Not all buyers are equal, and to maximize your offer, finding and working with a reputable, trustworthy, and experienced team can minimize common pitfalls and issues sellers might experience.
We can confidently say that Cash For Gold USA is the #1 place to get a fair market offer for gold and jewelry online. Here’s why:
- We guarantee we’ll beat any competitor’s price for jewelry, gold coins, silver coins, diamonds, and more.
- We process all payments within 24 hours.
- We provide free shipping materials and a complimentary FedEx pickup can be arranged right from your home.
- Your shipment can be insured for up to $100,000.
- We are rated the #1 gold buyer by independent tester Top Consumer Reviews.
- Items shipped back to us within 7 days receive a 10% bonus.
Where to Sell Gold: Should I Sell Online or to Gold Buyers Near Me?
So, where do you sell gold? We’ve all seen signs for local cash-for-gold businesses, pawn shops, and jewelers who will buy unwanted jewelry and precious metals. When looking at “gold buyers near me,” they might be perfectly reputable, but being close by isn’t an indicator of quality or trustworthiness. You may be subject to working with a relatively small set of options based solely on location.
When you sell gold online, you have access to a wider variety of companies from the comfort of your home. In this case, you can choose the best buyer for you—not just the best one within 25 miles. Online buyers also don’t have the overhead costs of running a brick-and-mortar store, so they’re often able to offer higher prices. There’s also strong competition online, which can drive up the amount they pay. So, looking for “gold buyers near me” might not be the best choice for you.
Sellers often have questions when it comes to their gold items. This resource covers the common questions below as well as FAQs on gold value, price, etc. and other precious metals.
Where to Find Gold Buyers?
There are many ways you can sell your gold for cash. Different methods and buyers vary, and some may be more reliable or fairer than others. When trying to figure out where can you sell gold, there are three primary buyers for gold right now, including:
In the past, it was more common for banks to buy and sell gold bars and bullion as part of their business. This is not typical today, and there are only a few banks that still deal in gold. You’d have to check with your bank to find out whether they do so.
Should You Sell Gold or Pawn Gold?
Although both selling your gold and pawning it can put much-needed cash in your hands, there is a significant difference between pawning vs selling.
Pawning occurs when you take your items to a pawn shop. The business will offer you a loan on your items, giving you a specified amount of time to return and pay the loan back.
The main advantages to pawning include:
- Access to immediate finances as short-term loans with the broker
- The ability to repay your loan and restore ownership of your items
As a solution for immediate funds with an opportunity to repurchase your gold, deciding to pawn vs sell your gold may be the right fit for you.
However, there is a catch.
Pawning Gold
As noted, pawning is, at its core, a form of loaning. When you pawn your gold, you’re getting a loan on your items that are used as collateral. However, if you fail to pay the loan back and the loan’s interest – as per their agreement with the creditor – you will forfeit your items to the pawnbroker.
And although pawnbrokers may be willing to offer loans on your gold and jewelry, the cash you walk away with after this kind of arrangement is almost guaranteed to be less than you would receive selling your valuables outright. The reason for this is that a broker must consider the resale value of the collateral if the loan is never paid back. This business model allows pawn shops to hedge risk and make a profit off your gold.
Selling Gold
In contrast to the pawning process, selling gold is much simpler. Selling it will also get you the highest return for your precious gold and jewelry. Even if your jewelry is broken or damaged, gold can still be sold in this way for a reasonable price.
When you sell gold for cash, the physical gold is delivered to the purchaser, who then assesses its purity and total weight before giving you a purchase offer. If you choose to accept the offer, you are paid quickly for your valuables.
Getting cash for gold through this process involves measuring your ingots, coins, or jewelry to properly appraise it. Gold is usually priced by the troy ounce, and a single troy ounce is equal to 31.1 grams.2 Your gold’s purity is also assessed before its appraisal. Cash For Gold USA has experts on hand to complete these processes so that you can be paid for your gold more efficiently.
Why is selling gold online a preferred method for many sellers these days and considered the best place to sell gold? It’s because online companies offer benefits such as:
- Convenience: You don’t have to drive between locations or go back and forth between shops to compare and contrast offers.
- Greater competition and better choice: Online companies can buy gold from anywhere, giving you your choice of buyers nationwide. Competition will also increase the amount companies are willing to pay for gold.
- Better transparency and credibility: Online reviews, ratings, and information about certifications and verifications can give you a better overall look at the company’s reputation and history.
- More tools for your benefit: Our gold buying company offers a convenient online calculator that can help you determine the melt value of your items. If you decide not to pursue an official quote, you’ve saved yourself the hassle of mailing and returns.
How Do Online Gold Buyers Compare to Gold Buyers Near Me?
In decades past, traditional businesses with physical brick-and-mortar stores were the primary option for people looking to sell their unwanted gold coins, jewelry, and other precious metal items. As the internet and e-commerce have continued to grow, online gold buying businesses have not only become more prevalent, but they’ve also become quite reliable and respected in the industry.
There are many ways in which online gold companies and in-person stores like pawn shops differ. The following are examples of some of the most critical differences.
Location and Customer Research
When you sell your gold at a physical store location, you have to spend the time and gas money to drive to and from different stores, and driving home again. You also might need time to think things over at home before selling, which means you’ll have to go out at least once more to actually sell your items. If you have limited mobility or simply don’t want to go through the hassle, online gold selling would be a more convenient choice.
Not only is it faster and more comfortable to sell your gold from home online, it’s also something you can do without concern about business hours. Unlike a physical store you can only access during a certain period, online buyers can be contacted by customers any time of day.
Many online companies still have set hours of operation during which they process things and reply to customers, so you may have to wait for a response. However, you can still submit information and explore your options at whatever time is comfortable for you.
