This question is for anyone, but especially for those who buy from customers. What do you pay for sterling silver? Sellers, what has been your experience? Do you get 75% of spot, 80%, 9O%, all of spot? There were lots of government-issued sterling coins issued until the 90s with no numismatic value. What should I expect to lose off spot when selling? Thanks all.
In my experience, we always pay around 80% of Spot for scrap Sterling at the shop I work at in Dallas.
Yeah, it surprises people that you get substantially less money for 92.5%-pure sterling than for 90%-pure junk silver, but that's the truth. As I've seen it explained, coin silver is easier to refine because it's always 10% copper, but that 7.5% of sterling can be all kinds of different stuff -- and coin silver often doesn't get refined at all, which is even cheaper. It just gets sold on as 90% coin.
It depends on what the object is . Coins~ 80% sounds a little higher than I have seen. Spoons, candle sticks , tea sets, mirrors, etc. are often 50% or less to adjust for refiner/and other costs for a better resell object. Jim