Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Best way to sell old gold?

SB621

SB621

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
7,864
I have some old jewelry pieces that I don't wear and aren't worth reselling. I have already popped most of the stones out of them for recycle projects and at this point they have been sitting around for years. There are several places by my house that advertise for buying gold, but I wouldn't even know what competitve rates are for that. Plus it is hard for me to find the time to get down there....plus I hate to say it but I HATE going into places like that without DH.

The other option is doing it online. Can anyone recommend a website? I'm assuming the rates would be similar to rates in local stores???

Thanks in advance for any info!
 
I wouldn't want to pay for the postage to do it online. You don't have to go to one of the gold buying places. I have sold gold to two different jewelry stores. Just choose a couple of nicer ones and go in and tell them you are considering selling some scrap gold and you'd just like to see what they'd offer. Then go to the other. Obviously you could spend a lot of time and go multiple places, but I'd go to a couple and see who offers the most.
 
There are internet sites that estimate the scrap gold price for you - so you know if a jeweler is trying to snow you. :) Those Cash for Gold places are terrible.
 
It is somewhat hard to figure it out yourself especially if some of the gold is 14k and some is 18k, etc.,and you'd have to have scales, too!
 
Hi Sarah, I sold some of my platinum and 18K WG (ring settings) to my "go to" jewelry store and trusted them to give me the going rate. Honestly, even if it was off a bit the ease of the transaction made it worth my while. Though it is sort of far away for me but we combined it with a visit to my sister who is not far from the jewelry store.

Btw, I totally hear you on going to these places without your dh- some of them feel a bit sleazy. That's why I went to my "go to" jewelry store because it just doesn't feel that way there if you kwim. But going to some strange place would be uncomfortable for me- especially if I was alone. Good luck!
 
there are a lot of empty settings that go for scrap on Ebay - if you search for "scrap gold" there's a really active market. You have to weigh the pieces but I wonder if a kitchen scale that weighs in grams wouldn't be enough. I was trying to find a simple 14k setting and used to watch those... It doesn't exactly follow the daily gold spot price, but it gives you lots of data to compare to!
 
Gold currently at $1713.80 per troy ounce.

November 18, 2012, 12:53:30 PM

Per Pennyweight (dwt) a fair price follows:



10kt
$28.83

14kt
$40.89

18kt
$51.88

Be very cautious about selling your gold and other precious metals to those who do not clearly tell you how much they pay by the pennyweight(dwt) or gram(gr) based on a current market price. You ought to be able to clearly see the reading of weight on their scale so you know the weight yourself.

There are 20 dwt in a troy ounce and this ounce is different than the one used with a mail scale or for measuring the weight of food. Follow the steps below to understand pennyweight (dwt) estimation.

To approximate how much precious metal you may have and using your home mail scale simply multiply the readout in ounces by 18.2 and you will have the approximate pennyweight (dwt) that we all use with precious metals. There are 18.2dwt in aan avoirdupois ounce....

You will find very few "We Buy Gold" places, pawn shops or retail jewelry stores which pay as much as above, but when you do find such a place, then they are being fair to you. You may not find a local firm willing to go that high, but it is 100% possible to get the above prices per dwt if you know to ask for it...and don't cave in.
 
I think Dave above is a little high, at least for the buyers around here and for sellers with fairly standard quantities, but I absolutely agree that the buyers tend to be opaque about the math and what they’re paying and this is NOT in your best interest. Here’s the basic numbers to figure it out yourself:

Get the current gold price at www.kitco.com
Divide their listed gold price by 31.1 for grams or 20 for pennyweights.
Multiply the result by 0.41 for 10k, 0.56 for 14k, 0.73 for 18k.

That result is what’s known in the trade as ‘melt’. That’s 100% of the daily gold value being charged by the refiner to their volume customers. They’re paying the jeweler a few percent less than that. The spread between these is the refineries profit. The refineries generally have a minimum purchase requirement in the kilos and they are regulated in ways that prevent them from wanting to buy from the public. That's why those storefront jewelry buyer companies can exist.

