Used gold jewelry..what markup have you paid?

[mermaid76]

Hi folks...some of you out there have a lot of experience buying used...what kind of markups do you normally see for used gold jewelry? I am talking about jewelry made only of gold...no gemstones! I use a gold calculator that prices the gold for weight and purity based on market, and some of the markups I see in retail stores is crazy like 200-300%!!
Also..have you ever bought at market value of gold (ie paid no markup whatsoever??)

 

[Bron357]

Unless the gold is scrap ie not a wearable piece of jewellery it is typically only worth what you can get for melt value.
However when you buy/sell wearable used gold jewellery it has an additional wearability premium ie a pair of earrings wearable and matching probably 5% maybe 10% more than melt whereas 2 earrings, same amount of gold you can only expect melt.
In terms of types of jewellery I think that gold necklaces attract the highest wearability premium, 20% plus premium over melt, then bracelets, then probably rings and earrings equally last. Rings are great if they are your size but it’s expensive to resize a ring, earrings, not everyone has pierced ears and some people think 2nd hand earrings unclean.
If you buy brand new gold jewellery you are paying taxes, insurance, shop rent, shop staff salaries and shop profit so that $200 item only has $100 worth of gold in it anyway. So if you want to buy the best value gold jewellery buy pre loved, pay only the wearability premium over melt value.

 

[mermaid76]

I agree with you Bron357. The more I realize the extent of the markups with retail, the more I am inclined to go for vintage / pre-loved. The older pieces have way better workmanship and quality too, I feel. I recently scored a couple of gold (18k and 14k) necklaces at around spot price (including taxes!!!)..so super excited about that..and was wondering if that is common in the used market or not...seems not after doing some research...so yayyyy meee :