tellurium at a good price

I found an auction on ebay for a 2 lb ingot of tellurium. it was a great price by comparison to the others for crystalline Te on ebay many of which were going for more than a dollar per gram, down to 51¢ /g( 512$ for a whole kg). my auction was about 12¢ /g( for the 2 lb ). not bad 'eh?

I contacted the gentleman after the sale about possibly getting more, and where he got it from. I was a little off-put by the low price, but I had ebay buyer protection in-case I was swindled. Turns out he bought a 50 lb pail 4 or so years ago from ASARCO here in the US( http://www.asarco.com/products/ ). He has been sitting on it for that time waiting for the price to go back up, but no.

In the ebay auction it was listed as 97%, but in later private email it was stated to be 99.7, and casually tested by one of his metal working friend to be 99.8% or better( so he says ). but after cracking the end off my ingot to make sure there was no cheap metal filler bar or anything like that, I am fairly confident it is the 99.7% he says. ( also the company makes 99.7% Te and up, but nothing as low as 97% ) the bar broke with the kind of crystal grains I have seen in high purity chrome, antimony and bismuth metal I bought years back. long finger like crystals interwoven and similarly oriented.

enough back story here, and on to my point. he is still willing to get rid of some more of these lovely ingots, outside ebay but through paypal still. I am offering this opportunity to the collective at the price I found it at. he is asking 120$ each for the ingot, which includes shipping with tracking... I recall from his auction he only ships to the US so this isn't for everyone i guess. He had mentioned getting everything together for one payment through me and all would be shipped to their separate destination, but I would prefer if you all just dealt with him directly, ***something I am going to ask about***. large sums are to await paypal payment clearing before shipment. only has paypal listed as payment source in the auction. ***please don't contact him directly until I have asked about the separate payments thing, he is not expecting a bunch of inquire's at this time.*** but after that, I am sure he will be willing to field questions should there be any, from those that intend to buy of course. I am still throwing this thing together, but figured I'd mention it as he is willing to sell and has given me a fair price. I am going to get 2 more for my self any way.

I am still in the process of figuring out a method of assay aside from appearance, but nothing is jumping out at me so far as possible. Suggestions welcome, how do I check its purity within reason with few supplies and no ground joint glassware? I can do some electrochem, I have strong bases and some strong acids, oxidizers KNO3, K-peroxymonosulfate, KMnO4 and some glassware( not glass joint ) and of course temp controlled heating.

so the question is, are any of you interested? and does any one know a method of testing off the top of their head?

the sellers is this guy: http://www.ebay.com/usr/zawy?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
my auction was: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251548203875?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:I...
1) bar as received ................... 2) end of broken bar................ 3) top of broken bar

4) larger pieces................... 5) small pieces


to break it up, I kept it in the bag it arrived in, wrapped some news paper around it tightly and gave it a couple weak knocks on the anvil with a small ball-peen hammer. it resisted at first then shattered easily. don't think I hit it more than 4 times and you can see all the fine dust and small crystals that were generated. so quite brittle. I did unwrap and portion this out in a makeshift glove box with care. no my breath doesn't smell like garlic at least so far.

Got my tellurium from violet sin, looks great and shipped quickly, thanks!:

Any news on the ruthenium BromicAcid, did you decide not to sell any?

Beautiful 90g of Te.
Thanks VS.