The buyer/jeweler has costs and profit that get factored in and they normally pay 50%-75% of the above result. They’ll go up a bit if it’s saleable for them as jewelry and they’ll come down a bit if they think the karatage is off or there’s a bunch of non-gold material present in the piece. Any buyer worth considering should give you a straight answer on what they think your karatage is, what the weight is that they’re paying for, how much per gram/dwt they’re paying and what, if anything, they are paying for additional components like diamonds or other gems.
 
I have recently (in the last year) sold old gold to Pearlmans. I used it in trade towards a setting we were purchasing from them anyway.

They were great and detailed about the weights and what they'd pay. They were recommended here on PS and I was pleased with every step of the process. You can then use it towards trade on something else or they'll mail you a check.

This is a calculator from their website that can give you an idea of what you may get.
http://www.ppmaa.com/how-much-we-pay/
 
Here is what the Pearlman site is offering for 14 karat per dwt.
14K $31.86

A competing site is paying this other amount;
14K $41.37

The $31.86 is "fair and rather typical" of what is being paid to the public, but as you can readily see, there are competitors that will pay a substantially greater percentage of the value, close to 30% more.
 
Oldminer|1353344912|3310164 said:
Here is what the Pearlman site is offering for 14 karat per dwt.
14K $31.86

A competing site is paying this other amount;
14K $41.37

The $31.86 is "fair and rather typical" of what is being paid to the public, but as you can readily see, there are competitors that will pay a substantially greater percentage of the value, close to 30% more.
Click to expand...

Frankly, I would worry about a company offering to pay so much on small lots as that is leaving them no margin of error. One fake piece in the lot that slips by them will more than eat up all of the profit.

My refiner friends will take a larger lot and melt it then assay a sample of it before writing me a check. In the smaller lots that I normally deal in I must take a smaller percentage return (or pay a higher fee, which ever way you want to look at it). The price you show for 14kt above is approximately 86% of the melt price if you assume that the gold is actually the .56ct figure that Denver Appraiser gives. If you figure that the average small buyer pays between 5 and ten percent in fees depending on his refiner that leaves very little to cover shipping and insurance etc. (And that is before you pay an employee to test the gold and take care of the client that is selling the gold etc.)

I am not saying that the other website you mention could not legitimately be paying that, only that I would be wanting to be sure that the weight I sent was the weight credited and that the karatage was correctly figured. If I was a seller who did not know that site and could sell to someone I knew of and trusted, I might rather sell my few pieces to someone I know of on Pricescope that I could depend on to be square with me.

I think there might be a lot of people here who would be more comfortable asking Pearlman to pay a little better if he can and accepting his offer since he is a known entity here than dealing with an unknown who is paying a much higher price. He may be perfectly legit and a great deal, but until he has earned a reputation there will be those who prefer dealing with a trusted vendor that they at least know of.

Wink
 
I must retract some comments in my prior post. Upon further research I have discovered that the “high” 14K price quoted by Dave is not only legitimate, but offered by a professional whom I deem 1000% trustworthy. Wow... It’s actually a good feeling to realize my initial skepticism was misplaced. I’m a big fan of good news!!!

Wink
 
Wink|1353462535|3311581 said:
I must retract some comments in my prior post. Upon further research I have discovered that the “high” 14K price quoted by Dave is not only legitimate, but offered by a professional whom I deem 1000% trustworthy. Wow... It’s actually a good feeling to realize my initial skepticism was misplaced. I’m a big fan of good news!!!

Wink
Click to expand...


Um. Can you reveal who it is? Is it Dave himself? Cause I'd like to know where I can send a couple things.
 
Gypsy|1353464071|3311615 said:
Wink|1353462535|3311581 said:
I must retract some comments in my prior post. Upon further research I have discovered that the “high” 14K price quoted by Dave is not only legitimate, but offered by a professional whom I deem 1000% trustworthy. Wow... It’s actually a good feeling to realize my initial skepticism was misplaced. I’m a big fan of good news!!!

Wink
Click to expand...


Um. Can you reveal who it is? Is it Dave himself? Cause I'd like to know where I can send a couple things.
Click to expand...


Me too! :bigsmile:
 
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top