This is my adventure into buying and selling rare metals online and using eBay as an auction platform.
I've done this for about 4 years and I've been able to make a little profit here and there, although this is not my trade, it's a great way to have fun with the buying and selling of metals online.
Where I Started
I started with selling a small 1 gram of gold, then I went on to sell a half ounce of gold at a profit. My first big profit was when I kept a big bar of silver for over 2 years and was able to make a 1,500 dollar profit (well it was just keeping up with inflation) but my family was surprised by how much the value changed. Buy the end of it I was selling gold and silver bars and coins worth up to 4,000 dollars. Almost all of my gold and silver bars were kept in a bank safe. To rent the safe from the bank I lost about 18 dollars to keeping that bank safe drawer every year. It was weird going into the bank almost every other week just to take inventory and then doing some calculations when other bank clientele rarely ever used the safe.
How I Did It
I would actually buy them straight off eBay itself and then I waited for the value of gold or silver or even platinum (whichever one I was preparing to sell) to rise up before I put it back on eBay. Sometimes then took about a year or so could chance in a course of a week. This was during the height of the recession so people had more faith in gold and silver stock, not to mention platinum for a time as well. So it wasn't too hard to get the timing right because the price of gold and silver and other rare metals were on the gradual climb. There were times when it even peaked quickly although I wasn't quick enough to capitalize on the big peaks of value.
I've only been able to work with 24k gold and .999 silver and fine .999 metals such as .999 platinum. Anything less would have to be evaluated by a very good appraiser. That's on you to decide the cost. But for 24k gold there is always kitco.com which has a daily valuation of your gold or silver amount in ounces. If you have more than an ounce you can convert it back to one ounce to start the valuation. That's how I evaluated my metals. It was a daunting task to time the buying and selling right because I was unable to sell at the peaks immediately unlike people who actually owned actual stock.
Overall, I learned a lot about timing, and how rare metals were priced compared to the US dollar. Inflation just made the price of gold look higher than it is because it was compared to the US dollar. I also learned at sometime in 2008 there was a great demand for platinum and thank god I was also to capitilize on that. It was a lot of fun and it's an easy way to understand how money and rare metals are valued.
I've done this for about 4 years and I've been able to make a little profit here and there, although this is not my trade, it's a great way to have fun with the buying and selling of metals online.
Where I Started
I started with selling a small 1 gram of gold, then I went on to sell a half ounce of gold at a profit. My first big profit was when I kept a big bar of silver for over 2 years and was able to make a 1,500 dollar profit (well it was just keeping up with inflation) but my family was surprised by how much the value changed. Buy the end of it I was selling gold and silver bars and coins worth up to 4,000 dollars. Almost all of my gold and silver bars were kept in a bank safe. To rent the safe from the bank I lost about 18 dollars to keeping that bank safe drawer every year. It was weird going into the bank almost every other week just to take inventory and then doing some calculations when other bank clientele rarely ever used the safe.
How I Did It
I would actually buy them straight off eBay itself and then I waited for the value of gold or silver or even platinum (whichever one I was preparing to sell) to rise up before I put it back on eBay. Sometimes then took about a year or so could chance in a course of a week. This was during the height of the recession so people had more faith in gold and silver stock, not to mention platinum for a time as well. So it wasn't too hard to get the timing right because the price of gold and silver and other rare metals were on the gradual climb. There were times when it even peaked quickly although I wasn't quick enough to capitalize on the big peaks of value.
I've only been able to work with 24k gold and .999 silver and fine .999 metals such as .999 platinum. Anything less would have to be evaluated by a very good appraiser. That's on you to decide the cost. But for 24k gold there is always kitco.com which has a daily valuation of your gold or silver amount in ounces. If you have more than an ounce you can convert it back to one ounce to start the valuation. That's how I evaluated my metals. It was a daunting task to time the buying and selling right because I was unable to sell at the peaks immediately unlike people who actually owned actual stock.
Overall, I learned a lot about timing, and how rare metals were priced compared to the US dollar. Inflation just made the price of gold look higher than it is because it was compared to the US dollar. I also learned at sometime in 2008 there was a great demand for platinum and thank god I was also to capitilize on that. It was a lot of fun and it's an easy way to understand how money and rare metals are valued.
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