Selling gold jewelry is a bit of a sign of the times. Many people today are scraping the bottom of the financial barrel and discovering a new source of wealth in their jewelry boxes. Jewelry that is broken, needing expensive repairs, forgotten jewelry, and out of style gold jewelry is being looked at in a new light. It is easy to go about selling gold jewelry. You can go for the straight gold weight value, or try to sell your better jewelry as just that, in hopes of finding higher prices than scrap gold will bring. Where to sell gold jewelry? Gold, silver, and other scrap metals are purchased by several outlets, scrap metal yards, pawn shops, internet gold and silver buyers, and other retail outlets such as antique stores. You may be able to place good jewelry in a consignment store also, where you set the price.

When dealing with scrap metal, prices will vary, and are set by the daily markets for gold, silver, platinum, copper, and other metals. The junk yard is the place to take big things like recovered metals from home repairs, and old junk vehicles. Your local pawn shop is a great outlet for selling jewelry as jewelry, and as scrap metal. Online gold and silver buyers are fairly new, and there is always unknown factors that may cause concern if you worry about losing items in shipping.

How To Sell Gold Jewelry

If you send items out for sale, you may get one offer for all, even though there may be items that are not normally purchased, such as junk jewelry. You probably will not get those items returned. Plus, there is the cost of shipping. The online buyer may say shipping is included, but you must know the shipping gets paid for somehow, maybe in lower buying prices. This is where you need to do some calling around and browsing to find the very best deals.

A simple way to test your jewelry before trying to sell it, is to find a magnet. If the item is gold, it will not cling to the magnet. The dealer can also do a scratch or acid test to determine gold quantity and quality. Many items will also be stamped with their content, such as .925 silver or 14K gold. Most jewelry is 10K, 12K, or 14K, but it can also be other karat values, up to 24K, which is pure gold. Pure gold is not normally used for jewelry, because it is soft. In Europe, 18K is very commonly used for jewelry.

If your item is 24K, it will bring the highest price. If it is 14K, it will bring about one half price. Prices are based on the daily market spot gold prices, which you can find on financial websites like www.cnbc.com. Your local jeweler has a reputation to protect, and will most likely give you the best prices. Gold today is running around $900 per ounce, and this is divided into either pennyweights or grams for smaller amounts. One ounce of gold equals 31.103 grams. The actual value today may look high compared to when you purchased something, but remember that in the past, the dollar may have been worth more than today.

Shopping around is important, because you will find different prices at different stores who advertise that they "buy sell gold jewelry". You may even find different prices during the same day at the same store, depending on the daily price fluctuations, and the dealer you work with. Some places may test out your jewelry at different karat values, so it is important to shop around and compare to get the best prices when you are selling gold jewelry. The differences could amount to hundreds of dollars.

Another thing that can affect the price you are offered is your knowledge, which is why it is important to know as much as you can about your jewelry. If you look like you know the market, you may get a better price offer. You will not get extra for gems that are part of your jewelry. If you have fancy gold jewelry with gems, you should try to see what kind of price you can get for it as jewelry, and not scrap gold. The dealer will deduct for the weight of any gems, or mechanisms such as the clock in a watch.

You will not get the full amount by weight either, as the store needs to make a profit. You might expect to get about 65% value. With gold around $900 an ounce, that would be about $29 per gram for 24K gold. A dealer would offer about $20 to $22 per gram to you. Good things to sell include old broken chains, rings that no longer fit or that you no longer want to keep, class rings, gold watches, bent jewelry, single earrings, and items with missing stones. Dental gold, pins, brooches, and bracelets are also valuable to sell.