Category: Gold

A lot of people have broken or unused jewelry lying around in their homes that they never intend on using anymore and that isn’t serving any purpose. Instead of letting it sit and collect dust you can sell your jewelry to a gold buyer and turn a nice profit. Here are 3 tips for finding a gold buyer that you can trust:

1. Read online reviews- When it comes to finding a good gold buyer, one of the first places that you should turn is online reviews. Taking some time to learn about the different businesses that purchase precious metals in your area can help you avoid bad experiences. Sites like Google, Yelp, and MerchantCircle allow members to leave reviews of businesses. Reading these reviews can help you to see some unbiased opinions on the gold buyers and see how they treated past customers.
2. Ask friends for referrals- If you are looking for a trusted place to sell your gold then you should talk to your friends and see if they have any recommendations for you. Talking to your friends will help give a good idea of the experiences that they have had and what places you can and can’t trust.
3. Get multiple quotes- Once you have identified a few local gold buyers that you are interested in visiting, you should take time to meet with all of the gold buyers and see who offers the best price. Remember that the price of gold can change from one day to the next so you should try and get your jewelry appraised all in the same day to get the most accurate comparisons. A trusted gold buyer should be able to offer you more money for your gold than other buyers who work with a very small volume of precious metal.

If you have old gold, silver or platinum jewelry that you aren’t going to use, you should consider finding a trusted gold buyer and selling it before the prices go down again.

What is Involved in the Jewelry Appraisal Process

There are many different reasons a person may want to have their jewelry appraised. In some cases, people have their jewelry appraised so that they can sell it and in other cases they have it appraised for insurance reasons. If you are curious about what happens during the appraisal process, here is a general outline of the procedure:

Clean the item- One of the first things that a jewelry appraiser will do when you take them your item is making sure that it is properly cleaned. In order to thoroughly inspect the item, the appraiser will need to make sure that any dirt or debris is removed. This will help them to look at the quality of any diamonds and also any precious metals that the piece may contain. Most appraisers will use an ultrasonic device to clean the jewelry. Basically, all this device does is use ultrasonic waves to shake the dirt off of a piece. To use one you simply put the piece of jewelry into the ultrasonic tank that is full of cleaner and let the waves do all of the work. In just a few short minutes the piece will be completely cleaned. Often times once the piece is removed from the soap, the jewelry will use a steamer to clean off the soap and get it looking better than the day you purchased it.

Check for authenticity- Once your jewelry has been properly cleaned the appraiser will then begin to inspect it for authenticity. This will allow them to find out just what types of stones or precious metals were used to make this piece. Create an official offer document- After have cleaned the jewelry they will prepare an official offer or certificate of appraisal. This document is especially handy if you plan on having your jewelry insured or if you decide that you do want to sell.

At Valley Goldmine we pride ourselves on the fact that we offer free, honest consultations for anyone looking to sell their old or unused jewelry. Contact us today to schedule an appointment and see what your gold is worth!

Old fillings are really gold in color and may be up to 60% gold (there’s 2 in this photo), the new ones, however, are a dull grey with much less gold content.

Want to find out exactly what’s in it?

If you take your dental gold to a typical gold buyer, they will make their best guess, but you will never know what was actually in it. With Valley Goldmine, the dentists that sell gold to us get the actual assay printout from the refinery so you know exactly what it is and that you are getting 75% of the precious metal value. In this case, there was 29% Gold, 33% Silver & 19.8% Palladium and the customer walked away with $529 for the 43.1g of dental gold (the other 5.7g were the teeth/porcelain that was still attached!)