First-time prospector? Three questions.

Find Your First Bag — a lab-confirmed Grubstake pick.

Tell us your budget, panning experience, and the U.S. claim you want it sourced from. We'll pair your answers with a bag whose gold weight is published before the bag ships.

Start the quiz Read the glossary See buyer reviews

Cochrane HillLot CSS-0731
LABCERT · 2026-Q30.412 g Au

Sourced from five U.S. states

Every bag is tagged to a specific claim, not a generic source.

Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Idaho. Paydirt is pulled at a named claim by its operator — never from a repackaging house — and the lot ID travels with the bag so you can verify what is in it.

AKPlacer & bench
Alaska
Nome / Circle belt
COLode & tailings
Colorado
Clear Creek / Animas
GAHistoric ore
Georgia
Dahlonega / Pine Mtn.
NCHill placers
North Carolina
Henderson / Mohave fork
IDGranite bed
Idaho
Boise Basin / Warren

Lab-confirmed · certificate posted before shipment

The chain of provenance a $200 bag of dirt has to earn.

"Guaranteed gold" only means anything when a buyer can verify it. We publish a lab number, a batch photo, and the operator's name before each bag ships, so the certificate is a real artifact — not a marketing line on the back of a USPS label.

Step 01
Sourced
Pulled at a named U.S. claim by its operator — never from a generic repackaging house.
Step 02
Lab-confirmed
A third-party assay reports the actual gold weight in milligrams for each production batch.
Step 03
Posted
Certificate and unboxing photo are published with the batch number before the bag ships.
Step 04
Sealed
Tamper-evident seal and the lot ID travel with the bag so the buyer can re-verify on receipt.

A real certificate, not a mark

Lab report · Lot CSS · 2026-07

Reported by an independent assayer. Each certificate we publish matches a specific production batch; the lot ID travels with the bag from the named claim to the buyer’s door.

Gold: 0.412 g
Black sand: 812 g
Quartz: 94 g
Origin: Cochran Hill

A real batch report separates gold content from mineral content the way an honest comparison should. See exactly how we disclose this →

Curated to where Amazon already wins

Three price bands. One catalog. None of them looks like a gimmick.

The kit is built for the buyer who just watched their first unboxing video. The 1 lb bag is the repeat-purchase SKU. The multi-gram bag is the one hobbyists will tell their friends about.

Avg AOV driver

Starter kit

$48

14" pan, classifier set, two vials, and one 1 lb bag — the same one we sell at $24, paired so a first-timer can run a single afternoon without buying three things.

Entry SKU

1 lb paydirt

$24–$68

One-pound bag, single-claim origin, lab-confirmed gold weight. Certificate and unboxing photo posted before the bag ships.

Hero SKU

Multi-gram bag

$200+

Guaranteed gold: pre-weighed, photographed, and third-party confirmed. The customer sees the lab number before the bag goes in the box.

Adjacent SKU

Browse equipment

$13–$215

Sluices, scoops, classifiers, and mats — every price band a hobby buyer compares, with variants sized for the comparative purchase.

Browse equipment →

Distribution

Three storefronts, three purposes.

Shopify
Storytelling
Subscription paydirt drops and the bundled kits — the story, the lot, the certificate.
Amazon FBA
Reach
The $35–$82 hobby sluices and 1 lb bags where search-intent buyers already shop.
Etsy
Hand-curated
Hand-curated regional batches — Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina — for the small-batch buyer.

FAQ

What a hobby prospector actually asks before buying.

Five honest answers to the questions we get in our inbox every week. If yours is not here, the address below goes to a real inbox.

Is the gold weight really guaranteed?
Yes — every multi-gram bag ships with a third-party assay posted alongside the bag photo. One-gram bags are lab-screened rather than guaranteed, and the listing says so in plain language.
Where does the paydirt come from?
Five U.S. states — Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Idaho. Each lot is tagged to a specific claim and operator; nothing is repackaged from a generic aggregator.
How do you handle FTC scrutiny on paydirt claims?
We separate gold content from mineral content in every listing and on every certificate. If a bag contains 0.4 g of placer gold and 800 g of black sand, that is what the certificate reads.
Do you ship outside the U.S.?
Not yet. International shipping for paydirt would need a sealed chain we cannot guarantee yet — but it is on next year's roadmap.
Why a kit instead of just the bag?
Bundles lift AOV the same way they do in every entry-priced category, and a first-timer needs a pan and a classifier to make the bag pay. The kit is built around that, not around upsell pressure.

Next step

Subscribe to a paydirt drop, or ask us a real question.

We do not run a chatbot. The address below routes to the operator on the claim this week. Use it for catalog questions, lot certificates, or to ask whether the next batch of Colorado origin is from a placer you have actually heard of.

Contact · grubstake-goods@polsia.app Read about the five states →