The cash for gold place I went to was a jewelry store. When I went in I was directed to a desk to get my gold evaluated. The jeweler first tested my gold with a magnet too make sure it wasn’t just gold plate. The rings passed that test, which I wasn’t sure that they would. He then looked at the rings with a loupe and found that they were marked 10 karat. That is the lowest grade of gold there is, but at least the rings weren’t just gold plated. He then rubbed the rings on a stone and put a drop of solution on the stone which confirmed the rings were 10 karat gold.
The jeweler then weighed the rings on his scale. Unfortunately, they were very small and lightweight rings and only weighed 2 grams together. I was offered $20 for the rings plus the $10 bonus for the coupon and I accepted. It seemed like a pretty good deal since I wasn’t going to be using the rings anyway.
I later did the math and it was a fair offer. At first glance it didn’t seem like a good deal. After factoring in that there are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce and 10 karat gold is only 41% pure, the price I received for my gold was fair. I probably should have done the math before selling the gold since I couldn’t have done much after selling it if I didn’t get a good deal. Since it was such a small amount I wasn’t too concerned.
It seems that selling any gold you have laying around can be a pretty good deal. Especially if you have a coupon. Has anyone else tried selling gold?
Interesting experience. The only gold I have sold is gold bullion coins on eBay. Never actually done the broker thing for scrap jewelry.
I thought about buying gold bullion a few years ago when you could get the Bing cashback on eBay, but I never did.
Thanks for sharing how it went for you; I’ve always wondered how those places were!
I don’t own any gold so have never had the chance to trade any in. I think gold has lost itself with the younger generation.
I didn’t have much and I doubt I’ll have more anytime soon.
Never have but my uncle works at a jeweler and I know they buy quite a bit, so there’s plenty of selling going on!
I would think the selling would have subsided by now, but they do still seem to be advertising a lot.
I’ve always wondered how those places worked. I see the commercials alll the time.
They do run a lot of commercials.
They show a lot of commercials on TV and I always wondered how they worked. Thank you for sharing your experience. I do wonder though where is the gold turned in by people headed? Is the government buying it?
I don’t think the government is buying it. I’m guessing they have buyers that will pay them pretty much the full price.
Interesting. I’ve never sold any precious metals, but I did used to sell my baseball cards (back when they were worth something). They usually paid 50% of retail, which was awesome as a 10 year old 🙂
The baseball cards were a pretty good deal. I don’t think you could get that deal any more.
Most of the time gold selling places will give you a poor price. They make money on the spread between buying and selling. So for example if the spot price of gold is 1,500 per oz they’ll buy from you for like 1,300 and sell to you for like 1,600.
So your bottom line is that you’re better off arranging a private sale to someone who will give the full value of what the metal is worth. Avoid the cash for gold people – their business model means you get jacked.
Best,
James
They have got to make a profit too. With as little gold as I had to sell I think I got a pretty good deal.