jewelry, melt or sell???

[ssilver]

Hey all, I''m new to the forum, thanx for the opportunity to ask my questions. For many years, long before it was popular to be a "Broken Gold" buyer I bought and hoarded used jewelry for my retirement. Well, I''m retired, now what? I always thought that someday I would find & sell the jewelry to a dealer for resale. There are diamonds & colored gem stones of all colors & size. Rings, pendants, chains, bracelets, pins & drops in 10, 14, 18K white & yellow gold. My thought was to perhaps trade my saleable manufactured jewelry for pure gold coin or bar this way I would always know the value of my hoard and someone would get a great buy on jewelry. The problem is that with the economy as-is people don''t seem to have the money to invest. Any other thoughts would be much appreciated

 

[neatfreak]

Well...you aren''t going to like this but unfortunately gold jewelry is not easy to sell for cash. Period. If you bought it at retail you are lucky to get 1/3 of what you paid. If you didn''t buy at retail you''d obviously do a bit better.

You might start by finding an independent appraiser to look over your goods and see what you actually have. They would be qualified to tell you whether it''s worth selling on it''s own or whether you''d want to melt it. Unfortunately if it''s 10 or 14k gold pieces they don''t actually have a ton of gold in them and there is significant cost in refining it back down again.

 

[partgypsy]

I would first go to a local jeweler and see if willing to buy jewelry for cost of gold, and see if what they offer it is worth it to you. (what you do with the money is up to you, could buy more gold with it if that''s your preference).
Out of curiosity my sister in the past month took a gold bracelet (purchased for $100 on ebay last year) to a jeweler to see what they would give for the cost of gold, and they offered her $140. Gold prices are actually pretty high right now. The thing is they are only going to give you the price of the gold, not the workmanship or gemstones.
Other option is to try to individually sell the pieces on Craig''s list or some such.

 

[ssilver]

Thanx for your replies, but you don''t get it! I have pounds many 100''s of pieces & I did NOT buy it new. A apraisal would be costly & of little use and I realize I will be dealing at a wholesale level.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 11/8/2009 3:49:52 PM
Author: ssilver
Thanx for your replies, but you don't get it! I have pounds many 100's of pieces & I did NOT buy it new. A apraisal would be costly & of little use and I realize I will be dealing at a wholesale level.

Well then what do you want from us? We gave you suggestions of some options to dealing with it-but this is a consumer forum. Unfortunately jewelry and stones are not usually a good investment and selling even a few pieces can sometimes be a pain. So selling hundreds of pieces is likely to take a lot of time unless you are willing to just find a shop willing to buy it from you.

If you don't want to have it appraised then each piece must not be worth very much, correct? Or else it would certainly be worth the cost of the appraisal to know what you have. You said "diamonds of all sizes" well what KIND of sizes? Because tiny diamonds aren't worth much and bigger ones are very much worth an appraisal to know what you have.

 

[ssilver]

Dear consumer, my mistake, usually folks on the forums are friendly, helpful & informative I will move on & find a more friendly site. Thank you for your responce!

 

[Indylady]

Ssilver, the posters that replied to your post are friendly, helpful, and informative. I think you have mis-interpreted the sound advice that has been given.

 

[FrekeChild]

I''d start by going to pawn shops and seeing how much they''d give you.

And when you aren''t giving specifics about the jewelry, like "I have X pounds of 10kt, X pounds of 14kt and X pounds of 18kt, and the diamonds range in size from really tiny to X ct, with gemstones being minimal" or whatever, we aren''t going to be able to give you the best information or price estimates.

I am surprised at your attitude towards these posters who have tried to help.

The best way to go about getting an idea of the information you seek would be to measure all of your stuff and itemize it. Separate by color and karats of gold, whether a piece has diamonds, gemstones or anything else, and list everything out, for example:

Plain gold:

Yellow
10kt- 5 pounds
14kt- 2 pounds
18kt- 3 pounds

White
10kt- 1 pounds
14kt- 4 pounds
18kt- .75 pounds

With diamonds or gemstones:
Yellow
10kt- 10 pounds
14kt- 2 pounds
18kt- .75 pounds

White
10kt- 1 pounds
14kt- .25 pounds
18kt- .5 pounds

And go from there....

 

[D&T]

you might find that selling them on ebay, will get you a better price sometimes, as people are always looking for pieces that you may not want.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

I think a jewelry making forum would be of more use. Benchjewellers often send their own scrap to a refiners, in exchange for new gold or cash.

 

[partgypsy]

As an addendum my sister decided to go ahead sell the bracelet to have some Christmas money, $160. Not bad for a bracelet purchased a year ago off Ebay for $100! Man if I had some gold jewelry laying around I didn''t want, I know what I''d be doing.

 

[tyty333]

Date: 11/12/2009 12:57:42 PM
Author: part gypsy
As an addendum my sister decided to go ahead sell the bracelet to have some Christmas money, $160. Not bad for a bracelet purchased a year ago off Ebay for $100! Man if I had some gold jewelry laying around I didn''t want, I know what I''d be doing.

Did your sister just sell it for the gold? I have a fair amount of beat up gold that there is no reason to keep. I wonder
if I should hit a jeweler or a pawn shop with it. Could be some money for a new project.

 

[partgypsy]

yes apparently that was just the gold value. Seems now a good time to see what price you''ll fetch, especially if you''re not attached to the piece.

 

[tyty333]

Most of my stuff is broke and not fixable so there is really nothing to be attached to. I do have some nice gold chains that I will
probably never wear again (big flat chains that arent in style) but I was going to keep them. I dont know why I would keep
something that I will probably never wear again?

 

[diamondringlover]

Date: 11/14/2009 8:05:21 PM
Author: tyty333
Most of my stuff is broke and not fixable so there is really nothing to be attached to. I do have some nice gold chains that I will
probably never wear again (big flat chains that arent in style) but I was going to keep them. I dont know why I would keep
something that I will probably never wear again?

I had some old jewerly, broken chains, one earring, ect. I had both 10k and 14K and trust me there wasnt much at all, I decided to melt it, what else would I do with it, it was all broken, much to my delight I got almost $220 bucks out it and seriously there wasnt that much there, I say if you arent going to ever wear them then it might be a good idea to melt them...you might get more money then if you tried to sell them!

 

[tyty333]

Date: 11/20/2009 10:00:09 AM
Author: diamondrnglover

Date: 11/14/2009 8:05:21 PM
Author: tyty333
Most of my stuff is broke and not fixable so there is really nothing to be attached to. I do have some nice gold chains that I will
probably never wear again (big flat chains that arent in style) but I was going to keep them. I dont know why I would keep
something that I will probably never wear again?

I had some old jewerly, broken chains, one earring, ect. I had both 10k and 14K and trust me there wasnt much at all, I decided to melt it, what else would I do with it, it was all broken, much to my delight I got almost $220 bucks out it and seriously there wasnt that much there, I say if you arent going to ever wear them then it might be a good idea to melt them...you might get more money then if you tried to sell them!

Thanks DRL...I think I'm going to make some phone calls next week and see where I can get the best bang for my broken
stuff...and maybe the out of style stuff that I'll never wear again too!

EDIT - I called a few places and the price I got for 14k scrap was $16 a penny weight. I wonder if that is good? I have
no idea how much penny weight I have. Guess I'll find out next week.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Anybody have any suggestions for selling gold in Philly?

 

[Stone Hunter]

I''m not in Philly but around here local jewelry stores are buying gold. I''m thinking about selling some of my stuff, just things I''ll never wear again. HTH