At Cash For Gold USA, customers can fill out the form on our website 24/7 or send us an email at any time of day. We’ll receive those messages during operating hours and respond appropriately in a practical amount of time. With us, you can do in minutes what could take much longer in person.
Pricing
One of the biggest differences between online and in-person gold buyers is the fact that online-only gold buying businesses don’t have an actual brick-and-mortar store location. This may sound like a drawback at first, but it’s actually a huge perk for you as a customer (and in many ways for them, too).
Pawnbrokers, jewelry shops, and physical gold exchanges have to worry about physically running a store and keeping it clean and functional. This includes any maintenance or repairs that need to be done over time. Unless they own the building themselves, they also have to pay a monthly lease to the property owner. If they have more than one location, those responsibilities and expenses can multiply.
Online gold buyers don’t have all of the overhead costs of renting, maintaining, and operating a physical storefront location. This opens up their budget and allows them to pass on the savings directly to their customers.
Availability of Consumer Information
While jewelers and other gold buying stores can offer some level of information on websites and social media pages, many often don’t. Online buyers rely entirely on the internet, which means that everything they have to share is available to you from any internet-connected device. At a store, you might see something online only to find out when you get there that it’s been changed. By nature, an online buyer always keeps things up to date and accurate.
You can easily check customer reviews and ratings for online gold companies via public sites like Trustpilot and Google. With all the information available online, it’s easier to verify any certifications or association memberships a company claims to have. Many online gold buying businesses also have ratings available from the Better Business Bureau.
When you sell to a buyer in person, you aren’t necessarily able to fact check their statements in the moment or compare competitors without driving back and forth between stores. When you sell to a gold buyer online, you’re able to instantly verify their claims, compare competitor information, and quickly reference customer comments and reviews.
We’ve all met sales people who can “sell ice to Eskimos,” as they say, and some customers find it especially hard to say no to their tactics. If you think you may be one of those people, selling your gold online can eliminate that pressure. It gives you the physical separation you need to think logically rather than impulsively.
Choice
As any statistician would tell you, the small sample of stores near you probably isn’t a good representation of gold buyers in general.
When you go online, you eliminate the restriction of distance and open yourself up to businesses from around the country. This gives you access to all available online gold buyers—the entire population—which your new statistician friend would call “the holy grail.”
You can usually find a few places to sell your gold locally, such as cash-for-gold exchanges, pawn shops, and jewelry stores. Most who accept gold will buy a variety of items, including gold coins, bullion and old jewelry. Keep in mind though, that the in-store gold buyers in your area are paying rent, utilities, wages and other costs. The amount they quote you is likely to be impaired by their overhead costs.
An alternative to dealing with local gold buyers is to sell your gold to a reputable company online instead.
Regardless of where you choose to sell your gold, buyers have the same general process. Here’s what happens, step by step:
- You provide the buyer with the gold items you want to sell (jewelry, scrap, coins, etc.).
- The items appraised using the price of the precious metals and their weight.
- The buyer calculates a value based on the spot price of gold that day, then makes you an offer.
- You either agree to the amount and complete the sale, or decline and get your items back.
If a company does not guarantee that you will get your items back if you don’t sell your gold, that’s a red flag that you shouldn’t sell with them. Always make sure to ask if you don’t see it stated anywhere.
For many sellers, the biggest question on their minds is how much does gold sell for. Typically, receiving the maximum payment for gold is a priority with sellers, regardless of the condition of the items.
The value of a gold bar, coin or piece of jewelry is based on the karat weight of the gold and the current market price of gold bullion.
Unless the gold is of the highest purity (24k or 99.9% gold), an item will be considered an alloy. Which means, it is a mixture of gold and other metals. The karat grade identifies how pure that item is, or what percentage of that item is comprised of gold. For example, 14 karat is 58.3% gold or (14 divided by 24).
White gold is an alloy that is often mixed with palladium. If it’s stamped 18k, it means it’s 75% gold.3
The amount you can get when you sell gold depends on a number of things. The main factor in determining the payout is the market price for gold bullion4 at the time of the sale. It also depends on how much the buyer plans to make off of the transaction. If they want to make a higher profit, they’ll offer you a lower percentage of your gold’s value. You’re likely to get the best price from an online gold buyer who doesn’t have to factor in the costs of running a storefront.
To get an accurate account of your gold’s actual melt value, you can use our gold calculator or try to determine the melt value yourself. To do so, you will first need to know the purity or karat of your gold items. Finally, you will have to weigh your gold items, making sure to separate the weights by karat if weighing multiple items.
Once weighed, a simple calculation of your weight multiplied by the market price will provide you with the melt value. Keep in mind though that buyers will have to make some money on the transaction, so they will not pay the full spot price of your gold.
Lastly, spot prices change regularly, so make sure to check the most current gold price when you plan to get cash for gold.
You can determine the amount you can make from selling your gold using the weight of the item, the purity of the gold, and the current market price for pure, 24k gold bullion (make sure you use the same unit of measurement for both weight and price). If the item is made from 24k gold, you can simply multiply its weight by the current market price. If the item is not made from 24k gold, you’ll need to multiply again by the percentage of pure gold in the material.
Per Kitco, the price of gold is $2,413.04 per ounce as of July 14, 2024.
If you have gold sitting around your house you want to get liquidate, you could make a nice profit by selling now during this historic spike in the market.
Yes, for many reasons. Selling your gold is a simple way to get funds to cover current living expenses. It’s also great motivation to finally clean out those old drawers. Stop hanging onto that broken necklace and that unsightly ring from your ex.
You could also use the money to buy new replacement jewelry and update your selection. Another idea is to put the money you get from selling unwanted gold into another type of investment, like stocks, real estate, education, or a retirement account.
