How to Sell Gold Jewelry the Right Way

Buying Gold and used jewelry has been a service provided by jewelers since the beginning of time. With gold being at record highs, it has become another aspect of the jewelry business the customer needs to understand better. From TV commercials, to web campaigns, to your local jeweler, I would like to explain the process, so if this is something you would like to do, you can do it with some information behind you, and reasonable expectations.

First and foremost, even though gold is at an all time high, it is very, very rare that you will receive the original price you paid for a piece of jewelry. You should only sell items that are broken, missing its other ½, or, “unwanted”. And when I say unwanted, it would be a great idea if you asked your family and close friends if they are interested in whatever you are selling before selling it. “Re-gifting” may work great here. Most jewelers will give you an “offer to buy”, so you may want to consider your friends or relatives after you talk to the jeweler and know the offer. You may not want to give a gift of a piece over $100.00, but for $20.00 it may make sense.

Refiners will pay for gold based upon the scrap only. They will melt it down and pay for only gold content, but want nothing to do with any value it may have as a reconditioned piece. A local jeweler will pay for scrap, but may pay extra if he thinks he can recondition the piece and sell it as previously owned. Estate jewelry is very popular, and a good value for the customer. The estate section in a jewelry store usually has pieces from a few years ago (not always antique), which are viewed as unique, and sometimes better engineered than today’s brand new pieces.

Stones are usually taken into consideration when jewelry is sold to a local jeweler. Diamonds are paid extra for, and almost anything else is actually deducted from the price. A jeweler can sell a diamond no matter what size, but has no resale outlet for the other stones, and will not pay gold weight for a birthstone, or pearl. Even if a jeweler is paying more to put a piece in the case, they are prepared for the fact that it may stay around for awhile, and need to be scraped inevitably if nobody falls in love with it and buys it.

If you have an insurance appraisal for the piece, and you wonder why the offer to buy is so different than the original sale price, I will try to explain that too.
When something is bought originally, the customer pays for labor, design, and even the marketing of that piece. Jewelers and refiners are buying the commodity only, and all the labor, sentiment and anything else originally attached to it are not taken into account.

Bottom line, once again, “deal with someone you know and trust”. They will be fair with the offer to buy price, and sensitive to the emotional attachment if there is any. Selling jewelry can be as emotional as buying a piece. Deal with someone you know, and who knows YOU!