The cost of silver seems to be going up on a daily basis. Inch by inch it's creeping up, up, up! I would have never thought in a million years that it would get so close to $50. In fact, at the Rio Grande web site, you can see a graph tracking the cost of silver, gold, and platinum.
There are a number of vendors who will take your metal scraps and either pay you for the spot price of the metal or trade you for finished metal materials such as wire. Rio Grande does it, and if you put the search term "selling scrap silver" in a search engine, a ton of other companies will come up as well. I'm starting to think seriously about gathering up all the scrap silver I have in various parts of my studio and turning them in, but I'm not sure if I should wait and see if it goes up over $50 or not. What about you? Take this quick poll about your plans for your silver scrap.
Comments
I do a lot of wire wrap jewelry, so I’ve been doing more work in copper and brass. I sold a lot of my scrap back for store credit with Indian Jeweler’s Supply when it was around $30 an ounce. I don’t know if I can scrape up enough more to make a difference, but I’m sure tempted to try!
Silver topped $50 an ounce in January of 1980. I’m not sure how that adjusts for inflation and therefore compares to what we’re paying now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it went even higher this time.
I remember when I started really making jewelry as a hobby that it was like 7 bucks and ounce. I have had to change to silver plated as I can’t afford sterling silver anymore and keep my prices down.
Why does it keep going up? Are supplies getting exhausted or ? Any hope of it coming down or are we doomed to work with silver plate forever?
I already sent in all of my scrap (5 years worth) when it was $37 about a month or so ago. I moved out of my garage and into my own studio and cleaned up 3 Pounds – yep- thats right 3 pounds (48 ounces.) Exchanged it for more silver – I’m pretty well set for now. I’m already piling up the scrap again though. Will probably wait for awhile.
I’m going to send mine to Rio Grande partnering with the American Red Cross to donate the proceeds to Jewelers for Japan. You can see more about it here:
http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-z-blogging-challenge-q-is-for-quiet.html
These prices are getting really scary. I still have old supplies that I bought when silver was $7.00 ounce – and at that time, we still considered it expensive. Sad.
Rio Grande has been tweeting regularly with metals prices, by the way. It’s an easy way to keep track if you use Twitter.