Gold Seller Beware

Happy Monday. This morning the price of gold opened at $1,580.04 a Troy ounce!

I know, now you’re rich! You have tons of gold in your jewelry box; your old herringbone chain, dome ring, Aunt Erma’s heinous brooch, your big hoop earrings, all that old boyfriend jewelry, and all of those now embarrassing charms that we had to have.  

Wait! Listen girl, before you run out to cash in all of your gold at the jewelry store, please read on.

First please understand that, yes, gold is highly priced right now, however the price of $1,580.4 is for one Troy Ounce. Because Gold is an international market they use Troy Ounces.  Troy ounces are abbreviated as t.oz. .  1 regular every day ounce = 0.911458333 troy ounce.

Also that big $ 1,580.04 is for 24K or 100% pure gold. Most of us have 14K 10K gold, and you lucky Lucy’s have 22K or 18K gold too. Here is what your gold, the percentage of gold and the price per t.oz.

22K is 91.7 % gold which is $1321.93 t.oz

18K is 75% gold which is $1081.00 t.oz

14K is 58.3% gold which is $840.00 t.oz

10K is 41.7% gold which is $601.0 t.oz

G.F  E.P. 1/10 10K  RPG isn’t gold remember. ZERO

What does all of this mean? Well if you want to sell your gold to a jewelry store, or gold buying store or service, they are going to sell it to a scrapper who melts the gold and then resells it as raw materials.

You are basically selling your jewelry based only on the cost of the metal.  To do this well you need to know what your gold is worth. Most gold buyers will completely confuse you. I hear horrible stories like when my sister sent away for a gold selling kit from Cash4gold or one of those rip off gold companies. They sent her a pre-addressed envelope and she didn’t have to pay postage. She filled it up with her old gold. Including pieces bought for her by my father over the years before he died. She received a check for $86.00 dollars.

I will never forget. It makes me sick even to this day that she basically had all of that beautiful jewelry stolen by some crook company. My sister has emotional disabilities and she needed money in need of money and saw this as a quick fix. She had no idea how many dwts or t.0z she sent them. So she couldn’t prove that they took advantage of her.

I have even tried to sell gold to jewelry stores just to see what they would offer. They usually offer 50% of what the gold is actually worth and then when I tell them that I am a professional they may  raise their offer 10% or 15%.  They talk so fast and use so many numbers that my brain hurt.

The gold buyers count on the fact that none of us follow gold stocks or have any of these strange measuring systems are. Most of them use Pennyweights.  Pennyweights is abbreviated as 1 dwt .

20 dwt. are in 1 Troy Ounce. Or 1 dwt is .05 troy ounces. I hate math and have come up with quick math tricks.

Lazy math trick- 14k is $840 for 1 t.oz. Step 1) Divide by 50% =$420 Step 2) Remove zero  = $42.00 dwt

Once you know that your gold should cost $42.00 a dwt you’ll be prepared when your local jeweler offers you $18.00 or $20.00 a dwt.

Here are the secrets that your gold buyers 

don’t want you to know.

1.      They never ever want you to know what your gold is actually worth.  

2.      That they are only paying you 50% or less of the actual value.

3.      They have to buy your gold for less because they have to pay for rent, electricity, employees, insurance, advertizing, ect.

4.      That your designer, antique, and studio jewelry is being resold for big money.

5.      Not all, but some gold buyers will fix their scales so your jewelry weighs less.

6.      Not all, but some gold buyers claim that your jewelry is stamped wrong and claim that it’s 10K when it’s 14K or 18K. Or if it’s not stamped they claim it tested at a lower Karat.

7.      That this industry has no regulation and they can basically do whatever they want.

Cartier Necklace auction price $750
Scrap price $102.58

8.      They want to pay you cash without any documentation so that they don’t have to pay taxes or have a record of the transaction.

Jewelry is a pretty but it’s an ugly business. Be careful. Be knowledgeable. Trust your gut.

Jewelry is a crazy business. If you want to sell fine jewelry always find a reputable trustworthy person. Some jewelry stores have wonderful reputations and are honest. They won’t be able to pay you as much as other venues. I had a lot of luck selling on EBAY. Auctions like EBAY or even better live auctions are best because they only take a 10%-25% commission of the final sale price. So they are motivated to make you the most money possible; because their pay is based on your selling price.

If you have any question comment or email me at lydiadustin@gmail.com I do have a list of trusted jewelers.

