TWO INDIUM 99.99% MIN PURITY 1KG INGOTS, METAL, ELEMENT Start Price USD 1,300.00 Current Price USD 1,300.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Sunday, October 05, 2008 End Time Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Location New York See more about 'TWO INDIUM 99.99% MIN PURITY 1KG INGOTS, METAL, ELEMENT' Description  This auction is for TWO (2) Beautiful Shiny 99.99% Purity INDIUM Ingots with a COMBINED weight of 2,072 grams (equivalent to 73 ounces, or 66 TROY ounces).  Shipping is by FedEx Priority Service!(For those who are interested in some background on Indium, please check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium). These INDIUM ingots are in excellent shape, with a beautiful, shiny collection quality luster.  "INDIUM" AND "99.99" (% purity) have been cast directly into the ingots, NOT stamped in afterwards.  THIS IS IMPORTANT as Indium comes NEW FROM THE FACTORY in various purities including 90%, 95%, 97%, 98% and 99%.  When buying UNMARKED Indium on the basis of a seller's "reported purity" (i.e. "the guy who gave it to me told me it was 99.99% pure, but he lost the original paperwork"), THERE IS NO WAY OF KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY BUYING, unless an original or subsequent certified analysis (typical cost $200-$400) is provided with the Indium.  Likewise, any of these lower grades can be punch stamped by hand AFTER THE FACT with standard punches.PLEASE NOTE - These ingots have tiny approx. 1/8" diameter drill holes on the back side of the ingot.  Please see photos to view the drill holes!If you are buying remelted Indium BE WARY!!  Indium very (very, very) readily picks up contamination from other metals.  If you are buying Indium or Indium Alloys which have been remelted, be aware that contact with a metal melting crucible or metal mold can add CONTAMINATION, reducing the PURITY, and therefore the VALUE of the Indium.  These particular Indium Ingots arrived to us in the White Boxes shown, a type used for collection quality ingots.  The ingots were in the plastic bags shown, but the usual styrofoam (EPS) trays were not in the boxes.  Please note our weighing photos show us weighing the ingot IN THE PLASTIC BAG, so that the ingot did not ever come into contact with the stainless steel stage of our precision 100mg tolerance scale.  For the record the bags weighed in at 1.3 grams.  The scale was adjusted to zero while the plastic bag was on the scale.  As a result the weight shown is the net weight of the ingot alone, without the plastic bag. When discussing 99.99% purity Indium, there are 0.01% total (metallic) impurities allowed to meet the 99.99% purity grade (99.99% PURE plus 0.01% IMPURITIES equals 100%, for the non-mathematically inclined).  That 0.01% of IMPURITIES is also expressed as 100 PPM (parts per million).  Each 1 PPM of impurities equates to 0.0001% impurities.  (Non-math inclined: 100 x 1PPM = 100PPM.  100 x 0.0001% = 0.01%).   Now if you look at the labels on the boxes, the impurity analyses are listed.  When impurities are measured, there are two basic limitations of the analysis equipment being used.  One is the Detection Limit, and the other is the Resolution.  The Resolution is how accurately an impurity can be measured when it is detected.  Some analysis equipment can measure +/- 0.1ppm, some +/- 1ppm, some +/- 5ppm, and some +/- 10ppm.  The Detection Limit is how small an amount of an impurity can be measured by the equipment.  Some analysis equipment can measure down to Detection Limits of 0.1ppm, some 1ppm, some 5ppm, and some 10ppm.  When a certain machine doesn't detect any amount of an impurity, they never say "zero" was detected.  They either say "ND" for the measurement (not detected), or they use a "<" (less than) sign, and they say that the amount was "less than" the Detection Limit of the machine.   When we look at the Analysis Data listed on the cover of the first box, the 1055gram ingot, we see that the impurities found were Cd 9ppm, Cu 2ppm, Pb 37ppm, Sn 8ppm, Tl 6ppm, for a total of 62ppm.  Fe, Ni, Zn were not detected at <1ppm detection limits.    The two ingots were produced at two different times.  It is apparent from looking at the different way the impurity data is reported, that these 2 ingots were analyzed for purity by 2 different laboratories, using 2 different types of equipment.   When we look at the Analysis Data listed on the cover of the second box, the 1017gram ingot, we see that Ag, Al, Bi, Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Sb, Tl, and Zn were all found to be "<10ppm" each.  This means that the analysis did not find any amount of these impurities during testing, but it can't be said that there are zero of these impurities.  The testing folks would know from experience that if these impurities existed at a certain minimum level or higher, that they could detect them with a high degree of confidence.  Since nothing was detected, they use the "<" sign to show that any impurities were below the minimum level they could confidently measure.  And the testing folks tend to be conservative.  In reality, if an impurity exists at levels between 5ppm and 9.9ppm, the analytical data would show some amount of the impurity was there, but the exact amount would not be able to be determined with very much confidence.  In this type of case, the impurity level would simply be listed as 10ppm, without the "less than" sign, or as "<= 10ppm", meaning the test data shows some amount of an impurity, but it is not clear exactly what amount.  