3 Myths of The Cash For Gold Business Exposed (and Three Truths Explained)

MYTH#1 – Selling pre-loved and broken jewelry for the gold value is a scam.

Busted!

In and of itself this is not true at all. Pawn brokers, refiners and antique gold sellers have been doing this trade for decades, even centuries! It is true, of course that no pawn shop or refiner is going to give you the price you paid for your jewelry when you originally bought it, but that’s not a scam, that’s business!

TRUTH#1 – Where there is truth in this statement is largely due to opportunistic companies trying to take advantage of the rush to sell precious metals at all time high prices. One way you can avoid this problem – at least with the internet business models – is see if the company has a gold price calculator on their site – many do because they want to demonstrate clearly that their offer is an honest one.

MYTH#2 – Old jewelry is worth more intact than as scrap

Busted!

No one is going to pay you anything but scrap value for broken items, single ear-rings, outmoded or out of date trinkets and general bric-a-brac. Silver too, is at all time high prices and everything from cutlery to trophies can have silver in them – but these items are not going to have intrinsic value – it’s the metal that is worth something!

TRUTH#2 – Sentimental value and antique value are two huge exceptions to this rule. Of course out of date can actually be “antique” and therefore have a lot of value -for these items you want to visit a fine jewellers store – they will be well placed to give you an indication of the item’s value and may even make you a good offer for the item in question. Sentimental value? Well this can only be measured by you – but if something was important to you once then the memory probably always will be – do you really want to let that go? Just be sure before you sell.

MYTH#3 – All prices paid by pawn shops, internet buyers and refiners for precious metals are the same.

Busted!

Not at all! We did our research and found the differences are enormous. Yes, of course you would think that if the metal itself is worth a fixed amount that, give or take the margin, the prices would be the same. This is somewhat true where you are dealing with the refiner direct – but a lot of the new entrants to the market seem to be trying to take advantage of a lack of knowledge on the part of the consumer. There are countless stories of people being paid very little – much less than the scrap value – for their jewelry. Again we recommend using the sites with calculators that will show you just how much you can expect – then compare them!

TRUTH#3

The most established players in this market are the refiners and pawn brokers and fine jewelry retailers.

When it comes to the precious metal contents value, refiners are the best for pricing. Refiners have been buying jewellers filings, scrap, dust and processing excess from manufacturers for many years. They have established rates and pay surprisingly high percentages for the metal they buy – typically the higher the quantity the higher the percentage they pay.

However, the quantities any individual might offer them are generally too small to get these rates. Pawn shops pay a variable rate as they will estimate the value based on the metal but hope to sell the item whole – if they don’t they package the item with others and send them off to a refiner.

The best solution for the individual seller is to find a refiner who has a retail website designed to cater for the small seller over the internet. Understand this is not the majority of the cash for gold type web site retailers. There are some however that are windows to a refiner and the very best rates can be as high as 90% for gold, 80% for silver and 80% for platinum. There are some good ones out there, but you have to tread carefully. Good luck!

Source by Sam JS Moore

3 Myths of The Cash For Gold Business Exposed (and Three Truths Explained)