I just put in a 27 gram mixed bag of gold. At yesterday's spot value, this is what it came out to:
Karat Grams value
10k 0.8 16.2128
10K 1.15 23.3059
10k 1.2 24.3192
10k 3.69 74.78154
Karat Grams value
14K 5 141.86
14k 1.9 53.9068
14k 3.44 97.59968
14K 1.25 35.465
14k 2.8 79.4416
Karat Grams value
22k 4.3 191.7155
Total Value in Karat stamp: $738.61.
I only expect a check of $683.80 or better from the ARA melt.
Why this is a fair assessment:
What I actually expect actual karat value: $712 (Unless marked "Plumb" since all karat stamps are typically less than what they show, up to 1/2 carat (e.g. 14K is actually 13.5K).
Loss during melt (my experience is 2%)= $697.76
Multiplied by their 98% of spot value = $683.80.
I'll report back here at the end of the week with what the check came out to.
Skippy
OK, got my check... Here's what they had to say by e-mail:
The gross weight: .87 ozt
Settlement weight: .84 ozt
Right there, shows the loss from the refining. My gold was CLEAN and completely free of stones. This is less than 5%. expected.
Here's what they gave me:
Actual gold weight was 8.45 dwt (1 pennyweight is 1/20th of an ounce, so I had .4225 ounces of gold.
Percentage gold = 50.31 % (makes sense, based on the .84 ozt)
Regardless, there is 8.45 dwt (pennyweights) of gold, and that yeilds 98% spot. (the following calculations ARE correct [as provided by ARA], and they even rounded up on the cents for the dwt)
$1,528.10 / ozt 98.00 % $74.88 / dwt $632.87
Based on a value of 1/2 karat below the actual Karat weight (so, 10K would be 9.5k, 14k would be 13.5k, etc.)
I EXPECTED Total Grams of actual gold would yeild:
Karat: Weight of gold, % yeild, total gold yeild:
10K....6.84...............39.58%.....2.7075
14K....14.39.............56.25%.....8.094375
22K....4.3.................89.58%.....3.852083333
Expected weight of gold at the refinery: 14.65 grams, or 9.4201687
ACTUAL weight of gold at the refinery (after refining): 8.45
So... There was a FULL PENNYWEIGHT Difference in gold that I received, versus expected. Am I worried about this? NO here's why:
There are MANY reasons this could happen. 1st, is that the "22K" gold ring that I found, which wasn't stamped, might not have been 22K. it could have been have been18K. (it's possible, I only had 18K acid to check). Even if that is the case, that only accounts for .75 grams of gold.
It's POSSIBLE the chain I had wasn't 10K at all, but rather something barely gold or even not gold (it held a 10K acid test, but always seemed a bit off color for 10K..) If that's the case, that's another .47 grams. I knew that going into this. No way to ever know (as it was 1.2 grams), but I understood the risks...
Even if BOTH situations happened, does this account for a full pennyweight of gold that is unaccounted (and fully assuming that my gold was all at the low end of the karat spectrum)??? Nope, but it's close... a pennyweight is 1.5 grams. I've accounted for 1.2 grams, and .3 grams in refining loss is possible, if not absolutely probable
So...
in the end, I got a check for $632.87. I expected/hoped for a check of $683.80 or better from the ARA melt, based on just 1/2 carat difference. Apparently, there was more!
That's a full $51 that I'm not seeing.
But... Looking at that, compared to the actual karat Stamp of the gold I sent in, let's look at the percentage of spot that is:
Actual Money Made:
$632.87
Karat Stamped value of the gold:
$738.61
Percentage of Spot of the maximum probable value of the karat stamped gold (assuming that it would be exactly plumb... which it never is) that I received:
86%
Percentage of Spot of the EXPECTED karat value ($712 for 1/2 carat below): 89%
So... Bottom line here is that I couldn't get more than 80% locally for the same stuff. I got an extra 5% on top of what I could "calculate" based on the STAMPED value, and an extra 9% on top of what I would have calculated based on the EXPECTED value.
Historically, I get about 90% of the value of the karat stamp from ARA. Occasionally, I've been surprised with a few points higher (something comes in at better than the karat stamp), but it's usually around 90%. This time it was 85%.
Is that within the margin of error? Sure.
Just go into refining with an expectation that you're NEVER going to get 98% of the stamped value of the items you're sending in. There's refining loss, and ACTUAL karat values to be taken into consideration. 90% is best hoped for, but it could be less (especially for small batches). The difference is greater for batches that have a lot of 10K items (because 1/2 karat lower difference on 10K is a greater percentage of the weight of actual gold (5%) than on 18K (2.8%)
So... Two items to remember:
1) The smaller the batch, the more the refining loss hits your bottom line. Most of the time I send in greater than an ounce of material (sometimes 2). This time it was less than an ounce. Hurts more on the bottom line that way.
2) The greater the content of 10K items (or lower), the more the karat difference is likely to hit your bottom line. And a single mis-marked items (such as a 14K ring that I knew only acid tested at 10K a while back), REALLY hits the bottom line, when it gets refined).
Am I satisfied? YOU BETCHA. Will I use ARA again? YOU BETCHA. Do I know what I'm getting... (you guessed it) YOU BETCHA.
Skippy