When no amount of an impurity is detected, they trot out that "<" sign, and stick it with a figure representing their minimum confidence level threshold, in this case 10ppm.  Use this same explanation for Sn reported at <20ppm.   Why am I taking the time to explain all this?  Because any savvy consumer would look at this data and say "less then 10ppm? It must be 9.999ppm".  In reality this isn't they way the analytical guys operate, and if they report the levels as <10ppm, it's probably safe to say that the actual levels are below 5ppm.   The one firm figure on this analysis is Pb at <=20ppm.  This means they found Pb with a high degree of confidence.  They didn't bother to test further to determine the exact amount, but it was probably in the 15-20ppm range.  Why didn't they test further you might ask?  Well, in terms of impurities, they can have up to 100ppm of impurities to meet the 99.99% purity level.  They didn't find anything except Pb, so they call it "<=", they call everything else "<", and they move on.   If you have questions about this, email me. Now, having said all of this, there are a few points to be mentioned about the Indium market.  As little as 8 years ago, Indium metal sold for $40/kilogram ($18/pound).  Then LCD computer monitors started to become popular, followed by LCD Televisions, which both use INDIUM, and which all (unfortunately) seem to end up in the landfill once they break.  Some broken LCD's are shipped to China, India and Africa, where the Gold and Lead are recovered, but not the Indium.  If you missed Indium at $40/kg, you'll never see that price level again, just like you'll never again see Gold at $35/ounce, and Gasoline at 35 cents/gallon.  The good news (from a market standpoint) is that Indium is being used in Solar Panels, an application about to really take off since the Government seems to be (close to) realizing that dependence on foreign oil may not be a good long term strategy for we citizens who have become attached to both being able to buy gas for our cars and food for our families! At the same time, the Semiconductor industry is looking for the next generation of computer chip materials, and guess what keeps popping up in the news... Indium!  (mostly in the form of Indium Antimonide - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium_antimonide which is also referred to as its chemical formula "InSb").Here are a few articles worth perusing:#1) A company formed this year specifically for the purpose of hoarding Indium: http://www.secinfo.com/d12TC3.tbpz.htm#8ufy and their analysis of the appreciating price of Indium (scroll down to paragraph 6): [link is here, link name is too long to display] #2)  Breakthroughs in Solar Cell manufacturing (paragraph 4): http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9946415-54.html#3) A worst case scenario long term supply opinion covering Indium and several other critical metals (scroll down to table): http://www.edn.com/blog/980000298/post/780026078.html#4) A recent article on Intel's work with Indium based chips:http://compoundsemiconductor.net/cws/article/news/30667And FINALLY, a word about Indium as an "investment metal":Back in the 1980's and early 1990's 100% of all Indium metal in the market came from METALS PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTORS.  Companies using Indium in major manufacturing BOUGHT ONLY FROM THESE SOURCES.  Since the market was tightly controlled (as in how DeBeers controls the Diamond market), some geniuses (read con-artists), decided to sell Indium as an Investment Metal like Gold and Silver.   They sold what was then $30/kg Indium for triple and quadruple it's value, to Mom and Pop investors hoping to make a big return when Indium's high tech promise as an LCD material came to maturity. The problem was that even if the price went up, Mom and Pop had no way to sell their Indium.  Users both large and small always bought from the traditional manufacturing and distribution chain, NOT from individual holders of material.  Eventually the government came in and shut the whole activity down as a scam, WHICH IT WAS.However, what made the activity fraudulent was that investors were led to believe they could sell their Indium whenever they wanted, when in reality, the market at the time was not structured to allow individual investors to find willing buyers.Those were the days before the INTERNET AND EBAY!  Now small sellers and small users can completely bypass traditional distribution chains and do business directly and efficiently.  The large Industrial users of Indium (and Gold, Platinum, Silver, Tin, Zinc, Steel, etc.) will CONTINUE TO BUY THEIR HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF METALS THROUGH TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS, not through individuals.However, INDUSTRIAL activities will set the rising (and sometimes falling) price benchmarks for smaller users as well.  The Internet in general and eBay in particular have brought a liquidity to the specialty metals market which did not exist in the past.  Small users, small metal alloy shops, and researchers are turning to the Internet and eBay in increasing numbers for specialty metals because it's easy and economically efficient to use.We must ask bidders on this item to have at least 25 positive feedbacks with a Positive Feedback rate of 98% or more, and have a confirmed PayPal address in the USA, Canada, England, Germany or Japan.  If you do not meet these requirements, please contact us before bidding!   Thank you for viewing our Auction! 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