In the olden days, selling gold jewellery was rare. People bought and held on to their gold either because of its sentimental value or because it was expensive to buy in the first place. It was also not socially acceptable to sell personal jewellery unless you were in serious financial trouble. If you were cash strapped, you also had to look for discrete ways to sell your gold for cash or you would go to a pawnshop and hope no one saw how desperate you are. That’s one of the reasons why pawnshops used to have blacked-out windows to offer customers some discretion.
Things are different now, there are cash-for-gold businesses everywhere and people go in and out without caring whether they are seen or not. It’s either gold jewellery has become more disposable these days or people have bigger things to worry about than being literally seen selling the family jewels.
With the price of gold skyrocketing, it makes more sense to get cash for gold than to keep it when you no longer have any use for it.
Anyone can sell gold. The beauty of it is that gold is valuable anywhere in the world. When the price goes up it applies to every country, city, or small town in the world. Gold is a precious and rare metal that is used in a lot of industries, not just jewellery making but because of its rarity, supply can be challenging. The good thing about the metal is that it can be recycled and cash for gold companies play an important part in the recycling of gold. These days there are lots of companies wanting to buy your gold. You’ll find them in your local newspapers, on notice boards, on radio and TV and of course, on the internet.
Gold buying businesses that operate on the recycling part of the value chain are:
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Refiners and consolidators
These businesses bring together gold from various sources and they take everything through the smelting process and refining. They reduce all the small pieces of gold that are melted, refined, and recast into bars. These gold bars are then sold back into the market to buyers then sell them back to industrial buyers who need them for industrial use, jewellery making, and investment purposes. Refiners are known for providing the best prices for scrap gold however, the average individual may never get to deal with them because they require a large bulk of material to be refined and aren’t keen on buying single pieces of gold. They mainly deal with cash for gold buyers who can provide bulk gold.
Professional gold buyers
Gold buyers buy a wide variety of gold items from sellers and sell the consolidated gold to refineries. Some professional buyers may also be refiners. Gold buyers would handle more than just gold jewellery and damaged gold pieces but they also buy gold bullion in the form of bars or coins that they can resell at discounted prices. They are equipped to handle big purchases and often offer good prices for the gold that is sold to them.
Local Jewellers
Jewellers aren’t established to buy old gold jewellery. They sell gold; however; those that do buy gold often buy fine jewellery that is in good condition. Some even buy bullion coins.
A lot of jewellers are simply going to resell the gold jewellery they buy as used gold at discounted prices. The used gold they can’t sell in their stores they will sell to refiners. They aren’t particularly invested in the process of gold recycling. Because of this, they often have a high mark-up to make buying used gold from customers worth their while.
Pawn Shops
Pawnshop focus on things that are valuable. They give out loans against these valuable items and when the loans aren’t repaid, they sell the items in their stores. Customers can also sell unwanted items which the pawnshop will resell. Some pawnshops have a preference for certain items; gold jewellery is more popular than most things. Pawnshops do not offer a lot of money for the items they receive.
These three types of businesses buy low and sell high. They operate as avenues for people who need cash
Online gold Buyers
Thanks to the proliferation of the internet, people have access to information and can reach further than their local gold buying businesses. Online buyers offer convenience and they sometimes can offer more for your gold because they do not have overhead costs that a brick-and-mortar company has. The problem with the internet is that there is always someone looking for a way go game the system. The fact that you are dealing with someone you don’t get to see makes the whole thing impersonal and most people who are unfamiliar with online gold companies do not know how to protect themselves and are unaware of the scams that exist in cyberspace.