Money Meltdown

Money Meltdown

Synopsis

Four independent teams of precious metal experts hunt for rare metals in the most unusual of places, all looking to cash-out big at The Meltdown.

Episodes

Season 1
  • Newcomers

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    Three urban treasure hunters battle the market and fierce competition as they seek out precious metals in unorthodox places and melt them down for cash.

  • Newbies Dash For Cash

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    Russell and Terence take a trip to an estate sale and meet Retro Robin. Russell quickly surmises that theres not a lot of precious metal valuables, except for a sterling silver tea set. They use an acid test and discover its real, but now they have to haggle with the tough negotiator Robin if they hope to turn a profit. Meanwhile, Ron and Melanie go to an auction house to bid on silver items. Ron gets carried away and overpays on a bunch of silver pieces, and theyre $5,000 in the hole before the day is over.

  • Bite The Bullet

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    Rich gets exclusive access to a manufacturing equipment warehouse and goes treasure hunting for precious metals in the equipments old components. When he finds a robotic arm from an old auto assembly line, he relies on his Detroit background to hopefully turn it into a payday. Meanwhile, Dave knows that catalytic converters use platinum, so he gets down and dirty crawling under every old car he can find until he ends up at the wrong end of a shotgun. And Diego looks to profit from the discards of surplus shops, but his search takes a turn when he realizes hes been searching in the right places, but looking for the wrong things.

  • Break The Bank

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    Dave decides its time to fulfill a longtime goal and get his hands on some old gold mining equipment, theorizing that it may contain dirt and rock residue that may in turn contain gold. But while there may be gold in "them thar mills," Dave discovers its going to be a lot tougher to get at it than he initially anticipated. Meanwhile, Rich gets a lead on an old building and gets the chance to search it for anything that might contain precious metals. He quickly finds out the old building contains an enormous locked vault. And Diego hits up a tattoo artist to find gold in an unlikely place

  • Standing On A Gold Mine

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    Daves crew thinks hes nuts when he decides to rip up his new property, a former jewelry store and workshop, but Dave thinks theres gold hidden in and under the carpeting. Hes excited when his suspicions are confirmed, but extracting the gold dust from the carpet tiles proves to be a much more frustrating and expensive task than Dave ever imagined. Elsewhere, Diego gets a lead on a vintage electronics dealer and brings his buddy James along, expecting to find the mother lode in vintage motherboards. What they do find are a lot of headaches. Meanwhile, Richs search for precious metals leads him to an antiques dealer selling off an entire storage...

  • Ready To Rock-It

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    Rich hunts for old rocket parts because he thinks theyre made with precious metals to withstand the intense heat. He meets up with Waldo, a dreamer trying to break the land speed record by putting a rocket engine onto a car. Meanwhile, Dave looks for treasure in the form of a photo processing filter used to recover silver found on photo paper. But will he find enough to make it worth his effort? And Diego looks for a trophy as his prize. As long as its made of real silver, any shaped trophy will do, because the trophy Diego really wants at the end of the day is shaped like a bar of silver.

  • Coffin Up Cash

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    Rich wants to buy solar panels for the silver components inside, but new panels are expensive so he has to buy broken panels. Then he learns that its nearly impossible to get the silver out of any solar panels by himself, so hes forced to pay a professional $1,000 to do the joba big gamble. Dave is playing it safe, making no initial investment in the used dental X-ray fixer solution hes gathering up from local dentists. Used to develop X-rays, fixer removes the silver from the film and contains silver residue. But will Dave find enough fixer with silver to make it worth his time? Meanwhile, Diegos made a reasonable investment of $450 to buy a...

  • Platinum Payday

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    Diego uncovers a giant score in platinum, but to come up with the cash to make the deal happen, he has to not only liquidate his entire bank account, but also has to pawn his beloved motorcycle. He's fairly confident he's doing the right thing until he begins to extract his platinum, which comes off in ultra-thin, hair-like strands, and wonders if he put his entire life on the line for nothing. Elsewhere, Rich's hunt for precious metals leads him to a recording studio, where a rapper is trying to sell a bunch of bling. Rich is excited to see the treasure trove laid out for him, until he realizes it's all fake. Meanwhile, Dave uncovers an old cell...

  • Cash In The Chem Lab

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    Dave and his buddies get access to an abandoned aluminum factory that was once the largest on the planet. Inside could be tons of precious metals that were never collected, but they only have three hours to search the building. And once they find what they're looking for, will they even be able to get it out? Meanwhile, Rich visits a high school chemistry class that is updating its lab. Chemistry equipment often contains precious metals, so Rich searches the lab for traces of anything valuable. What he ends up finding is the last thing he expected. And Diego visits an auto salvage yard on the hunt for spark plugs that contain small strands of...

  • Fight of Flight

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    Diego knows that some of the older components in avionics have gold and silver in them. He finds an old plane being sold for parts and makes a deal that he can keep whatever he can pull out. But when the sun sets, Diego has to be finished, and he'll have to walk away from whatever precious metals he couldn't get in time. Dave wants to help an elderly couple raise money for moving expenses to a retirement home by going through their possessions and determining what has value. Problem is, every time Dave finds anything worth money, the couple can't give up their sentimental attachment and refuses to sell. Rich has always been interested in music...

  • Silver Sword, Golden Pig

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    Diego explores the martial arts world in search of weapons that might be made with precious metals. He hits a dead end with a master sensei, but the sensei refers him to a surly ancient weapons dealer. Rich knows that marine testing equipment was made with precious metals in order to withstand salt water corrosion. He visits a warehouse that turns out to be a treasure trove of old test equipment, but little worth buying is available for sale. And Dave travels 200 miles to visit a gold mine in search of crystalized gold, one of the rarest forms of gold on the planet. He strikes out in finding any gold in the mine, but when he coaxes some raw specimens...

  • No Country For Gold Men

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    Dave finds a stamp mill, a device used to crush rocks into powder in order to get the gold out. Dave recruits his dad and buddies Jim and Dan to help him recover the gold powder from the ground. Diego goes to a race track because he thinks there might be old silver horseshoes, but when a trainer suggests he might find silver and platinum at the nearby horse hospital, he goes there instead. Rich heads out to a Wild West theme ranch used for movie shoots and theme weddings hoping to find precious metal antiques, but the owner wont let him search through the cowboy movie props.