With gold and palladium prices still at historical highs, your dental scrap is worth more than ever. That’s right, that old jar tucked away in the back with old crowns and bridges is probably worth a lot more than you thought. With that in mind, here are 3 tips to maximize your scrap return:
1) In-office Cash Payments Will Hurt Your Wallet
The problem is that for years, brokers or middlemen would drive around visiting offices and offer cash on the spot for the scrap. Without melting and assaying the material, the broker could only visually estimate the scrap value based on how much yellow and white metals were present. In order to account for the broker’s profit and the uncertainty of the metal content, the cash offer usually is VERY conservative. The only way to determine the composition of your metals is to have your lot melted and assayed for all four precious metals: gold, palladium, platinum, and silver.
2) How Many Sales Reps or Parties are Involved and Being Compensated From Your Transaction?
What percentage of your scrap return goes to sales commissions? Recently some dental supply companies have partnered with gold refining companies and offer scrap refining services. While this certainly provides an element of convenience, you must consider the implications of how much having an extra sales rep involved will impact your scrap return. Is the company streamlined to deliver the best possible scrap returns or is some of your scrap return going to pay for layers of overhead such as mailing out scrap collection jars every month, calling the office every two weeks, or having a rep stop by the office frequently? These are questions that must be considered.
3) It’s About the People – Not Just the Equipment
Remember folks, most reputable refining companies melt and assay dental scrap in basically the same manner – with some minor distinctions. There are only two ways to process dental scrap – the right way and the wrong way. Once you find yourself in the “right way” camp, the differences then become much less important than the integrity of the people reporting the results. As a result, promises of higher returns solely based on claims of “The Best Technology” or “Sophisticated Assays That Capture Value” should be taken with a grain of salt. Much more important is the trust and integrity of the people behind the desks.
Dave Weinberg, head of operations at Scientific Metals is also the son of founder Mark Weinberg. You can contact Dave at 1-888-949-0008 or dave@scientificmetals.com. www. scientificmetals.com.
