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Selling finds

W

Waterbug

Member
A while back some of you were talking about selling gold and silver.I had some silver jewelry to send in,so weighed it three separate times (on a My Weigh MX-200 scale) to make sure of the total weight.All items were marked .925 or sterling and some were Mexican silver.The total I got was 357.8 dwt, now divided that by 20(20dwt pr T oz) and that gave me 17.89 T oz..Is this doing it correctly?Sent it in and today I received my check from Midwest Refineries and they say they received 10.886 T oz and that one of the pieces (marked.925) was not silver.What ya think of that? Did I miss something somewhere?
 
There is fake jewelry around with the right markings.
You never know the unscrupulous dealers that are out there.
This would be more common in the third world countries and tourist resorts.
You mentioned Mexican silver ????
 
I've seen Mexican items labeled as .925 that were merely plated. You could tell from the weight.

Midwest Refineries has a VERY good reputation.
 
All items were dug and M R only presented one item as not silver.The Mexican silver I sent were all large heavy rings and I have read that Mexican silver products are supposed to be good quality.Nothing I can do anyway.Good reputation or not,I will not be sending them any more goodies as I'm sure there was more than 10 T oz of silver in that package.
 
Once found a very large mans ring that was from Mexico and had .925 stamped on it. Turned out to be just silver plated and not solid silver at all. One more thing, did the jewerly have any stones and the like when you sent them? Always remove these before sending.
 
We buy Jewelry at work (large coin shop) and pay people fairly only. Midwest refineries is a very solid company and are heads and above all those companies that advertise with there glossy ads and TV spots. People do make mistakes though and I'd inquire about their total. Mexican silver is such a crock and see a lot that is marked 925 and it is a nickel alloy only. (Lots of stuff starting to show up from China now too.) Another thing to start watching out for is counterfeit American coin. (Yup...China.)
 
Man I hate endorsing anything that I have not used forever, but if I couldn't take mine to a family friend they would be my only logical second choice.
Doug in OR
 
Midwest has always been reliable and honest for me. No problems ever.
The only thing I can think of is that you had items with stones or some pieces with low grade "sterling" that wasn't up to snuff.
My suspicion is your Mexican silver may not have been .925, but contained less silver. There is excellent, well made Mexican silver, but you probably wouldn't be sending that in to Midwest for scrap. Junk Mexican silver is heavy (gives the illusion of value) and is usually poorly crafted and contains silver, but is not sterling. If it was marked "Silver Mexico" and did not specify "sterling" or ".925" it was probably not sterling.
Alternatively, how do you know your scale is 100% accurate? I'm not sure how it's calibrated, but that's something to consider as well.

Midwest Refineries pays 90% of the amount of pure silver contained in your order for sterling silver (.925).

Your weight: 17.89 T oz.
Midwest Refineries and they say they netted 10.886 T oz.

17.89 oz
X
.925 (sterling is not pure silver, only 92.5%)
____
16.55 oz. pure silver

So there's 5.668 ounces not accounted for. Besides the one piece that was marked but not silver.
I suppose there are ways to test for silver the same way you test for gold, determining karat, maybe a scratch test? This way you could check your silver before you sent it.
I would ask about a possible error on their part, but they don't have the reputation they have by cheating people or making careless mistakes.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I hope you're able to find an explanation. Midwest is still the only one I'll trust with my scrap.
 
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