I want opinions. I don’t want to be cheated but am trying to find a place to buy my mothers gold wedding band, which was bought for her in 1955. What should it go for?
Typically things made out of gold are worth the weight of the gold in them, in most cases regardless of it’s history. If the ring is gold without any other stones or anything in it, it’s very likely to be worth what a nugget of gold which weighs the same amount is worth.
Can you tell the gold content in it (24K, etc.)?
I am no expert, its not yellow gold though, its lighter.
Are there any markings on the inside of the ring?
nope.
The guy weighed it and offered 30$. i am considering it.
As mentioned, it will be bought simply for the scrap value of the metal. Your ring is most likely 14K (50% gold) or 18K, or somewhat unlikely 22K. 24K rings are seldom made, because pure gold is rather soft. At under 14K (I’ve seen some 12K rings), most places won’t bother buying it. Color has nothing to do with purity, merely what the gold has been alloyed with.
What you can do is this: Find a jewelers or a good pawn broker and ask them if they can test the ring for you. This means either shaving off a thin layer of gold onto a piece of stone and applying acids to it, or comparing volume to weight. This will let you know how much gold you’ve actually got. You can compare this to general gold prices to see if you’re getting a fair deal.
Generally, you’ll be given a better price at a jeweler than at a pawn shop, since most pawn shops sell forfeited items on to jewelers themselves.
-IWorkedASummerInCollegeAsAPawnBroker
The guy first looked at it with the viewer, then tested it. I wasn’t sure what testing meant (thanks) so they seem somewhat professional.
Ditto this and the rest of the good advice. Many jewelers who advertise that they do jewelry repair are also buyers.
I reckon your Mama knows and doesn’t mind that you’re selling it? Are you sure letting go of an item with that kind of history is worth it for $30? And that you won’t regret it?
Look at me, worrying about strangers on the Internet again. :rolleyes: I am such an ol’ hen…
I’ll third the “jeweler over pawnbroker” and add that if you have a coin dealer in your area, it may be worth running past them. They/we/more active coin shops deal in metals every day and are constantly shipping things to smelters - in other words, we have enough volume to meet the smelting fees and then some easily. It allows us to pay a higher percentage than a lot of the jewelers and others who buy gold. In fact, some of them would buy from you and then end up carrying it in to us to sell.
Don’t mail it to one of those places that advertise on television and in magazines “we buy gold”. The company I work for has tested several through third parties and at best they will pay roughly 50% of what a local buyer would. I wouldn’t call them a scam but they are not what I would call a good choice either.
And before you ask, a single basic band (or almost any other “melt” gold) would not be worth the time or risk to mail to us. If you had a jar of them, maybe ------- but if you had a jar of them there would be some other questions involved over and above “what’s the best way to sell them”.