When I first started refining, I used to look for material at goodwill, salvation army and other thrift stores to scrap for precious metals. I have found a few great finds.
You can find a lot of glass and dishware that can be processed for precious metals. It is something people commonly overlook as a potential source for scrapping.
Go to your china hutch or look at your wedding dishes, glasses, china, wine glasses, etc. If you have anything with a thin gold or silver line or band around the edges, bottom, or designs, it's very likely some type of precious metal. The process to recover it is cheap and super easy. If I had a good steady supply of this type of material, at the right price, I would do nothing but process it all day long. I can literally strip a glass of it's precious metal painted rim in about 30 seconds.
I know of one person who posts on cragislist that he buys broken china that has precious metal trim. He refines a fairly good amount of precious metals just by recovering from this type of material.
So next time you see a bunch of broken, used, abused, rough looking china, keep in mind it usually has some type of precious metal on it.
Scott
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