Gold jewellery buyers are usually looking to buy yellow, white or rose gold jewellery. The one thing they regard as important is the amount of pure gold a piece of jewellery has. You can check the karats of your jewellery. Most gold jewellery like, gold earring, bracelets, necklaces, rings are made of 9k to 18K gold. The higher the karat the more you will get for the gold you are selling.
How can you tell what the karat gold your jewellery is?
Usually, the karats are stamped somewhere on your jewellery. You can either find 10K stamped on the clasp of your necklace or 12K, 12K or 18Karats. Having a 10K gold necklace means that it contains 41.7% gold and the 58.3% is other metals added either to enhance some characteristic. 12K is 50% gold and 50% other metal alloys, 14K is 58.3% gold and 41.7% other metal alloys. The highest quality of gold commonly used for jewellery in 18K but t14k is the most popular grade for retail store jewellery.
There are other kinds of gold jewellery that gold buyers wouldn’t be interested in. A lot of jewellery that is presented to people as pure gold isn’t as authentic as it is made out to be. A lot of gold jewellery is made up of rolled gold or gold plating. Rolled or gold plated gold also comes with certain markings like RGB, KT GEP, KT GF and KT GP.
Gold buyers often test the gold before they buy it. There are three common tests that they may perform:
- A loupe test: A loupe is a type of magnifying glass that gold buyers use to look at the finer details on a piece of jewellery like stamps.
- A magnet test: Gold is not a magnetic metal. If someone runs magnet of a piece of gold and it stick to the magnet but then it’s likely not made of pure gold.
- The acid test: Nitric acid can be used to test gold. You make a tiny scratch on your piece of gold jewellery. Put a drop of nitric acid on the scratch. If the gold is fake, the area will turn green. Gold plated silver will be milky. Real, pure gold will not change in colour.
Approaching a gold buyer
There are gold buyers virtually everywhere. You can find them in your town and city. You can even find them online. So, when you are ready to sell, finding a buyer will not be a struggle. The first thing you need to do is to get a valuation of your gold. You can take your gold to a jeweller or ask ay gold buyer to value your gold jewellery before you start taking quotes from various buyers. You should try as much as you can to get the best price for your gold jewellery.
There are a couple of things you should also find out about the gold buyers you approach:
- How long have they been in business?
- What do they typically buy?
- What previous customers think of them?
With an appraisal and answers to your question, you will find making the decision of who to sell to easier.