I want to sell some gold I have, not because I need the money or think gold selling & buying is a business, but because I don’t want/like these particular pieces and would rather have the cash. And I figure doing it at a time when gold is at a record high is the best of times.
When I was a teen I used to go with my parents/family to an Indian shop, and they’d haggle, and get good prices. Well, I simply don’t haggle. I could go to an Indian shop, but the ones I know are reliable are three + hours away (Edison, NJ, or Jackson Heights, Queens).
I know there are some places around here but truth be told I don’t really know what to look for. I would like to get the best price possible for my gold, a fair price, but as I said, I am in no mood to haggle.
So does anyone know what I should be looking for in a good shop?
If you need a different piece of jewelry, or a watch, or something like that, look for a decent independent jeweler. They will give you a pretty good price as trade. For that matter they will often have better prices for scrap gold than many more well known places.
You are in the DC area, right? I know of a couple of good places in Prince William County that treated us fairly. PM me if you need business names.
I hadn’t really decided yet if I wanted to replace it or just take the cash. I suppose if I found something I liked, I’d replace it with something prettier. But how do I know what to look for in a “decent independent jeweler”?
I am curious as to why you think constantly devaluing deteriorating paper money will suddenly change course and hold its value better than gold?
Gold is not at a record high, instead, the US dollar is at an all time low. The US dollar at the time of Roosevelt used to be worth 1/20th of an ounce of gold, today, the US dollar is now barely worth just 1/1600th of an ounce of gold.
The declining US dollar is now at all time lows. Do you think something is about to change to make the US dollar be worth more? and if so, what? What about the trillions of additional debt?
A couple of broken chains and unfashionable rings won’t make much of a difference in a wealth portfolio, Susanann.
As for a jeweler you trust, look for online reviews. Get quotes from several jewelers. Look for things that tip you off one way or another.
Our guy makes his own line of watches - affordable watches at that. That’s a dedication to his craft that is pretty admirable, and makes me trust him with my own watches for repair work.
You may want to check local listings for precious metals dealers. I had some silver to unload a while back, so I went to a guy who primarily deals in rare coins, but also buys gold, silver, and platinum. Nice shop, nice guy, wrote me a check for spot price right there.
You could also consider having the pieces melted down and made into something else - I know a number of people who did this when they had items they no longer liked, were broken, etc.
As to finding a good jeweler near you? Well, I dunno - I would ask friends if they had someone they like - lots of people have their wedding rings or other items made (as opposed to buying in a mall store) and don’t necessarily broadcast that info. I would ask around.
Do you know how much gold you have in the pieces? Like, would you be able to weigh it out to even a tenth of an ounce?
First, you’ll need that info to be able to bargain effectively at any shop you take it to. But more than that, I’d even suggest the route of eBay as a possibility.
Gold coins are currently selling at around $1,600 an ounce on eBay pretty consistently. I’d imagine one ounce of gold in anything would net you about the same.
Now, there’s going to be Paypal fees and eBay fees to consider which will knock off around 15% of whatever you would sell it for.
So here’s what I suggest. Take it to some shops. If they’re willing to offer anywhere from $110-$130 per tenth of an ounce for the gold (70%-80% of what you can get on eBay), you may want to consider selling to them. You get the convenience of just dumping it with no hassle and they get an item with a built in profit margin. Win-win.
Or you can just sell it on eBay yourself and try to score as much as possible.
We sold some gold some time ago now. My recommendation is to shop around a number of places before making a decision. We had much better luck with independent jewelers (we looked for long-established shops) than heavily advertised WE! BUY! GOLD! places.
Do you have Yelp in your area? I found an estate jeweler/gemologist who has his own little shop, takes his time with you, explains how he determines gold content in your jewelry (how much gold will be left after melting), and gives the market price (scrap value) minus something like 18%, which is very fair. You may be able to find someplace similar if you can Yelp it.
I do a bit of water metal detecting and sell gold from time to time. The best deals I’ve found are from refineries like Midwest, Empire, etc. You can usually get around 95-97% melt value.
The watch repair shop at our local PX (they rent space in the store) put out fliers not too long ago annoucing they were buying gold. I stopped in to ask them about it and they told me they do the same thing I was already doing. They buy for about 80% melt value, box it up and ship it off.
If your pieces have valuable stones in them a jewler may be a better option. I usually just pay someone to remove the stones and save them for possible future use, like designing a new ring for the wife.
Wow, really? Jewelers won’t give you even nearly that much in my experience (which makes sense, they have overhead and they have to ship it out to a refinery themselves and such). How much gold do you usually sell them? Is there a minimum they will handle? Is it 14K, or purer than that?
All of my stuff is at minimum 22K carat gold, which is one big reason why I don’t want to go to a place like Glenpeter. Perhaps they know what they’re doing, but I’ve never felt it from them at all. All of their stock is 14K, and they are not nice, personable people unless you are in there to spend thousands of dollars.
I went to Nina’s in Vermont once - utterly rude - so I am a bit hesitant about going to non-Indian jewelers in the first place. Yes, it was only once, but first impressions rule, unfortunately!
As to the pieces. Well, it’s like this. One of the pieces is a ring that the top of it is about 1.5 inches long. I cannot wear it; it gets caught in my hair, it’s tacky, it’s atrocious. Another is a set of earrings. Solid gold studs have to have huge posts and they hurt to put in my ears and will no doubt expand the holes. Things like that.
I don’t have stones in most of my jewelery, it’s just gold. I won’t sell online, not gold, not ever.
Really, I want to be able to shop around and decide - if there is a piece there that catches my eye, I’d prefer to “trade in” some of my old pieces. If not, then perhaps I’ll just sell them. I’m not really doing it for the money, either, I’m doing it because these pieces of gold are literally just sitting in my jewelry box and I don’t like them much.
I usually wait until I have several pieces before I sell. I like to get at least a few hundred dollars. Midwest (the company I’ve used the most) doesn’t have a minimum and karats don’t matter. What I usually do is separate everything into karat values or silver (which they also refine and pay %90 melt) in labeled zip loc bags. I also weigh it as well, even though my scale doesn’t measure troy ounces, just to have a close approximation. Then I mail it with insurance and all the bells and whistles.
I learned all this stuff on metal detecting message boards when I was getting into the hobby. It definitely paid off. I’ve paid for all of my equipment several times over.