# How much gold do people typically own? (Q re: gold buying outlets) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2011, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186 "2011-01-19T10:51:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/21 "2011-01-20T14:44:35Z")
^^^ The work is nice, but of little actual value especially on a mass market piece. > [@samclem](#): > > What do you call “chip” in reference to diamonds? If they’re really that small, and the band is 14K, there’s little likelyhood it really cost him $1600. It was probably tagged with that retail price, and he got it for $700-1000. Still a rediculous price. > > The fact is, you still only have about $75-150 in gold. And that’s all it’s ever gonna be worth on the resale market. The “chips” in that ring are pin head sized stones and there are probably 9 of them. It’s also white gold, which would have commanded an additional Mall Premium most likely. Add in the fact that he lives in Cook county Illinois and there’s a 10% sales tax and I can see him paying in the $1500’s for it and rounding up his number. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/22 "2011-01-20T19:59:38Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > There are currently at least 3 if not 4 gold buying outlets in my hometown of about 40,000 people. 5 years ago there were none. 3 year ago there was 1 and now a relative explosion of them. I’m curious how these are viable businesses. I know times are tough for many people here and they’re looking for cash but in the first instance how much gold is lying around in people’s houses that it is worth renting a premises to target them. I understand the mail order method and that too is used here but an actual store whose only purpose is CASH 4 GOLD, in a smallish town seems completely unviable to me. All I can tell you is my personal experience. After many years of adulthood/marriage/being related to in-laws that don’t believe in banks, my spouse and I had acquired some gold. I will point out that this was NOT jewelry type gold, not the cheap 14 karat stuff that seems on sale everywhere. This was gold purchased in good times as an _investment_, actual hunks of metal, some of it gifts from the in-laws-who-don’t-believe-in-banks. Also, a stash of dental gold - said in-laws apparently don’t much believe in brushing teeth or dentists either, many acquiring gold dental work before finally surrendering their teeth and getting dentures. We _inherited_ some of this dental gold, believe it or not. Now, it’s no secret we’ve fallen on hard times here at the Broomstick household, and at a certain point we decided to cash in our gold hoard. We did NOT go to the pop-up little shops, we did not send anything through the mail. We went to jewelers, and shopped around. We finally settled on a local guy who’s been here something like 25 years and has been buying/selling gold, coins, jewelry, and the like during that time. He assayed our items, explained how much actual gold was in each piece, and gave us 75% of the value of that gold. Realistically, that’s about as much as Joe Public is going to get because the dealer needs to cover his overhead and make enough to live on himself. Now, our items were all 18 karat or better - that’s quite different than 14 karat chains that are common gold jewelry. We also had a significant amount. We received a sum comfortably in the four digits for our stash, which altogether weighed about two ounces. A couple notes here: 1. Our gold was high quality - meaning it was high gold content, not little works of art. You don’t get squat for the artistic value when you sell gold in this manner. 2. For dental gold you don’t have to remove it from the teeth. Actually, it’s almost better if you don’t because then it’s obvious to all concerned what sort of gold it is. 3. 14 karat jewelry frankly isn’t worth much. There’s not enough gold per unit of weight. Gold jewelry that has truly high value isn’t common, isn’t sold at a mall kiosk, is expensive, and is heavy. It also is somewhat delicate, being softer than 14 karat, which is one reason 14 karat became popular for jewelry - it wears better. Sure, you have some 14 karat stuff you don’t want, go ahead and get some money for it, just be aware it’s probably not worth as much as you might think it is. 4. Gold buyers, as previously noted, range all over the place. Some give you as little as 10% gold value. Others, more commonly from what we found, give 25-40% of value. You CAN get a higher return - we did, after all, get about 75% - but you will have to shop around, ask questions, and do some research. 5. In my opinion/experience the companies advertising on TV are rip-offs. The little pop-up businesses mentioned by the OP frequently are as well. They make their money off people who want a fast buck but can’t be bothered to research. They also may or may not be happy to deal in items of dubious legality (that is, they may be acting as a fence for thieves). You want to go to someone who’s been around awhile, has a good reputation, is willing to explain why he is valuing your items as he does, and will pay a high percentage of the gold value. 