So you have some gold, and you call a few places to see what they are paying. My my post Shopping around has some information about the units (grams or pennyweights) that most gold buyers use and how to convert between the two. It also talks about gold content in the different carats, which is a factor in the price. But the main thing that determines price is the current market price for gold or spot gold price. Gold buyers will use that number to determine how much they pay. If they are a legitimate buyer, when the spot price goes up, so does what they will pay per pennyweight or gram, even if the jump in price is only a few dollars. If they quote you the same per unit price when gold is at $950 per troy ounce and at $900 per troy ounce, do not sell to them. Keep in mind that this is a competitive market, and you should be getting more money (even if it’s not much more) when the gold price is higher, period.
You can get current, and by that I mean up to the minute, gold prices at www.kitco.com. There is also an application that you can set up on your Google home page that will show you the current price anytime you access Google. The price will update every two to five minutes. It is best to check the price online through a site that will give you a current price, not just yesterday’s closing price. Gold can close one day at $900 and by noon the next day be at $870 or $960. That price is for pure or 24 karat gold per troy Ounce. A troy ounce is 10% heavier than a regular ounce. If you were to take a troy ounce of gold to the grocery store and put it on their butchers scale or to the post office and on a postage scale, it will weigh about 1.1 avoirdupois ounces. Once you start watching the gold price daily or hourly, you’ll see that it changes very, very quickly. It only takes a little time each day to watch for the price to increase, so that you get more for your gold.
Precious Metals will hold gold prices for you if you come in and get your gold sorted and weighed. Once we have a detailed record of what you have, if you watch the market and call when the price is what you want to sell at, we’ll hold that price for you for 48 hours. For example, you come in and have 10 pennyweights of 14K and gold is at $915. You keep your gold, and when the market reaches a number you like, let’s say $950, you call give us your name and amount of gold (10 dwt 14k) and we will pay you at $950 for the next 48 hours, even if gold drops to $850 in the next 10 hours. If you don’t come in within 48 hours, you lose the hold on the price. If you don’t call ahead, we only pay out at the current price. If for some reason you have more gold or less gold that when you came in before, and we have to do more sorting and testing, we pay at the current price. Keep in mind that a $10 jump in price will only amount to about an extra 17 cents for each pennyweight of 14K. So for that 10 pennyweights it is only an extra $1.70. But if you have 60 pennyweights or gold goes up by $100, those cents can start to add up.
Next in our Selling your gold series: Is now a good time? What if I don’t want to sell it, can you make something with my old gold?
