Unless you have been on a very long vacation without access to the news, you know that gold has recently hit an all time high.  On a recent episode of Good Morning America, they talked about how to sell your gold jewelry.  When I heard that an earring back was worth $53 based on the gold price that day, I stopped what I was doing and went straight for my jewelry box.  I had some assorted broken jewelry, my add-a-bead necklace from the 80’s and some jewelry from old boyfriends.

Now…where to sell?  This is the big question and I hope to save you some time here.  My line of thinking was that all of these stores that had banners up saying “We Buy Gold!” would probably offer the best price since this is all they do…Buy Gold!  I decided to get three estimates all on the same day so the price of gold wouldn’t fluctuate too much.  I went to my favorite jewelry store in Roswell, then I checked with a jewelry store in Cumming.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quotes offered and both quotes were within $40 of each other.

My last stop was at a “We Buy Gold” (WBG) place.  I have never been too fond of patronizing establishments that have people dressed in costumes or waving signs on the side of the road but I thought I would make an exception.  I had already checked out this business on the Better Business Bureau website.  The process to receive a quote was much different at WBG.  First, they didn’t take my word for the fact that all of my jewelry was 14K gold.  The first jewelry store I went to had already confirmed this fact.  WBG even went so far as to put a scratch in the surface of a bracelet and put a drop of solution on it to see if it turned bronze which is a sign that it is 10K.  She informed me that if it turned bronze the color change was permanent!  This process confirmed that my jewelry was in fact 14K.  They then quoted me a price that was about HALF of what I had been quoted an hour ago at the two jewelry stores.

The next step of the process was interesting.  The sales person told me that she was going to call her manager to get me the absolute best price possible.  After that phone call, I was offered a “Friends & Family” gold rate.  I guess it was my lucky day!  This new rate was less than fantastic and still more than 20% below the other quotes I had received.  I told the sales person that their quotes were very low compared to the other quotes I had received.  The sales person then told me that they would beat any other quote and offer an additional 10%.

I don’t tend to do business with people or companies that do business this way.  If they could offer me more, then they should have offered it up front.  I don’t have time to waste and I don’t like to do business with people who seem to want to play games and waste my time.

So lesson learned for me.  Get your gold price quoted from a reputable jewelry store.  I still recommend getting a couple quotes but hopefully the 25th Hour Gal has saved you from wasting your time at an extra stop.  Now you have time for an extra glass of wine this holiday weekend!  Enjoy!