6. The little pop-up shops mentioned in the OP are viable because they’re making a large profit margin off people who aren’t well informed, who are desperate, or who are selling stuff they stole. If they give the seller 10-20% on the true gold value they’re pocketing most of the rest. And, as someone else noted, they’re pretty mobile. When a local market dries up they can just go elsewhere and do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/23 "2011-01-20T20:06:06Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Gold is currently selling for about £27/$43 a gram. Not sure how pure or how heavy a gold tooth would be, a few grams maybe? Gold alloys used in dentistry range from 10% to 90%+ gold. So it’s impossible to say without examining the item in question. My in-laws favored a high gold content for their dental work. Or at least their dentists did. In this case mileage certainly WILL vary. As samclem noted, some places will simply buy all dental gold as if were a specific karat value. The guy we went to actually analyzed our gold to determine it’s actual karat value, which ranged from 18-20 karats for the dental work. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/24 "2011-01-20T21:45:12Z")
What about selling it to other gold bugs? I’d think one would get near full price if you could verify its weight/quality. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/25 "2011-01-21T02:50:41Z")
Back to the original question: when times are hard, people sell things. When times are really hard, people sell things for far below what they are worth. Therefore, those small gold buyers are making a huge amount of profit by paying a fraction of what the item is worth. It doesn’t have to be gold, it could be golf clubs, computers, shoes, etc. The same phenomena happened in my area, but instead of gold buyers it was pawn shops. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/26 "2011-01-21T03:13:00Z")
Most of the cash for gold places I’ve seen _are_ pawn shops. If you’ve already got the premises and everything anyway, it’s basically no effort at all to set up a side line to your business. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/29 "2013-03-07T15:05:36Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Everyone should keep in mind that when such prices are quoted, that is for pure gold. Jewelry is often 18 karat, which is only 75% gold. Therefore, if someone would have one gram of 18k jewelry, and was offered £20/$32, that would represent **zero** profit, and anyone thinking otherwise should readjust his thinking. What happens if you have 22K gold? I have several pieces I’ve been thinking of trading in. I’d want to go to an Indian jeweler, though, just because I want Indian jewelry. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/30 "2013-03-07T17:28:00Z")
From what I found for comparison of gold coints - is this right? A 1/2OZ is about the size of those president dollar coins. A 1/10OZ is about the size of a dime and the thickness of a penny? And keep in mind, unless it is pure gold, what you have is diluted to 50% or 75%. Also, a lot of “gold” jewelry may be only be plated. As to the OP - I suspect since gold has jumped significantly in the last decades and the economy has been in the toilet, people see an opportunity to make quick money by getting others to empty out their jewelry box. People could have $100 items from decades ago that could be worth 4 or 5 times that now. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/31 "2013-03-07T17:58:09Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > What happens if you have 22K gold? I have several pieces I’ve been thinking of trading in. I’d want to go to an Indian jeweler, though, just because I want Indian jewelry. You’ll get a better deal having new pieces made out of your old ones than trading in the existing pieces. My mother’s family is almost entirely composed of Indian jewelers and they’ve made lots of custom pieces for my mother over the years. You’ll get a much better deal if you send your gold to India with a relative (or on a visit, or whatever) and have the work done there, just because the labor cost will be so much lower - but obviously it will be harder to get what you want. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186/32 "2013-03-07T20:05:24Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You’ll get a better deal having new pieces made out of your old ones than trading in the existing pieces. My mother’s family is almost entirely composed of Indian jewelers and they’ve made lots of custom pieces for my mother over the years. You’ll get a much better deal if you send your gold to India with a relative (or on a visit, or whatever) and have the work done there, just because the labor cost will be so much lower - but obviously it will be harder to get what you want. I think I will. I have a few earrings and the posts are HUGE…I don’t put them in because I don’t want my earring holes to look like my grandmother’s. Also there are some rings that are seriously dated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-gold-do-people-typically-own-q-re-gold-buying-outlets/568186.md?page=1)