Selling gold.

[Vinca]

Does anyone have a reliable place to sell gold by mail? Our local jeweler only pays about a third of the going price for gold. I find bits here and there and sell it every so often, but I'm always on the lookout for a better price.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. I hope someone has some info.

I've got lots & lots of cheap 14k gold jewelry lying around. Mostly earrings with lost mates, bent bangles (I'm soo careless at times) broken anklets that I left lying around in my purse until they mangled themselves, etc. I would be more than happy to sell it & clean out my jewelry case.

[yy4me]

2. I can try and give you a quick lesson in selling gold but to make

sure I understand what you mean when you say your jeweler only pays about a third of the going price for gold, please elaborate. Do you mean he will pay you about a third of the daily selling price on the worldwide market? The price you see and hear about daily? Example: today's closing price for gold is $672.03 per oz.

[Vinca]

3. Yes, that's what I mean. I assume he's selling it elsewhere

and making a good profit. I'm happy to have him make a buck, but since he's the only game in town I don't think I'm getting the best deal that I could. I want to find out who he's selling to!

[yy4me]

4. By way of what will probably be a long answer to your question,

let me first tell you that I am no expert on buying and selling of gold but I did work for a precious metals refiner for a time.

When anyone buys gold, mostly in the form of jewelry, it is a joy to give and receive but is not a good investment. Those people with the means to invest in gold by purchasing ingots, coins, bars etc. do so in the hope that their investment will appreciate as the worldwide price of gold rises. The gold in these ingots, bars, coins is pure gold. It is the price of pure gold that is quoted on the daily markets, principally based on the daily London Fix. The daily price per ounce is information readily available on the stock market pages in the newspaper. Usually "spot metals".
The list will include gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium. All precious, all very expensive=well, silver, not so much.

When you wish to sell old jewelry, you are not selling pure gold. You are selling scrap that is part gold, part alloy. This material is no good to anyone until it is refined and put back into a pure state. This process is expensive and complicated.

Never buy jewelry as an investment. It has lost most of its value as soon as you walk out the door. Depending on the karat, your jewelry can be less than half gold. Pure gold is 24 karat, 14K is 14 parts gold, 10 parts alloy. The lower the karat, the higher the percent of alloy.

That said, keep in mind that whoever you sell to will have to have the metal refined so that he can make some money on the transaction and turn the scrap into usable metal. Your local dealer may sell your "scrap" to a larger buyer who can then have the accumulated metal refined or perhaps your jeweler will have it refined himself. The cost of refining in very high. He will be charged a refining fee plus a fee per ounce of gold recovered (the pure part).

Your material may be marked but some will probably need to be tested to assure that it is gold and not plate or just some base metal. Gold plate is virtually worthless. You would need a ton of it to recover enough to cover the refining fee.

If your jeweler is offering you a third of the daily London fix per ounce of gold scrap, that does not seem bad to me. Considering the alloy factor that I have tried to explain plus his costs to refine the metal, I'd take the money and run.

Precious Metals Refiners do not, as a rule, deal with the public. They refine large lots, not the amounts we may accumulate. Their customers would be required to fill out papers attesting to business status and probably fill out tax ID forms etc. They have to make sure that the business that is having the metal refined (hence untraceable) is the rightful owner of the goods.

Precious metals are also bought and sold based on the Troy ounce. Different from our pounds and ounces. Call your jeweler and see what he is paying per pennyweight and compare that with what others will give you. There are 20 pennyweights to a troy ounce, 12 troy ounces to a Troy pound. Have your scrap weighed. If gold is $672.03 per troy ounce pure on August 31 2007, and your gold is all 14K (about half gold) and you have 7 pennyweights, you can do some simple math to see if you think the offer is fair to both you and the person to whom you are selling (keeping those fees in mind)plus his cost of doing business. A reputable dealer is apt to give you a better price than a pawnbroker or one of the "buying gold for cash" places. Your lot should be weighed in front of you so you know what you have. Watch the market, if it goes up, you can judge whether to sell or hedge against the future. Always keep in mind that it can just as easily go down.


Some of your jewelry may be marked with 3 digit numbers such as 375(10K),485, 525,750:(18K), all accepted as being called gold but the lower the number, the more alloy, the lower the value.

It is confusing and I have forgotten a lot but you'll have to do your footwork. My personal bet and this is not advice, but I think it will go higher as the world economy goes to heck. I don't have much scrap but if it hits $700.00, I'm going to try and see if I can get rid of some stuff.

Good luck.

[zabet]

5. Wow!

The best explanation I have seen concerning selling scrap.
Thank you - VERY informative!!!
:thumbsup:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

6. Thank you!

:thumbsup:

:yourock:

[Vinca]

7. Thanks for all the valuable information.

I have a gold testing kit so I usually have an idea what I have, even if it isn't marked. Antique jewelry I generally sell as antique jewelry, but the odd gold wedding band or other bit of gold I sell as a lot every so often. I hadn't taken into account the fact that jewelry isn't pure gold, so maybe the jeweler is actually the best deal in town. I never buy the stuff as an investment, but when you're at a yard sale and spot something you're pretty sure is gold for a quarter, you buy it.

[yy4me]

8. Absolutely, I'm always picking up bits of jewelry and old

silver at yard sales, flea markets and similar sources. In a prior life, I was an Antiques dealer for 25 years, dealing primarily in furniture but with a sideline in Jewelry and silver. A back injury ended that career and it was from that background that I went to work for the refiner.

I'll pick up gold stuff in any form, new, old or whatever. I keep the gold jewelry if it is old and of a pleasing design, the junky stuff goes into the scrap box as my "someday" fund. The silver scrap will probably never be enough to sell. It takes about 50 pounds of scrap to make that worth the refining fee and effort. But a sterling spoon for a quarter..can't leave it. Good to chat with a dealer. Do you have a shop?

[Vinca]

9. Once it gets into your blood you're hooked for life.

I rent space in a group shop and sell on ebay once in awhile. I never pass up sterling, either, even though the only value is if it happens to be a piece by a good designer. It's getting harder and harder to find anything anymore, gold or silver - the area seems to be picked clean. Last weekend I found a really sweet, antique, gold pin in a sewing box, but that was about it. Still searching for that elusive copy of the Declaration of Independence. LOL. Did you hear about the lady who found the painting by Jackson Pollock at a yard sale but the art world doesn't believe it's by him even though a forensic expert found his fingerprint on it? I think someone offered her a million bucks for it, but she turned it down. Gutsy lady.

[yy4me]

10. I would have grabbed the million and run. If the painting

is real, well, bad choice I guess. If it is not real, she is going to regret not taking the offer for the rest of her life. I'd have taken the $$$ and let the next owner worry about it.

I'll be heading to Indiana next week, will hit every Antique shop from the Mass Pike to our final destination.

Happy hunting!