Today many companies’ promises to buy your gold scrap, still when you want to sell it you should be careful, well informed, and not too greedy. Sure, you want a lot of money when selling your jewelry and other items, but you have to be realistic.
Finding someone to buy your items won’t be hard, but getting good prices takes time and planning.
When you want to sell gold, it is important to know what you have, what it’s worth and know what to expect while selling gold.
Gold coins are one of the commonly sold items. Selling these is a little trickier than going to your local jewelry shop. The first step is to determine whether they are gold bullion coins—basically, gold minted into coin form—or numismatic coins.
Numismatic coins are rare coins that hold special interest for collectors, and their value is based not only on the gold they contain but also their rarity, condition, demand and year of mintage. So keep in mind the type of coin that you have before you try to make a sale. These coins are not just weight and determine carat value for selling price.
Selling gold bullion—in the form of small bars or government issued coins—is fairly straightforward because they come in standard weights and purities, therefore the current prices should be easy to find.
A bar will be stamped with a number that indicates its purity—either .999 or .995. You may even have a certificate of authenticity from when you bought it. You may want to include that certificate when selling bullion that you posses.
Selling coins produced by a government mint can be somewhat easy because they come in standard weights, such as 1-ounce, half-ounce, or quarter-ounce so you can quickly determine the prices. The purity is also standard, the American Buffalo and the Canada Maple Leaf, for example, are .999 while the American Eagle and the South African Krugerrand are .917.
More about gold fineness marks you can find on this article.
Like we wrote already the best way to sell jewelry is to first separate it into groups based on purity—14 karat in one pile, 18 karat in another and so on. Then you can weigh the pieces together and know what amount for sale you have.
When you want to sell gold that’s old jewelry and other scrap metal—dental fillings or crowns, nuggets, or electronic components—you might not know the weight and purity. A local jewelry shop can help you by weighing the pieces on a scale, and testing the purity with a Carat test kit.
When selling bars, coins or other valuables, make sure the clerk weighs your pieces in front of you, and if you don’t trust their scale, test it yourself. Weigh a nickel on the scale. U.S. nickels always weigh 5 grams. If the scale says anything less than 4.9 grams, walk away and find somewhere else to sell your bullion. You want to find the best prices possible, but you don’t want to go selling your items to buyers who won’t give you accurate prices.
