Selling your gold items is unlikely to make you as much money as what they were worth new, but you could at least try to maximize the value you get from your gold. Here we have outlined some guidelines that will help you find the best price for your gold pieces.
1. First: Know the Value of Your Gold
It is really important to know what your gold is worth before you start looking for buyers and evaluating offers.
To value a gold item, first you need to know its karat.
Dividing the karat number by 24 will show you what fraction of the piece’s weight is accounted for by pure gold.
For example, a 10-karat gold ring that weighs 10 grams (the weight of any stones excluded) contains approximately 41.7% pure gold (10 divided by 24), or 4.17 grams.
In the above example, knowing that you have 4.17 grams of gold, you can estimate its value by multiplying its weight by its market price per gram.
Gold pricing information can be found online, but the prices on commodity exchanges will be higher than what you are likely to get from gold dealers.
To get a realistic estimate, reduce the gold exchange market price by about 20%-40%.
The result will be the approximate value of your items if you sell them as scrap gold, and this price will vary among dealers.
2. Next: Determine If Any of Your Gold Items Are Unique
Look at the gold you have, and see if there are any pieces that are likely to have some additional value as unique items.
For example, some could be sold as antiques. Such items are likely to fetch a price that is higher than their value as scrap gold.
3. Important: Decide If You Prefer Cash or a Trade-In Deal
Before you accept or reject any possible offers, you should decide for yourself whether you’d rather get cash for your gold or would also agree to a barter deal.
Some jewelry stores may be willing to offer you store credit for your gold jewelry instead of cash.
If you don’t mind purchasing another piece of jewelry in exchange for your gold, such a deal may prove to be worth more to you than a cash offer.
4. Collect Offers
Once you know how much gold you have and what its value is as scrap metal, you should start looking at offers to decide where you can get the highest price.
Here are the options you should consider:
Post Online Ads
You can try posting ads online to sell your gold jewelry. Take pictures of it, and make sure it looks clean and presentable.
To find its maximum selling price, start by putting a relatively high price tag, and reduce it gradually until someone expresses interest.
Auction Your Gold Items
Another way to get as high a price as possible is to offer your gold jewelry at an online auction. This option works best for vintage jewelry or collectible items.
Regular pieces of jewelry are less likely to sell for more than the price of their gold content, but you can always try and see what offers you will get.
Check Gold Dealers’ Offers
Ask several reputable gold dealers for quotes or check their websites to see what prices they offer. Gold dealers buy jewelry only for the metal content, and they won’t offer you more than what you could get at an auction, for example.
You should also compare the prices paid by a number of gold dealers – most of them should be roughly at the same level, but this will help you spot and eliminate offers that are too low compared with market prices.
Offer Your Gold to Jewelers
If you are willing to exchange your old gold jewelry for new jewelry, check the deals local stores will offer you. A trade-in deal with a jewelry store might prove better than a gold dealer’s price in terms of value.
5. Consider Selling Any Diamonds or Other Stones Separately
Many gold dealers will offer to buy your jewelry along with the stones in it, but they will not necessarily give you the best possible price.
Be sure to also ask diamond dealers or gemstone traders for offers, and see if you can get more money if you sell to them.
Jewelry stores are another option you should check out for selling your stones. Even if they don’t offer you a good cash deal, you might consider accepting store credit.
6. Compare All Offers and Then Decide
Don’t rush to sell to any single buyer before you’ve collected offers from all possible places where you could sell your gold.
Consider the offers you got online (including any possible shipping fees in your calculation), the prices gold dealers gave you, and the value of the deals offered by jewelers.
Make a decision only after you’ve weighed the pros and cons of each option.