I do love my local jewelers for fixing my broken pieces or for resizing; but never ever for buying retail. 

Please tell me that you or members of your house are buying jewelry retail! NOOOOOOO! STOP! I’ll tell you why and you will never make this mistake it again.

Jewelry Trash or Treasure?

My specialty at our auction house is jewelry. Jewelry is my passion and has been since I was a little girl. One of my favorite things to do is sort clients jewelry.  Last year at a client’s house I found assorted 14K gold jewelry mixed in with their mom’s cheap costume jewelry. The jewelry sold for almost a thousand dollars at auction. Treasure from a box that was headed to the Salvation Army.  Another client was shocked when I told her that the cheap silver ring that she bought at a flea market twenty years earlier was actually real platinum, diamonds and rubies. The ring she paid less than $10 dollars for had an insurance replacement  value of  $1,500 to $2,500 dollars. 

Here are some of my secret jewelry detecting tips for you.   

Consider the source. If you have a gold colored charm bracelet that you bought from a department store for under $100.00. Chances are 100% that it’s not going to be real gold. On the other hand if rich Aunt Beatrix presents you with a similar style charm bracelet in a light blue box labeled Tiffany’s than you can bet your life its gold. Unless she’s like my husband’s Granny who used to put gifts in Tiffany boxes just to mess with people. Oh how I miss her.

Which brings us to our second tip.  

Look for Clues. If the piece of jewelry is less than 100 years old it will be marked. If it’s not marked and you think it may be older than 100 years old bring it to a professional.

MARKS Look inside the band, on the back, and on the clasp. The marks are your best clues.  

American Standard Gold marks: 22K 18K 14K 10K

Not Gold Marks:

 18KGE. Electroplated not real gold. If it ends in GE It’s not 18K gold.

14KG.F. If your gold mark ends with G.F. it’s gold filled. Not real gold.

1/20 12K. or 1/10 10K.  If your piece says either of these it has a tiny insignificant layer of gold over the base metal. So sorry a little better, but still not real gold.

14KRPG. Means Rolled Gold Plate. Better but no not real.

14K over sterling. Just means they put an insignificant layer of gold over sterling. Not gold. But real silver.

No matter how much the Home Shopping Network and retailers try to make these fakes seem like the real thing they’re still fake. It doesn't matter if they claim the item is ”genuine” Electroplate or they claim the  “original” sticker price is $500.00 but, 75% off the markdown price. Ignore them and look at the clues. They can say whatever they want, but legally the jewelry has to be marked and if retail jewelry isn't marked it's always going to be fake. Look at this sterling silver ring with a simulated ruby below advertised as being 80% off. In my opinion even at $69.00 the store is making a 50% profit. The inflated retail price is insane.

Outlet Price : $69.95 
Was: $235.00 
Retail: $350.00 
Save $280.05 (80%) Off Suggested Retail!

More clues.

Does the piece make sense? Now you are savvy and you know that the metal of your ring is 14KG.F. How can you tell if the clear stones are diamonds? Consider the size. If the diamonds are the size of  grains of sand I would assume that possibly they could be real diamonds. If the stones are the size of peas I would assume their is a  100% chance that the stones are simulated.  

Use Common Sense.  Think like a jeweler. If you have an expensive high quality stone you would set that stone in equally fine quality metal right? If the stones and the metal are high quality you would want them sold in a high end jewelry store for a high price. Therefore the best fine jewelry will be set in higher karats of gold and sell for high prices.  Semiprecious or less quality stones are usually set in 10K gold or gold or gold alternatives and more affordable.

Also If the piece is handmade by a jewelry designer it will be signed and be worth a lot more than a piece massed produced by machine. Please tell me that you all know enough never ever to buy jewelry at a mall or from a chain jewelry store right? Oh there is so much to learn. 

That’s all I have time for today. Before you get started a few quick rules.

All of these rules can be broken. That’s why jewelry is so hard to identify and we professionals rely on chemicals and gem testers that can identify unidentified materials. If you want to be 100% sure if your jewelry is worth big money, always go to a reputable professional. If you live in MA, RI, or parts of NH, and CT, I can help you or recommend someone.

Costume jewelry can be worth just as much as the real stuff.

Antique jewelry is like clothes. It goes in and out of style. Your pieces go up and down in worth every 6 months.

Now sort through that jewelry!

Tomorrow is going to be NEVER EVER SELL YOUR GOLD TO GOLD BUYERS OR AT GOLD PARTIES!