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Cheap but decent scale and calipers

winternight

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Nov 12, 2006
Messages
887
I have enough gold jewelry to sell that I'd like to buy a cheap digital scale to figure out the weight at home before either selling or shipping off to a refinery (any recommendations there btw?). I'd also like some calipers just because.

Any recommendations? Amazon has a bunch of cheap ones, but cheap I mean under $30.

Thanks!

PS Am I the last person who is finally selling some scrap gold? I couldn't believe the prices on Ebay for some vintage items that are similar to what I have laying around and thought I'd get nothing for!
 
Gold prices are actually down from where they were. But it is always hard to catch prices at their highest point. It is around $1600 an ounce now.

I don't have scales, but I did buy a 6" digital caliper and it is just too big for jewelry. But then the ones for jeweler that I saw were not digital, and that would be worthless to me because you couldn't get exact sizes. But that was just Amazon. You can get scales on Amazon, too. I imagine you have to look at jeweler's supply companies to look for small digital calipers for jewelry.
 
I use Rio Grande jewelry supply for my scrap metal, as they give you the highest percentage of the spot price of anyone I've found. They have pretty clear instructions on the website. I started using them because that's where I order my jewelry supplies from but I use them even for trading for regular money now.

They also have scales and calipers, but I don't have any specific recommendations because I haven't bought any. I will definitely be watching this thread because I was actually going to ask for recs for those things this week.
 
Oh, as far as selling goes, all you have to do is check the prices locally. I have sold to both a jeweler and a gold buying place.
 
JUST bought digital caliper and an Ohaus Emerald hand-held jewelry scale from Rio - as in last week.

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Ohaus-Emerald-500-Hand-Held-Scale/116813?pos=3 $99

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Carbon-Fiber-Fractional-Digital-Caliper-3/116836?pos=2 $21.95

The Ohaus I bought because of good reviews. I had a "cheap" scale before and it crapped out very quickly. Hopefully this works better.

Can't say how fab they will be going forward, but here is what another PS'er is buying at least.
 
I haven't found that cheap and decent go together when it comes to good, accurate scales especially if you are measuring small things.

After a number of fails, I bought a set from Tanita - they cost over £200 GBP so not cheap, but they are accurate and reliable.

On the other hand, I bought digital calipers on eBay for about $15 and they are great.
 
distracts|1327178552|3108380 said:
I use Rio Grande jewelry supply for my scrap metal, as they give you the highest percentage of the spot price of anyone I've found. They have pretty clear instructions on the website. I started using them because that's where I order my jewelry supplies from but I use them even for trading for regular money now.

They also have scales and calipers, but I don't have any specific recommendations because I haven't bought any. I will definitely be watching this thread because I was actually going to ask for recs for those things this week.
what % are they paying?
 
mine is a Ohaus triple beam dial O gram. i bought a cheap 6" digital caliper off of Ebay for $13.

koi 060.jpg
 
Thanks. I've bought from Kassoy before and might try there again.
 
ksinger|1327179716|3108387 said:
JUST bought digital caliper and an Ohaus Emerald hand-held jewelry scale from Rio - as in last week.

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Ohaus-Emerald-500-Hand-Held-Scale/116813?pos=3 $99

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Carbon-Fiber-Fractional-Digital-Caliper-3/116836?pos=2 $21.95

The Ohaus I bought because of good reviews. I had a "cheap" scale before and it crapped out very quickly. Hopefully this works better.

Can't say how fab they will be going forward, but here is what another PS'er is buying at least.

Ha! That is a coincidence! I bought a 6" caliper and the part that grasps the stone is bigger than I want. Let me know how you like yours.
 
Dancing Fire|1327193325|3108483 said:
what % are they paying?

http://www.riogrande.com/landingpage.aspx?n=scrap

85% on silver and gold, 60% on platinum. Most places I checked out in the area or online only paid about 60-65% for silver and gold (which is all the scrap I have, so all I was concerned with). However I was looking about a year ago so things could have changed.
 
ksinger|1327179716|3108387 said:
JUST bought digital caliper and an Ohaus Emerald hand-held jewelry scale from Rio - as in last week.

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Ohaus-Emerald-500-Hand-Held-Scale/116813?pos=3 $99

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Carbon-Fiber-Fractional-Digital-Caliper-3/116836?pos=2 $21.95

The Ohaus I bought because of good reviews. I had a "cheap" scale before and it crapped out very quickly. Hopefully this works better.

Can't say how fab they will be going forward, but here is what another PS'er is buying at least.

I bought calipers similar to Ksinger and like them
 
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