VSEPR_VOID
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Selling Silver Nitrate Profitable
The current spot price of silver sits currently at 16.92 USD per troy ounce. This gives a spot price of 0.544 USD per gram. Silver nitrate at one
dollar per gram contains per mole only 107.8682g of silver, meaning only 58.86 dollars at spot price.
Selling one mole of silver at spot price would yield 58.86 dollars but in the form of silver nitrate more than 170 dollars. Even at 50 cents US per
gram this would mean one mole of AgNO3 is worth 85 dollars per mole.
Considering that I can acquire 0.5L of nitric acid (15.8 Molar) for about 15 dollars US, would it be profitable to produce and sell silver nitrate? I
have the equipment and experience to do so. All I would need to do is react silver rounds (the cheapest source of 99.9% Ag) with acid, dry, and maybe
recrystallize. Is anyone on this forum interested in purchasing a few moles of silver nitrate at 170 dollars per mole? How large is the silver nitrate
market? Has anyone made money using home chemistry here?
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elementcollector1
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At 169.87 g/mol, I would think you'd be selling less than 1-mol quantities. The way the math works out according to your stats, it's about $1 a gram,
so maybe you could do 5g, 10g and 25g quantities to make sure they're cheap enough to attract buyers? EBay seems a likely candidate for this sort of
sale, barring any restrictions on silver nitrate I haven't heard about.
Incidentally, how much are those coins? I have an old troy ounce of silver I bought a few years ago for about $20, and am wondering if it's worth
polishing back to a full shine and keeping or if I should just do what you're doing.
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Texium
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This is hardly a new idea. Search and you'll find many others asking the same questions. It's probably the most frequently considered money-making
from amateur chemistry scheme- and with good reason- it's actually feasible and makes sense, unlike most such ideas.
There are issues with it though. First of all, the demand for silver is much higher than the demand for silver nitrate, so it'll take you a while to
sell off all the silver nitrate that you produce. Also, the fact that other people are probably doing the same thing means that you'll have to
undercut that market price to get a decent amount of sales- shoot for closer to $90/mol rather than $170/mol. Additionally, you'll want to appeal to
markets beyond amateur chemists such as electroplaters and other crafty people who want to silver bottles or whatever, because most of us here would
happily make our own silver nitrate, and are aware that the prices that it often demands are exorbitant considering its silver content!
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Cryolite.
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Another thing you might try along these lines is to make silver powder and sell that. It goes for a 2-3x markup over the price of silver bullion, and
the synthesis is trivial from silver nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and sugar.
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NEMO-Chemistry
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I would fill the orders as you got them, you dont really want alot of the nitrate sat about. Nice 'N' Fresh, or made to order.
There is other ways to get silver and make a profit.
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VSEPR_VOID
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Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  | At 169.87 g/mol, I would think you'd be selling less than 1-mol quantities. The way the math works out according to your stats, it's about $1 a gram,
so maybe you could do 5g, 10g and 25g quantities to make sure they're cheap enough to attract buyers? EBay seems a likely candidate for this sort of
sale, barring any restrictions on silver nitrate I haven't heard about.
Incidentally, how much are those coins? I have an old troy ounce of silver I bought a few years ago for about $20, and am wondering if it's worth
polishing back to a full shine and keeping or if I should just do what you're doing. |
I purchased the coins for around 19 dollars and 2 cents (they are indecently for sale at a price of 19.50).
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VSEPR_VOID
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| Quote: Originally posted by Cryolite. | | Another thing you might try along these lines is to make silver powder and sell that. It goes for a 2-3x markup over the price of silver bullion, and
the synthesis is trivial from silver nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and sugar. |
Do you have a link to a synthesis you recommend or have tried?
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Sulaiman
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I too have considered selling silver nitrate,
my first batch from recycled silver was a failure due to copper contamination,
for my second attempt I used a US eagle 99.9% silver coin and 'lab grade' nitric acid (from APCpure/Atom Scientific)
although faint, a green tint was apparent in the silver nitrate crystals.
I still do not know if it was due to the 0.1% impurity in the silver (almost certainly copper), or in the acid, which was colourless.
Next time I'll probably use a Canadian maple leaf coin at 99.99% silver..
Also you have to avoid halides (e.g. HCl) as silver halides are light sensitive, discolouring your product.
All sources of nitric acid have impurities so get a CoA for yours before using it to make silver nitrate of presumed high purity.
I still have most of that batch and hope to purify it someday. now that I know a little more chemistry I may even succeed 
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Herr Haber
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Well that's funny.
About 1 year ago I found a silver ring.
I first thought I'd make SA/DS out of it and blow up a heart shaped cake for St Valentine 
I didnt get to do it though. I acquired a lot more silverware, made a small business like some of you did and well... You'll see me asking a couple
questions here and there about silver chemistry pretty soon !
