plated flatware, tableware pays well -- for free (?)

I'm sure this subject has run before in here but I just wanted to share a small-time decent payoff success I had.

A nearby old-and-new shop was overloaded with old silver plate -- flatware and assorted tableware. They nixed all of it for space reasons. I literally had to dumpster dive to retrieve it. Since I was on private property, I was permitted by the owner to go in. Random dumpster diving is now illegal in many NJ municipalities.

I pulled out a tidy 27 pounds, pretty evenly split between larger tableware and flatware. One tray was almost six pounds.



Virtually all of it had a brass underlying metal. Only a few forks had nickle (?) below. Knives were of no use since they had ferric blades -- way to much trouble to angle grind them off.

I thought I was going to have to explain my load to the yard but they grabbed it immediately (after magnet tests) and paid me a bit of a premium over my usual dug brass -- which I also had a load of.

The only thing I'm not sure of is whether it is cost effective to BUY big lots of silver plate. At auctions, truly heavy boxes of silver plate often come up for bid. Though they are seldom expensive, that profit-margin thing jumps forth when first paying money before scrapping. Anyone collect that stuff for scrap?