Just recently received a purchase from etsy. This estate sale is not all it's cracked up to be. Not saying the seller is in the wrong. Because he was more than happy to accept the order back if I was dissatisfied. But I was satisfied with all but one item. I informed the seller that everything tested even the gold supposedly Alaskan nugget tested at 14 karat. But what I was not happy with was the vile of gold flake. When I tested the gold flake under the lowest acetone test. The gold flakes would not test. But that is understandable because some lower grade gold's will not show up in a test. But the seller was more than happy to accept the return. I informed the seller I was happy with 11 out of the 12 items and suggested he pull the gold flakes viles out of his sale. Because they do not test as gold. I showed him a photograph of some of my gold flakes that do test. And if he wishes to keep his reputation intact he will pull these gold flakes Viles out of his sale. Or at least have them tested. Because what he stated in his ad was not entirely truthful what you think.?USMC60 Gold and Silver Estate Lot Sale / Old US Coins / Bullion / .999 Silver Bars / Includes 12 Items / All Items are Gold or Silver!
I think you should never have asked the seller to break up the lot. As the buyer, you owe it to the seller, and to your own conscience to take the entire deal or return the entire deal.
I don't know your personal testing methods, or what methods are required to test gold, but I hope you are 100% sure they are not gold flakes before making such accusations. I generally steer clear from these types of sales unless the things I can identify by sight are more valuable than my buying price. I don't consider gold to be something I can identify by sight. I'll also note I don't see anything where the seller promises a purity level of any of the gold, so as long as there's a speck of gold in each of those flakes, technically, his sell was honest and legal. You get what you pay for.
Vials of "gold flakes" are usually filled with very very thin gold foil that costs a few cents, and is worth absolutely nothing, except for the "wow" factor of owning "gold".
As a side note, I don't know about Etsy, but I do know that on eBay "ESTATE SALE" is right up there with "KEY DATE" and "RARE" -- 99% of the time, they indicate that the item being auctioned is the exact opposite. Every once in a while, a seller putting together one of these lots will goof and include something that makes the lot actually worthwhile. Mostly, though, they're overpriced, and the seller is hoping to draw in naive buyers with the "estate sale" mystique. I don't know what you paid for this lot -- with the amount of silver that's visible, it must have been a good bit, at least by my standards -- but I wouldn't let my judgement of the lot rest on one vial of gold flakes. I'd be more concerned about whether there were any desirable dates among the lot, and whether they were genuine.
Reading all the posts thus far. I think it's great that you were able to communicate your issues with the seller. I agree with the earlier post that the entire deal should have been voided if you did not feel satisfied with the purchase. After that, it sort of seems like the seller is providing a new deal to save their online reputation which might put them at an unfair disadvantage. Again since they already offer a full refund upon return of the sold goods. Also when it comes to buying large lots, I try to keep them offline. I understand this is not always possible and obviously also limits the buyer from expanding access to many wonderful opportunities outside of reasonable driving limitations. No judgment either way, just offering my 2 cents as an onlooker to the event.
Ah, I missed that part. That's even worse -- if you can see that there are desirable coins in the photo, you still aren't guaranteed to get them. In fact, the only safe assumption is that you won't.
From what I can gather the seller was consigned to sell the estate sale of the coins. Evidently he had decided to break the lot into 12 separate pieces. And to sell the lot in separate pieces. Like I said I was happy with the 11 of the 12 pieces. I'm sure he does not know where the original owner of the coins that he was in charge of selling actually received all of what we see in the photo. So if the original owner of the lot, was tricked into buying this gold flake. The seller could not be responsible for what the original purchaser bought. I know back in 2000 when I went up to Alaska looking for work. A few of my friends who live in Alaska warned me about buying viles of gold flake from people on the street it was a common scam up there for rubes. And as of the other members have stated gold flake is basically worthless. All I know when I worked in the state of Washington I joined the Washington gold miners Association. Each month they have all kinds of classes on gold identification, where to prospect, and what to look for. And the weekends I did not have to work that was one of my favorite things going up in the mountains and doing a little prospecting. You could not find a better way to relax and unwind.Like I said I only had problems with the one item.And being a seller myself. It was just a courtesy to the seller of this lot. To inform him the gold flakes were not actually gold. And would not test. Testing for gold purity is not that hard. I bought the same tests that most jewelers and coin dealers usually by to tests products before they buy them.I personally would like to thank the seller was unaware of the gold flakes were not real. I know some people like other members have mentioned would salt coins in order to make them look better to sell them. I do not believe this is a case. In this situation. And for the members if you look at the add it says all 12 pieces are either gold or silver.And if the gold flakes do not actually have any gold. Even a very small percentage. I don't know it's me but I could not consider it gold in any way.So His advertisement is not exactly true.Yes the stuff in the vile may be considered gold flake by name and actually has no gold in it whatsoever.And what you see in my photos of the little vials with very little gold in them. Even those gold flakes test out at 14 karat.USMC60
I have no problem with a retest which I just did. I believe it to be 18 k +.And not all nuggets will test the same depending on the area in which they are found. At least that's what I learned in class10 years ago. Thank you for bringing that up I would've never rechecked that purity.. And if I may asked where did you read the information about nuggets testing higher than 14 K .I would definitely be interested in reading that information .usmc60
Well you know what they say. You get caught in a rip current you swim against the current you'll get nowhere. But if you swim with the current you'll eventually get back to the (((beach)).
