Where to sell dental laboratory scrap platinum, silver, gold?

August 14, 2014 10:08 AM

My recently-deceased father owned a dental laboratory for years, and we found a small quantity of platinum foil, gold dental scrap, and unused silver-containing dental alloy in his shop. I am having a hard time finding reviews of refiners / scrappers.

We have a fair amount of dead soft platinum foil, quite a bit of unused dental metals (Albacast, Jel-Star, Cameo, Gemini II), some stuff that might be gold solder, and then some unidentified melted metal scrap.

Since gold is so high now, many of the websites seem mildly scammy, and I expect quite a lot of hidden fees, minimum weights, and so on. Any recommendations?

posted by LucretiusJones to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Where do you live? I would look for a bullion dealer, who are normally always buying. Do this in person. You should be able to get at *LEAST* 90% of the spot value / purity of the metals.

Read up on how gold is measured (in grams or dwt/troy ounces) and how purity works (18k gold is 75% pure).

Do not go to a "cash for gold" place in the mall or pawn shop or any other sketchy storefront. The bullion places you pick should be clean, bright, and honest feeling. They will tell you exactly what they pay and what percentage of "spot price" they are paying.

Sorry about your dad, hopefully, you can get some good cash for this stuff.
posted by bensherman at 12:02 PM on August 14, 2014

You might try a reputable jewelry supply house.
posted by gregr at 1:42 PM on August 14, 2014

Response by poster: I'm in East Texas. Would prefer a way to mail in the scrap. My father had some service he mailed his grinder dust to, and it worked well and seemed a fair price, but that's been twenty years, and I don't remember the name.
posted by LucretiusJones at 3:40 PM on August 14, 2014

Look for refineries that cater to the jewellery industry. Most places that sell stock and wire do refining. I know Rio Grande (Riogrande.com) does silver refining, I'm not sure about gold but if you call them they may be able to recommend someone. G&s metals (gsgold.com) may also do it or know who would.

I've ordered metal from both companies multiple times and found their prices fair and customer service excellent.
posted by euphoria066 at 4:31 PM on August 14, 2014

Best answer: I've been happy with Midwest Refineries for scrap gold/silver in the past.
posted by doctord at 6:56 PM on August 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

At our dental office we have our own lab. We have used Pease and Curren for our scrap metal refining for over 30 years but Landis is another refiner. There is a minimum amount they will deal with (5 oz I think, which is at least 5 crowns). There is a flat processing fee ($100 last time I called) so you are better off sending a large amount at one time. Our lab has carpet which is full of the alloy dust. We send the vacuum bags along with the cut up carpet and ship it in cardboard barrels to Pease and Curren about every 10 years. We also send any old crowns, bridges, amalgam scraps (for the silver) we have saved up. We usually get back $10,000-$14,000 depending on the price of metals at the time (we haven't sent any lately). I think they give you choices about how you are paid but we usually get it back as gold coins like Krugerrands which you can sell to coin dealers and maybe jewelers. We have never tried to sell any of those actually.
posted by LiverOdor at 8:59 PM on August 14, 2014 [1 favorite]