Disney's Carousel of Progress that shows the early wiring "techniques" - very true to life!

Across the river in East St. Louis, folks are stealing the cast aluminum guard rail trim, busting it up so it is unrecognizable and hauling it to the recyclers.

Jim

[simonallaway]

I've been working hard on completely redoing my bathroom this summer, so naturally I've been learning about plumbing.

10 feet of 1in copper tubing now costs about $30, whereas the equivalent in PEX is about $6. A local plumber told me it definitely was not like that ten years ago.

[PRR]

> You wouldn't even think of central electric heat in those days, though the technology was there.

Actually, this plan did extend to electric heat. The city-prices were for comparison. The book was about running a dynamo from a stream. Streams found on many farms can support 5 to 20 horsepower, which is a lot of light (like eight 25W carbon and four 100W tungsten), a flat-iron, hot water, and several room heaters. City-folk did not use carbon filament lamps because incandescent was so much more light per bill dollar. When your power is gonna flow anyway, and running costs are a few cents of bearing-oil per week, you can use inefficient lamps and squander precious electric for stupid heat.

However it seems you could not just buy an electric heater. They describe wind-yer-own. They say you can use iron, but don't give data. They do describe nichrome in some detail. (Iron wire is MUCH cheaper, but as you get to red-heat it rots-away fast.)

[billcreller]

When I went to a builder's store (Lowes), almost had a coronary at the price of a length of 1/2" copper pipe.

  The local scrap yard requires a driver's license ID for people bringing in scrap. And also a thumb print in a little gadget on the counter top. The inner-city had people ripping aluminum siding off of houses that had people living in them.  Gotta get that few bucks for a high someplace it seems....

[EL34]

It's not just in the city

There's a place off the beaten track up in Pisgah Forest that we ride by on bikes

There's a big stone fire pit and wire insulation everywhere.

I guess the crackheads go up into the national forest to strip their wire?

[bigsbybender]

Copper is up. When I buy house-wire I poop a brick.

I just started a circa 1910, 3 Story 5 Bedroom that needs a total re-wire..... Not looking forward to that expense. I've already decided to re-plumb with PEX as opposed to copper which, I have always had done.


j.