|
"When the price of gold becomes newsworthy, we see quite a jump in people selling old gold, and we're seeing a large increase in business now," says Joshua Garfield, marketing director at Garfield Refining, a Philadelphia business that refines scrap gold. "And when people want to sell, people come out of the woodwork to buy."
But how happy you will be with the cash you receive depends on the purity of your gold, how much you are selling and how much research you do.
There are two options for selling gold: to a jeweler or other middleman, or to a refining company.
Cecilia Gardner, president of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee in New York, notes that all municipalities have laws requiring those who buy secondhand gold to obtain identification of the seller and hold the gold for a specified period.
"If a jeweler is not doing that," she warns, "something is wrong."
Comparison-shopping pays off, says Eileen Stewart of Roosevelt, N.Y., who visited several places, including an appraisal fair, to get the best price for some old jewelry and coins she was selling for her elderly neighbor.
"I walked out with $3,500," she said of her visit to the coin dealer who eventually bought the lot. "He must have spent 45 minutes to an hour with me, and he was helpful and informative."
A less-popular option is sending the gold directly to a refining company, not all of which deal with the public.
"The bulk of our business is from professions that use a lot of gold," such as dentists and dental labs, Garfield says. "But we have a few private customers as well."
As soon as a customer's scrap gold arrives at the company, it is logged, locking in the price of gold on the day of receipt. Then the gold is melted and assayed in the laboratory to determine its composition.
"For example, most dental golds contain palladium, which increases the strength of the gold without compromising some of its advantages," Garfield explains. "And while palladium is not a beautiful metal, it has a value in itself."
Other lesser metals that can be present in the gold alloy include copper, silver, zinc and nickel. The degree of the gold's purity is expressed in karats, with 24k being pure gold, 18k being 75 percent gold, and 14k being 58.5 percent pure.
"Sometimes, customers will request to be paid in bullion," a tradable commodity for which they pay a premium, Garfield says. Still others ask for the cash value of their gold to be used to purchase casting material -- small beads of gold alloy that can be worked by a jeweler.
Sellers can also have their gold refashioned into new pieces, although it's not the easiest route.
"Very few people have the facilities to melt gold at 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit," says Joe Parrella, vice president of Eastern Numismatics in Garden City, N.J. "And it's more costly," because the resulting jewelry will be custom work.
Gardner cautions that many jewelers might balk at working with scrap gold. Gold from a refiner has already been refined down to the percentage of gold they want, she says, "as opposed to bringing them an assortment of 10-, 12-, 14- and 18-karat gold."
Glenn Bradford, whose eponymous jewelry store is in Port Washington, N.Y., works only with 18-karat gold or better in the many custom pieces he designs.
"She feels like her uncle is hugging her every day she wears it," he says.
Although some jewelers tell customers that the small colored gemstones and even diamonds in their gold are worthless, Bradford disagrees.
He recently handmade a necklace out of a bracelet that a customer inherited.
"There's always an intrinsic value to gemstones -- if you go to buy them, they'll cost you money," he says.
"People are in the dark when they scrap the gold," he concludes. "Some jewelers offer pennies on the dollar."
The best defense? An educated consumer who will do the legwork for the best deal.
|
