You keep calling silver plate sterling as if sterling was another word for silver. Sterling is 92.5% silver mixed with something, usually copper. Only that percentage of silver is called sterling. Pure silver isn't even sterling.
Yes they are much more valuable as antiques but if nobody wants it or trying to give you a low-ball price for it what the hell would I want to keep it for it could be the best antique in the world but if I can't get the right money for me it is basically junk or stand scrap
Christ, I WISH silver was $27.21 today! I'd have doubled my money from hoarding in the $13-$14 range over the past year. How do I have an average of $13-14 when silver has been mostly in the $15-16 range all year? Trade secret!
If you weigh it before and after disassembling it, you can calculate the proportion and percentage of actual silver vs. weighting material (cement, nails, plaster, epoxy, even sand.) This information can then be used to "guesstimate" the amount (and value) of silver in similar FUTURE purchases.
Those pieces are much more valuable as antiques than silver scrap value because someone worked hard to craft them. By scrapping them like cheap made in China products you've erraticated their value to mere scrap. Congrats, your labor created a product worth less than the original materials.
Not necessarily false, but the market for these items as antiques, collectibles even simply up-scale household items is extremely small (think fraction of a fraction of a percent) as compared to the scrapping market.
