The Guide To Scrap Gold - Everything You Need To Know
Having recently had the experience of selling some scrap gold of my own I thought a detailed and thorough guide on how to get the most money for your scrap gold could be helpful to some folks out there.
In this guide I will walk you through what you need to know to get the most money for your scrap gold but I will also list and briefly review all the best scrap gold buyers. You can also find a handy calculator just below which we will use in determining the value of your gold and using that to make sure we are getting a fair price from our buyer.
The first step in to making sure you will get the most for your scrap gold is having an idea yourself what that it is worth on the market. Hopefully you have some access to a scale that can at least roughly measure grams. Many postal or kitchen scales will do the job just fine for a rough estimate, which is all we really need.
We will also need to determine the purity, if possible, before moving on (and if you cannot do that then just assuming 14k, the most common for jewelry, is probably your best bet and should still give you an idea anyway). Purity can usually be determined on most authentic gold jewelry by its markings. There will most often be a small stamp or engraving on the piece indicating the Karat purity (ie 14k, 18k, etc.).
A more thorough guide on all the various gold stamps and markings can be found here.
1) Determine Purity Where Possible
2) Weigh Your Gold
3) Input Your Weight Found, And Purity Determined Into The Scrap Gold Calculator
4) Know What The Full Market Value Of Your Scrap Gold Is!
Quantities over one ounce will always command higher payouts regardless of the refiner, reaching as high as 95-96% for larger quantities.
To arrive at your estimated payout from a fair refiner simply multiply the listed payout percentage for your scrap gold buyer by the market price found using the scrap gold calculator. ("Calc Output" * 0.85 = your payout estimate). You can find the payout ranges our research found for each scrap gold buyer at the end of this guide.
With your estimated fair payout in hand you are now ready to compare it to any offer you get from a scrap gold buyer. If the offer is significantly lower than the estimate you arrived at then there may be a problem and you should investigate further before accepting the offer. All reputable scrap gold buyers will give you a grace period to consider their offer. If they don't, you shouldn't deal with them.
You should also not accept any offer that appears to be below 80% or so of the market value you had previously determined using this guide. For quantities over one ounce anything under 88% should be rejected out of hand. For those few selling quantities of multiple ounces you should not take anything less than top dollar, at around 95-96%
Well now that we know how much money we should get for our gold, which scrap gold buyers will give it to us? Below we list all the very best scrap gold buyers/refiners on the web, along with a brief review, ratings and links to each. All the scrap gold buyers below have been carefully researched (and in two cases personally used) and represent the best of breed. There are, of course, plenty of outfits willing to buy whatever scrap gold you may be willing to sell them but you should be cautious in doing so.
We believe you shouldn't need to go beyond this great list of companies but if you do please just make sure you do your own research first before using whatever companies you may find.
The Best Scrap Gold Buyers Online
Express Gold Cash - Top Buyer - And Our Top Pick
Pays 90-95%+ for > 1 oz. and 80-85% for > 1 oz.
Cash for Gold USA - Top Buyer - A very close 2nd place
Pays 90-95% for > 1 oz. and 85%+ for < 1 oz.
NowGold - Acceptable Buyer
80-85% for < 1 oz. and 90%+ for > 1 oz. Plus a "offer + 10%" price match
Cash For Gold Co - Acceptable Buyer
80-85% for < 1 oz. and 90%+ for > 1 oz.
Cash4Gold-USA - Acceptable Buyer
Pays 80-85%+
Cash4Gold - Top Buyer
Pays 90-95%+ for > 1 oz. and around 85% for < 1 oz.
Empire Gold Buyers - Top Buyer
Pays 90-95% for > 1 oz. and 80-85% for < 1 oz.
Midwest Refineries - Top Buyer
Not flashy, not large. But old, trusted, with high payouts at 90-95%+
Northern Refineries - Acceptable Buyer
95% for > 1 oz. Full service with other precious metals.
US Gold Buyers - Top Buyer
Pays 90%+ for > 1 oz. and 80-85% for < 1 oz.
Gold Pawn Shop - Acceptable Buyer
Very fair graduated payout scale based on weight < 10 oz. 85%+
SellYourGold - Acceptable Buyer
Pays 85%+ More for larger amounts.
GoldFellow - Acceptable Buyer
Pays 80-85% Reliable buyer but not the best payouts.
GoldKit.com - Acceptable Buyer
Service is fine but payout amounts appear erratic.
Good Luck!
3 comments:
After talking with a friend and reading your article I'm definitely going to sell gold jewelry for cash. I have never done anything like that before but I have been really strapped for money and need to pay some bills, plus I don't wear the jewelry anymore anyway. Thank you for sharing and helping!
Such a great and informative post about selling gold. This is really helpful for people. Keep posting.
Very Informative post!!
I'm really going to sell gold jewelry for cash.
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