Selling Gold/Silver - A Good Info Article

this is a good article that isn't just another pseudo-help piece written by a biased author wanting to influence your actions

How to Sell Your Gold and Silver

A few months ago, my boss, Kristen, came to me with an assignment: Figure out the best way to unload silver coins and old gold jewelry and write about it. It turns out that this wasn’t just a random story idea, as Kristen’s mother had recently dusted off a box of old coins and jewelry (and a few gold teeth- eeek!) from her attic and wanted to see just how much she could get for them. Despite my pressing questions regarding the origins of those teeth (I have yet to get an answer), I jumped on the research.

Why Gold and Silver are Making Headlines

Pawn shops and jewelers nationwide have reported increased interest in people looking to unload jewelry clanging around in the back of their drawers. Silver’s rapid increase has many looking to pawn family flatware and coins.

It may sound like easy money to slip into a pawn shop, unroll a velvet case full of silverware, and walk away with hundreds in cold, hard cash.”Getting top dollar for your gold and silver goods takes a bit of research, not to mention math skills,” says Doug Eberhardt, a gold and silver broker-dealer and author of the self-published Buy Gold and Silver Safely. “You need to do your homework, and you need to shop around,” he says. “The amount that you will get will vary widely from place to place, and customers are easily fooled, since the price is always given in grams. I don’t know anyone in America who can convert grams to ounces, but many people are pleasantly surprised by the dollar figure offered and take it.”

How to Convert Precious Metals Into Cold, Hard Cash

The first step is to figure out the price of your metal by going to Kitco. Prices are quoted in ounces, and the site also provides historic prices, so you can determine whether you want to sell now or wait for prices to rise.

Once you have figured out the price of your metal, use this tool to convert the price per gram, which a jeweler or pawn broker will likely quote you, to the price per ounce.

Multiply that number times the percent of gold by karat: 14-karat gold is 58.3 percent gold, 18-karat gold is 75 percent gold and 22-karat gold is 91.6 percent gold. Alternatively, you can also plug the figures into a scrap gold calculator found online.

Finally, determine your bottom line. Eberhardt says that 70 percent of the metal’s market value is a good deal, but you should expect most places to offer 30 percent to 40 percent. “You have to make a decision as to what you think the item is worth, and who might give you more,” he says. “Not too many places will give more than 50 percent.” Read more at www.mint.com

clipped from  from www.mint.com