I was watching a King of Queens marathon late last night and my viewing enjoyment was continually being disrupted by those ubiquitous Cash4Gold ads that urge viewers to collect their unwanted jewelry so it can be turned into “cold, hard, cash!”
After the 40th commercial, I finally decided to give up and TiVo the rest of the marathon.
This cash for gold thing would have made a great episode of the King of Queens. I could see it now: Doug and Carrie kick Arthur out of the house and, in order to make up for the lost rent, they decide to collect some of their old gold jewelry so they can turn it into a quick buck. Of course, Doug would accidentally include Carrie’s wedding ring in the return envelope and be forced to spend the rest of the episode trying to get the ring back.
The Los Angeles Times recently wrote a piece on Cash4Gold that revealed, not surprisingly, their promise to pay “top dollar” doesn’t always translate into big bucks.
In fairness, Jeff Aronson, CEO of Cash4Gold, defends the gold refinery on several grounds. In the Times’ article, he points out that melting down jewelry is “not always the right way for somebody to monetize,” and that his website makes this clear.
Yes, when it comes to converting gold to cash you have multiple alternatives from which to choose. But which one is the best option? Well, unfortunately there is no right answer as each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
If you decide that you do want to convert your old gold jewelry to cash, you should first take a minute to consider the time, effort, and monetary trade-offs that your available options offer. A quick-look summary of my evaluation and overview of the five alternatives follows (click on the image to make it larger):
Gold Refiners
Refiners such as Cash4Gold can get you money quickly with very little effort. The trade off is their payout is very poor, typically no more than 10% of retail, although price-per-ounce payouts tend to be higher when you have more than 10 ounces of gold to sell. They send you an envelope, and you return your gold to them. The refiners then determine a value and send you a check about a week later. If you’re happy, you cash it. Otherwise you have 15 days to return the check and get your gold back. If you are in a real hurry, there is also a “fast cash” option that allows you to deposit your payment directly into your checking account within 24 hours.
Pawn Shops
Pawn shops will evaluate your gold jewelry and offer you a price that is often two to three times higher than what the refiners will offer you. Convenience wise, you actually have to get off your butt and drive into what are usually the seedier parts of town. You may also have to go to multiple shops to get a somewhat decent offer.
Local Jewelry Stores
Oftentimes antique jewelry and/or jewelry of quality craftsmanship can be worth more than the value of the actual metal it contains. If your jewelry falls into either of those categories, jewelry stores will usually provide you with higher compensation than refiners and, to a lesser extent, pawn shops. The drawback is that you will most likely have to drive around to multiple stores to get the best price.
Ebay
Ebay also allows you to take advantage of the added value of your antique and/or high-craftsmanship gold jewelry. The nice thing about selling your gold jewelry on eBay is that you can ensure you will get a higher price than you would from the refiner by listing it with a minimum reserve price that is above the price of scrap gold. This option may be a bit easier than driving around to various jewelers, but the payout time is dependent on how long it takes to find a buyer.
Gold Parties
Gold parties such as My Gold Party and Party 4 Gold are the latest craze where friends get together, share some party snacks and meet with a gold buyer who assesses their jewelry. In many cases, cash is paid on the spot. The host or hostess gets a commission based upon the party’s total take. If you are selling, it doesn’t get much easier than this. However, payouts are not much better than other refiners.
Personally, I have no intention of selling my gold. It is my opinion that the value of gold is destined to go higher over the long run. Besides, gold is an inflation hedge that protects your wealth against the declining value of the dollar — so it makes sense to hold on to it if the government is going to continue to debase our national currency by conjuring trillions of new dollars out of thin air.
But hey, if you need to raise some quick cash, it may be your only alternative.
With that, I see the TiVo has finished recording the marathon. It’s time to break open a bag of Cheetos (the puffed kind, of course) and a pour myself a cold drink, because I plan on watching Kevin James and Leah Rimini with no further commercial interruptions.
