Common And Uncommon Items Containing Silver

One can sell most anything that is made up of a decent amount of silver – the general public realizes that things like sterling silverware, old coinage and 925 jewelry have some value, but there are other items like scrap silver electrical contacts that only people with special knowledge remove from old machiery, old appliances and industrial equipment.  Another lesser known fact is that dental amalgam and film and xrays also contain silver and with prices heading higher the competition for these items will become more fierce.

Silver Electrical Contacts

I have purchased a great deal of contacts from various sources but the most common thing about the people who collect them is that they are either industrial electricians or involved in the demolition field.  Most of my clients obtain their contacts for free so it is a nice little earner for them.

There are a few different types of contacts but they all seem to contain anywhere from 80 to 95% actual silver content.  The smaller contacts pictured below (approximately the size of a dime) are difficult to extract the silver from as they are attached to an iron based alloy with cadium, this makes it difficult to separate the silver and it also creates toxic fumes if you heat them up too much to try to separate them yourself, my advice, sell the to someone who knows how to do it properly and has the right equipment.  From my experience you can expect to yield approximately 50% of the weight, the silver that is extracted will be in the 80% range.

The second most common type of silver contacts are larger, thicker and easier to separate from the brass they are alloyed to, heating them up with a Mapps torch usually does the trick but again if you are unexperienced do not try this yourself.  The picture below illustrates the larger thick silver contact they most scrappers are looking for.  These contacts are great and are usually 90% + actual silver content.

Selling Scrap Silver Contacts

As you’ve probably noticed everyone and their brother seems to have a sign up saying they buy gold, places like, pawn shops, jewelry stores and cash for gold stores are not the place you’re going to be able to get a decent price for them.  Firstly they likely not know anything about them, secondly if they do offer you a price they will be low balling you.  Some precious metal buyers are familiar with them, and some refineries will purchase them but not if you do not have your own business.

When I buy contacts I pay 80% of the actual silver content, so let’s say you have 1000 grams of 90% silver contacts, this means you have 900 grams of actual silver, I would pay 80% of the 900 grams which works out to 720 grams of actual silver.  Now you need to realize this is 720 grams of scrap silver equals 23.15 troy ounces.

You also need to be aware that 720 grams or 23.15 troy ounces of pure scrap silver is marketly different than 23.15 troy ounces of fine/.999 silver bullion.  For example at today’s prices I would pay $32.65 per troy ounce for pure scrap silver whereas I would pay $36.55 per ounce for .999 fine silver stamped from a recognized refinery.

Selling Other Silver

There are a number of places that buy other scrap silver. Besides silver recyclers and silver refiners, jewelers and pawn shops may also buy scrap silver. If you’re interested in getting cash for silverware it is best to sell the items in question directly to a recycling business or a refiner, as one will often get a better price this way. One may want to check out a number of buyers and see which one offers the best price.

An individual who has a fair bit of silver to sell should invest in a silver testing kit. In some instances, the amount of silver included in an item is not clearly marked. In other instances, the stamp is inaccurate and does not reflect the true value of the item. By testing the silver, one will know how much it is worth.

The value of silver goes up and down. It pays to have a look at the market value of silver before selling it. Many refiners buy scrap silver at a certain percentage of the market value; wait for a time when silver is doing well and then sell it off.

Is it Worth it to Sell Scrap Silver?

While one can make money selling scrap silver, in some instances one can make even more money by selling the silver item as is. Antique silver items may be worth hundreds of dollars to a collector. The same goes for silver coins that were minted before 1964. One should do some research before selling off an old silver item and see how to make the most money off of it.

A person who wants to sell scrap silver right away should try offering it to a pawn shop or a silver coin dealer. However, one should keep in mind that pawn shops and coin dealers may not take silver electrical contacts and they will certainly not offer the best price for scrap silver items. If one lives in a town or city that does not have a silver refinery, then the silver items can be mailed in to a refiner or sold online. If the item is posted for sale online, one should take a clear picture of it and make sure the silver stamp is clearly visible in the shot. If one has proof that the item is made from pure silver, this should also be noted.

Selling scrap silver is not difficult once a person learns how to do it. By selling silver, one can make a bit of extra money off of silver items that are no longer used. It pays to take the time to find the best buyer. In many instances, a recycler or refinery will offer the best price for an item. If the silver item is antique, in most instances one will get a better price selling it as is instead of as scrap. Finally, one should make sure the item in question has been properly stamped.