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Sulaiman
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St. Valentines Day Massacre comes to mind 
How can you fail at SA/DS ?
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Herr Haber
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| Quote: Originally posted by VSEPR_VOID | | Quote: Originally posted by Cryolite. | | Another thing you might try along these lines is to make silver powder and sell that. It goes for a 2-3x markup over the price of silver bullion, and
the synthesis is trivial from silver nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and sugar. |
Do you have a link to a synthesis you recommend or have tried? |
There is one SM members who made tons of extremely interesting videos about silver. I believe his nickname on youtube is Kadriver (or is it here?).
You'll find lots of videos about getting silver from silver nitrate through NaOH and sugar in the same place. I wouldnt call this a synthesis though.
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Herr Haber
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Lack of time and workers in the house prevented me from following up with the plan. Otherwise I would have made it into some kind of artistic project
and posted the pictures on SM.
I still have the ring. Maybe next Valentine's 
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Melgar
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If you have extra silver and want to put it in a form where you'd get a bit more money for it, then silver nitrate isn't a bad idea. But silver
nitrate DEFINITELY isn't worth it to buy the silver and then sell the salt. Since silver nitrate is used in the purification and isolation of silver,
a process that adds a step for you might actually be saving a step for someone else.
If you want to do something like this, PdCl2 has much better margins and still moves moderately fast. You just need to buy an ounce to get anywhere
near the spot price. But because the price of Pd is much more volatile than the price of Ag, there's more potential for making money by watching the
markets.
The first step in the process of learning something is admitting that you don't know it already.
I'm givin' the spam shields max power at full warp, but they just dinna have the power! We're gonna have to evacuate to new forum software!
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VSEPR_VOID
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| Quote: Originally posted by Melgar | If you have extra silver and want to put it in a form where you'd get a bit more money for it, then silver nitrate isn't a bad idea. But silver
nitrate DEFINITELY isn't worth it to buy the silver and then sell the salt. Since silver nitrate is used in the purification and isolation of silver,
a process that adds a step for you might actually be saving a step for someone else.
If you want to do something like this, PdCl2 has much better margins and still moves moderately fast. You just need to buy an ounce to get anywhere
near the spot price. But because the price of Pd is much more volatile than the price of Ag, there's more potential for making money by watching the
markets. |
I have some extra silver and plenty of nitric aci. I will try that first. I will consider PdCl2 but the entry price is indeed high! I will keep my out
for good prices on both.
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Loptr
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You can sell silver nitrate on eBay. I have been in violation of their hazardous materials policy lately, and had to move a couple of listings to pick
up only as a result, so I have been reading into this lately.
They follow the USPS Pub 52 Appendix A listing of materials and requirements. If you can ship it via USPS, then they accept it. It doesn't matter if
you can legally ship it via UPS or FedEx, that is what they use.
Here is a pic of the silver nitrate entry. It can be shipped as ORM-D or under Limited Quantity exemption.
[Edited on 19-2-2018 by Loptr]
"Question everything generally thought to be obvious." - Dieter Rams
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VSEPR_VOID
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| Quote: Originally posted by Loptr | You can sell silver nitrate on eBay. I have been in violation of their hazardous materials policy lately, and had to move a couple of listings to pick
up only as a result, so I have been reading into this lately.
They follow the USPS Pub 52 Appendix A listing of materials and requirements. If you can ship it via USPS, then they accept it. It doesn't matter if
you can legally ship it via UPS or FedEx, that is what they use.
Here is a pic of the silver nitrate entry. It can be shipped as ORM-D or under Limited Quantity exemption.
[Edited on 19-2-2018 by Loptr] |
How much is limited quality
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Fleaker
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25 kg by ground is the quantity.
I do not think making silver nitrate is a profitable endeavor to do at home. At one facility I have been to, they consume about 50-60 million ounces
of silver per year.
FYI markup on bulk silver nitrate is nothing...about $8.30/kg premium relative to silver spot for silver nitrate (and there's 20.4175 oz tr / kg
AgNO3). That is for 99,999% material, <0.01% moisture, ICP-MS tested.
Now, repackaging silver nitrate and selling it...that's profitable!
Nitric is $0.07/lb at the scales the big boys are using!
Neither flask nor beaker.
"Kid, you don't even know just what you don't know. "
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Sulaiman
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Maybe you could answer a question that has been bugging me,
answeres vary depending upon source,
some say that PURE silver nitrate is not particularly photosensitive,
do you know if the 99.999% silver nitrate is/was photosensitive ?
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Fleaker
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It is not at all photosensitive.
Neither is silver acetate.
Neither flask nor beaker.
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