HOW TO SELL GOLD

It's important to have a little knowledge about your gold and the gold business as you start thinking about taking advantage of record gold prices by selling your unwanted jewelry, gold, and silver. We've put together a basic guide for you so you know what to expect, whether you're selling online or locally. Just like most businesses, there are reputable businesses, and there are dishonest ones. Some knowledge of what you have is necessary to make sure that you're getting good value for your pieces.

Investigate the dealer you are interested in working with to assure yourself of their policies, practices, and reputation before entrusting them with your valuables. Again, we've done our best to assemble listing of reputable local dealers on our site, but should you choose to work with someone that isn't listed, it's imperative you do a little research and make sure you are working with someone that you can trust.

How To #1: Determine the Value of Your Gold

1) Find all the gold you wish to sell. Most gold buyers are interested in sending in your goods to a refinery, so if you have sentimental or historical pieces, rare coins, or other pieces sought-after beyond their value for just gold, be sure to keep them separate or consider selling them to someone specializing in collectibles. Most pieces and coins, however, are worth more in their pure gold value and can be sent to cash for gold companies. Don't attempt to clean or repair anything: it's likely that you will only damage them and decrease their value. If any of your pieces came with authenticity or papers, be sure to keep them available
2) Using a magnifying glass, determine the karat value of your pieces and separate them into groups. Most pieces will have number designations on them, for example “500” would indicate it contains 50.0% gold, or 12k.
3) Some gold will not have designations on them. These include but are not limited to gold bars, electronics, and dental scrap. Sometimes the marking is erased or worn off as well. To determine the value of these, we recommend you get 3 quotes from local dealers. Mistakes can be made, so use a few different reputable people to determine the gold purity.
4) Use a gram scale to weigh each karat group (weigh all the 18k gold at the same time, for example). If you're measuring in ounces, multiple that number by 28.35.
5) Enter the weight appropriately into our [link]Gold Value Calculator[/link] and hit “calculate total” once you are done to find the total amount you can expect to get from your gold.

Want to know the market value of gold if you owned a refinery?

1) Calculate the number of troy ounces: (# of grams) divided by (31.1) = total troy ounces.
2) Compute the price of gold per gram. Take today's price of gold per ounce (use goldprice.org for reference), and divide by 31.1 again.
3) Pure gold is 24k. Divide the purity of your gold by 24 (if it's 12k gold, 12/24 = .5).
4) Multiple the results of (2) x (3).
5) Multiple the price per gram by the number of total grams you have.

In this example, you'll find the actual value of your gold. Don't expect jewelers to be paying this amount. They have costs associated with sending the gold to a refinery and melting it down, so expect something closer to the 50-85% payout range based on how much gold you are sending in. The more gold you have, usually the better rate you will get.

How To #2: Find a Place to Sell Your Gold

There are jewelers all over the place the claim to pay the most for your gold. As we've warned on many occasions... be careful! Use our website to [link]locate a gold buyer[/link] in your area, and do your homework so you know you're getting a fair deal.

If you are selling online, make sure you check out our [link]Selling Gold Online[/link] guide and do your research on finding a reputable dealer that pays top dollar.

How To #3: Sell Gold Offline

If you're afraid of the internet and prefer to negotiate for things, selling offline is probably the right option for you. Locate and research a local dealer, get a couple different quotes, and you can sell your gold pieces relatively quickly and easily if you do this effectively. It takes a little more time and you may not make quite as much, but at least you don't have to send your gold off to a stranger.

Use our directory wisely to find [link]cash for gold locations[/link] and work with reputable dealers. Bring in all your pieces for quotes, especially the unique ones.

How To #4: Sell Gold Online

Over the past several years, the online gold buying market has gotten very competitive. This is great for you, the consumer. While the industry got an early bad reputation from a couple large companies paying very little amounts, that just isn't the case anymore. Several trustworthy online buyers have sprouted and are competing to pay top dollar for your unwanted gold. Again, good for you.

These sites are best for old, broken, and unwanted pieces of small gold. If you have rare pieces with historical significance or rarity, you might be better suited to sell them to a collectible store or on eBay.

Pick a company with a great customer service rating. Most of them will be more than happy to assist you over the phone and talk about any interesting pieces you have and what they may be able to pay for them. These companies are fairly flexible, so you can do anything from selling intricate pieces to a bunch of old, broken old.