I buy sterling silver in any form be it sterling silver flatware, jewelry, old mirrors etc. The problem is that with the recent spike in the silver spot price and all the companies advertising to buy your old gold jewelry, silver jewelry, coins etc many people believe they are sitting on a nice chunk of change with their mother’s old ‘silverware’.  Most of these people believe that since it’s in a silverware chest and have assumed that it is real sterlingware worth some money.  The problem is most of these flatware sets are silver plated and worth next to nothing as far and precious metals go.

In the last year I’ve taken to screening these prospective clients more carefully thus not wasting their time or mine.  I’m very specific in having them verify that their items have one of the following markings/hallmarks before I agree to price their set:

925, Ster, Sterling, Sterling Silver or Stg.  As you are likely aware sterling silver contains 92.5% actual silver, the remaining 7.5% can be made up of copper, nickel or other metals.

If they don’t have one of the  hallmarks listed above 99.5% of the time it is not an item that has any monetary value to me and is usually silver plated and not something I would buy.   I have purchased silverware sets both small and large and have paid as much as $2,750.00 for one set and as little as $200.00 for others.  The price your set will fetch depends on it’s weight in grams, you must also take into account that knives, candlesticks, hand mirrors, large brushes and other larger items are usually ‘loaded’ which means they are partially filled with another substance other than sterling silver.  An example of this are knives, the only portion of the knife in a sterling silverware set that is actually sterling silver is the outer sleeve of the handle, the blade will be stainless steel and the inside of the handle will be stainless steel or sometime a concrete type mixture in older sets.

Buying And Selling Silverware

It seems with the recent spike in silver prices more and more people are looking to get cash for silverware, I purchase several sets this week and they worked out as follows:

1. Silver tea set from Peru, total weight 2,424 grams, I paid 61 cents per gram for a total purchase price of $1,478.64 ( I always round up for ease of payment, in this case to $1,500.00.  One interesting note on this set were the hallmarks; AM Plata 925 Industria Peruana

2.  I bought 6 mirrors and 6 brushes, all Birks Sterling Silver off the same lady, although they all weighed slightly different, they all worked out to have the same percentage yield of silver once they were dismantled  (see picture of dismantled mirror near bottom of page) , once they stripped down and the guts removed you are left with 20-22% of the intact weight of the item.  For the 12 items I paid $489.00 for 651 grams of sterling.

3.   Another set of sterling cutlery weighed in at 2,231 grams which I paid $1,360.00, they were a few more sets but the idea is the same, it’s basic math, you confirm the number of grams of sterling, multiply that by the price you are paying to get to your purchase price.

Let’s See What’s Really Inside Different Sterling Silver Items (Photos Below):

Loaded Sterling Silver Knives:

As mentioned above sterling silver knives are loaded with different materials, in the images below you can get a good idea on the amount of silver to filler ratio. As you can see we’ve cut off the stainless steel blade revealing a concrete type mixture inside with only the outside skin of the handle being actual sterling silver.  On this particular knife, the knife intact weighed in at 67 grams,  after we cut off the blade the weight was 39.7 grams and after we removed the inside loading mixture the actual weight of the sterling silver was 16.7 grams.  When I price knives I actually pay 25% of  the total weight of the knife to allow for variations which do occur.

Sterling Silver Knife Inside

This picture is of the exact same knife, you will see we have an intact knife on the left, in the middle we have cut off the stainless steel blade, and on the right you see that the sterling silver is the outer part of the handle , inside it is filled with a concrete type mixture.

sterling silver knives revealed

Sterling Silver Candlesticks

Candlesticks are another thing to be mindful of if you are purchasing them for scrap value, in the picture below you will see a sterling silver candlestick we’ve dismantled, beforehand it weighed in at 525 grams, after the loaded material was removed the weight of the sterling silver was 233 grams.  As you can see again we have a grey concrete type filler inside the candlestick which makes up more than half of it’s total weight.

Sterling Silver Candlestick

Sterling Silver Mirrors

Sterling silver mirrors are something else you will run into, the picture below was taken after the actual glass/mirror was removed, the weight of the original items intact was 575 grams, after we removed the glass/mirror the actual weight of the sterling silver was129 grams.

Sterling Silver Mirror

If you have more questions about sterling silver, jewelry, coins or silverware etc visit our Silver FAQ page devoted to just that.