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We pay out much higher than most jewelers for gold. As with any industry, there are some bad apples. There are some gold party companies who pay far less. We hope and ask that most of our customers shop the competition prior to selling their gold to us. Knowledge is power. Shop around, get your best offer. At our gold parties, we make an offer and most are excited to accept it. Gold parties can be fun and profitable for all concerned.
Hey, it would help if you shared your website! Bad times?
There are several places where you can easily sell gold for cash like pawn shops jewelry stores or online cash for gold services. You may sell your gold jewelry for cash to any one of them but are you sure that you will be getting the best deal as each of them will recommend you a different price when you trade gold for cash?
Shop around, my suggestion always is this. Compare 3 places, everyone will claim to pay more so if you don’t shop around you will not know who truly does.
But rest assured, if you shop around by checking 3 different sources, you will find the best of those 3 at least!
Bottom line is, do your due dilligence. Otherwise your story will be the one that sold their items, then found out later from a friend or relative that the buyer down the street is paying double… It happens.
Find out how much it is worth before you sell it, go to golddropbox.com and they have an online calculator that tells you the worth of your items. You don’t have to sell it to them just being armed with that information you will know if someone is ripping you off or not.
good info thanks
Thanks for the great tips for selling gold. My wife has some jewelry that we want to sell so we can make some extra money for our trip this year. Taking them to a pawn shop sounds like a good idea, especially if they offer a good deal.
Len, I like how you talked about how local jewelers may buy your gold and offer a good price. I have some gold jewelry that I do not need and I appreciate the info!
Thank you. Hope the article helped.
That’s cool that you can actually get two or three times higher for your gold than refiners would give you at pawn shops. I’ve recently found a few pieces of jewelry in my mom’s attic that are very gaudy, and I or my mom don’t want to wear again. We were thinking that it would be nice to get some extra cash, so we’ll have to find somewhere to sell the gold to.
If you do need to end up selling your gold jewelry for cash you will want to make sure that you choose the right place to sell it. As the article points out, there are pros and cons to each choice you make. For example, while selling to a gold refiner is easiest you may not get the most money out of it, so you have to keep those factors in mind.
Len, I recently inherited some jewelry from a family member and I need to sell the items to help with my family’s expenses. Thank you for the information!
Good article. My aunt recently passed down a box’s worth of jewelry to us before she passed. We are currently short on funds, so I think I might pay our local pawn shop a visit.
Thank you for pointing out that you can sell to gold refiners. My husband has some old gold he doesn’t want and I want to sell it. I’ll have to look into finding the best place to sell gold in my area.
You’ve got great tips for selling gold. Everyone should take a minute to consider their options. We’re hoping pawn shops are good because there’s no wait. We’re also hoping to get some quick cash, so that may be what we go with.
When going through my jewelry box recently, I noticed I have a lot of old gold jewelry I no longer wear, and your article had some great tips for what I could do with this. Thanks; I’ll keep this in mind when selling my old gold jewelry.
You’re welcome, Jocelyn. Glad you found it helpful.
Good post, Len. I have some old jewelry that I’ve been thinking about selling to help pay the bills. I’ll probably sell it to a jewelry shop since it could be worth more than just the precious metal in it.
This is golden opportunity to buy gold and silver in very low rate as compare to market rate, I want to sell gold in large amount , If anyone is interested let me know
Len: My wife and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary next month, but we don’t have enough money to go on a trip, so this article was really helpful. It would be great if we could find someone to appraise some of her old jewelry so that we can get extra cash and take a trip.
Happy Anniversary, Dean!
You made a great point about local stores and how they can give you the best value for your pieces. My husband has an old gold necklace his mother gave him and he got almost $100 for it!
Selling old fold jewelry is a great way to ensure you have some extra emergency money on hand. I also agree that jewelry can provide a better price if the craftsmanship is higher and worth more than the metal in the piece.