Quote:
Originally Posted by cinnamon01
Does everyone who buys gold pay the same or how do you know if you are getting a good price?
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it is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
What kind of gold do you have?
I'll tell you my experiences selling gold jewelry and sterling silver flatware in York County.
sterling silver:
my pieces had sterling imprinted on the forks and spoons. My only source to sell was the local paper or the Charlotte Craigslist. I got offers of $9.00 per piece, another person offered 25 cents a gram though sterling silver was selling for about 53 cents per gram. Finally the best offer came in. He was offering 32 cents a gram. They have to make a profit and it cost money to melt it down, etc. I had 13 pieces and received $260. I thought that was as good as I could do. Only a collector with the last name starting with the letter H (since mine were engraved) or someone wanting to hold the sterling for higher prices were unlikely.
I got over $20 per piece. The buyer actually counted the entire weight of the knives even though the only the handle is sterling.
Should I have gone to a jeweler or pawn shop? Not based on my gold watch.
This watch had a tag on it that said 100% gold. I let a well known Rock Hill jelewer look at it and with just a cosmetic look and "if' it was 24 carat they said 400-500 dollars. Ok, that sounded good. I went for a 2nd opinion at another jeweler who advertises on TV (hint) and the guy's back was turned to me for a few seconds. Maybe he popped the back off and saw something inside. He offered $40 to melt it down for the gold content.
so much for a 2nd opinion. I went to a local pawn shop, actually 3 of them. The best offer was $75. The last one removed the back of the watch and that revealed that is was not 100% gold (24 carat) it was 10 carat. It was a well known vintage brand name. This seemed to shoot a hole in the 400-500 estimate that assumed 24 carat. I looked on Ebay too and saw nothing big for this watch. Then I saw another independent jeweler in Rock Hill. I stopped in there and I knew what all the others had told me.
The guy offered $350 = sold....!!....considering I only had 10 carat and it was not free of imperfections as far as scratches. It's cheap to replace the crystal so maybe they planned to resell it as a nice watch.
So, your choices on your gold are:
pawn shops
Craigslist
local paper
Ebay
local jewelers
get lucky and find an investor who wants to hold your gold for higher prices
As I found out pawn shops and jewers and Craigslist can be a very wide range of prices. I think I got the most I could get for my sterling and the watch.
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