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Just to clarify, those small vials (n00b question)...

RyGuyRyGuy Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭
Just to clarify, those small vials of gold, silver, palladium, etc. are pretty much just a novelty, right?

Comments

  • jmski52jmski52 Posts: 22,825 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm inclined to say, "yup". But you'd really have to show an example. If they aren't certified as to the contents, I'd figure that they haven't been assayed or guaranteed in any way.
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  • RyGuyRyGuy Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I'm inclined to say, "yup". But you'd really have to show an example. If they aren't certified as to the contents, I'd figure that they haven't been assayed or guaranteed in any way. >>



    That's what I was thinking as well!

    image
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,119 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I sure wouldn't buy any. How do you know what the fineness and weight are without testing it?

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
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  • dimplesdimples Posts: 1,286 ✭✭✭
    If your talking about gold flake there is hardly any gold at all in it. You would see these vials in all the gift shops in Alaska selling for $3-5 a vial. Your lucky if there is even a nickels worth of gold in the vial.
  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,794 ✭✭✭✭✭
    fools gold. image

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  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,761 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A friend of mine sold those novelty gold vials throughout Colorado (road salesman)
    and he said that most were just gold plated tin foil.

    About 25¢ in gold.

    bob
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  • If we're all imagnining the same thing, then dimples is correct. I belong to the Central Virginia Gold Prospectors Club and we give away hundreds of gold flakes free of charge to anybody who will stop by our booth and pan for one during the summer field days, etc. Fun to look at but not a lot of gold per flake...


    *IMO, the vial we give away that holds the gold has more value to me than the itty bitty flake of gold itself




  • << <i>If we're all imagnining the same thing, then dimples is correct. I belong to the Central Virginia Gold Prospectors Club and we give away hundreds of gold flakes free of charge to anybody who will stop by our booth and pan for one during the summer field days, etc. Fun to look at but not a lot of gold per flake...


    *IMO, the vial we give away that holds the gold has more value to me than the itty bitty flake of gold itself >>



    You are correct that the bottle or vial and its screw cap are more valuable than the contents. What we're 'imagining' here are the "Prospector's Bottles" containing gold colored metal foil in some kind of transparent liquid. In side-by-side comparison tests with genuine placer gold flakes, this rubbish outsells gold by 20 or more times. It's cheap, it's gaudy, it's anything but gold, but by golly if you want a dozen $6 sales a week or better, you better get some! I'm told 35 cents including the "Prospector's Bottle" (which is a 2 liquid ounce lightbulb looking thing) is the actual cost. Of course then there is distribution and markup. And profit for the unscrupulous.
    ----
    Sounds like you folks are showing more like a real situation where the gold values are, to be polite, modest at best. However, it is genuine placer gold from what you describe. In Colorado we call flake gold that which one may pick up with tweezers. Fine or flour gold that which you can see in the pan but can't pick up individually. Nuggets are about the size of matchheads, you can pick them up with your fingers. The subject of this thread, if I understand it correctly, is about phony gold colored god-knows-what in a transparent container, retailed under $10 usually to people who are not stupid but just not knowledgable. And usually whose innocence is being imposed upon by a merchant who does or should know better. It's the auric equivalent of the Chinese counterfeit coin. Only it's an all-American scam as far as I know.
    Many, many perfect transactions with other members. Ask please.
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