07/19/2014
10 Things you must know before selling your Gold or Silver
Maximize your profit when selling your gold and silver by knowing your rights, and knowing how to stay away from scams and cheats.
1) Do business locally. Beware of ‘one day’ temporary and hotel/Mall buying events. Some sellers will leave the next day and you won’t have anyone to complain or go back to, if you find out you were cheated out of your valuable Metals. AVOID mail-in services; you have little control over the sale. And sometimes you will never see your items OR a check again. The best sellers are licensed, monitored, registered and bonded with the state of PA and the municipality they are in. It’s especially important to find a seller who is trusted in the Bucks County area.
2) Don’t believe quotes over the phone. Many buyers will offer a much higher price over the phone to get their customers into the door. Then they change the price and explain it with a variety of reasons.
3) Shop around. Make sure to go to a few sellers around before making your final decision. Many buyers will persuade you into selling your gold on the spot, and won’t be so friendly when they find out that you are not going to sell it right then. Legitimate buyers should never pressure their customers into selling anything they are not comfortable selling. However, when shopping around, try doing so within 24-48 hours because of commodity market inflation. The price of gold changes daily so shopping around for a few days can change all your quoted prices.
4) Do not let your items out of sight. There have been jewelers that have replaced items with lower purity items. That means that you are getting paid for a lesser value item then you actually brought in.
5) Beware of gold purchased in the back rooms of shops such as laundromats and food stores. Many of these places are usually not licensed or monitored and might have rigged scales.
6) Weigh your gold first – know what you have. How to value your gold is very important. Precious metals are traded and bought in troy ounce measurements. So 1 Troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams or 1.09714286 Regular kitchen/postal scale ounce. One troy ounce is slightly less than a regular ounce.
7) Know the fineness/purity and the value of your Gold. If today’s spot price of gold is $1,600.00 that means that PURE gold is 1,600.00. 24 Karat is pure. So 1 ounce of 10K is 0.41% pure = $656 14K is 0.58% = $928. 18K is 0.75% = $1200. 22K is 0.91% = $1456.
8) Testing in plain sight. Make sure you watch carefully as the buyer tests your gold. Often people will be told that their items came up as 10-14k after testing. When in fact, the items were stamped as 14-18k. However, on rare occasions it’s the jewelers that cheated their customers years ago by selling them a piece of jewelry as 14-18k that was actually only 10-14k.
9) Weighing in plain sight. By law, the buyer must weigh your items individually and in plain sight of the seller. Make sure the buyers scales is inspected and certified by office of weights and measures. If you don’t see a blue sticker with the current date on it or if you see a RED sticker: Take your gold, leave the store and report the incident to Bucks County Weights & Measures Department of Consumer Protection at 215-348-7442
10) Get a COMPLETE sales receipt. If you sell your item, be sure the buyer provides you with a COMPLETE sales receipt with detailed information in case a dispute arises after the sale. This information must include: the name and address of the buyer; the date of the transaction; the names of the precious metals purchased; the fineness of the precious metals purchased; the weights of the precious metals purchased; the prices paid for the precious metals at the standard measures of weight; and the name, address and signature of the seller of the precious metals. Both you and the buyer should get a copy.
Thank you for your time, we look forward to helping you with any concerns or questions you may have in regards to selling your precious metals. Feel free to call me directly @ 215-852-2800
Derek Cain
Precious Metals Broker
