Tips for Selling Your Unwanted Gold Jewellery

Image by Bryan Allison via Flickr

In the last few years, gold prices have risen about 70 percent. Since the beginning, gold has been easily recyclable. It’s good both the environment and the economy. Once gold was originally created, it never gets thrown away, as it can easily be melted down to create something new. Many companies from gold parties to online sites to legitimate pawn brokers will and want to buy your gold. Typically, you can sell all kinds of gold, ranging from fine gold jewellery to gold coins to gold teeth.

Tips for selling your unwanted gold jewellery

If you’ve looked inside your jewellery box and saw you have many pieces you never wear or that you have an old gold coin collection and need the money, consider selling it. However, you need to be cautious in knowing if your items are good for melting down for scrap or if you own a hidden antique treasure. Most pieces are fine, but some gold trinkets may be replicas of a historical piece and actually worth a great deal of money more than scrap. Once you’ve eliminated that, try some of these tips for selling your unwanted gold jewellery:

• Determine if your jewellery is a good candidate for melting and recycling into new goods. For example, heavy gold chains and bracelets, especially from the 1970s are good candidates because they are no longer fashionable and don’t have a high resale value. However, they contain a high gold content so you can make a substantial amount of money. You can very likely use the gold (or the money from it) to curate custom-made jewellery of your liking with help from expert jewellers at stores like this one. This way, you get to keep the gold and wear it as something new and fashionable.

• If your gold has not been unused for a while, it may need some polishing. If you know how to clean gold, you can do it yourself, or else consider reaching out to a gold retailer. Once this is done, decide where to sell your gold. Choose a reputable shop like a local jeweller or a well-known pawnshop. Those that buy and sell jewellery are registered. Ask them for estimates on what your jewellery is worth and don’t be afraid to do your research and compare prices and a few different places.

• Get your jewellery and other gold items appraised first. Gold coins, especially, include many variables like the carats, the rarity, and the condition. Typically, gold dental fillings are made from 16 carat gold and can be resold at many shops, and some even include platinum in it as a hardening agent which can be valued and resold as well.

• Know the value of gold yourself, realizing that most items are not 100 pure gold. Only 24 carat items are pure gold, while 18 carat gold items are only 75 percent, and 14 carat are only around 58 percent. Knowing the Price of 24 karat gold in Canada or the place you live in, will give you an idea about the market value of your pure gold items. Although the global spot price is single, the local price of gold can vary slightly across different markets and regions due to factors such as currency exchange rates, local supply and demand, and trading fees. Thus, determining the purity and assessing the market value is very crucial before you decide to sell your jewellery.

• Pay attention to carats. In particular if you go to a Gold Party, don’t mix the jewellery and accept the rate given by the lowest rate. Instead, make sure you take the time to separate your jewellery by carat weight ahead of time. This applies to selling your gold jewellery at a shop as well. Once you know you’ve separated it correctly, watch the scale. Determine that the shop is paying you by the gram and not by the pennyweight, as you would lose money this way.

Old jewellery is often worth its weight in gold, but remember to use caution so that you make a good return, as well as don’t accidentally sell an antique necklace which would’ve sold for more money in its present condition than melted down.