How To Tell If Your Gold Jewelry Is Real Gold
March 7, 2009 | Gold Digger | Gold and Jewelry Appraisal 21 Comments
Do you have gold jewelry that you have been wanting to sell? Or perhaps you just would like to know the accuracy and value of your gold jewelry? Is it even real gold? By doing a little homework, you will know how to tell if your gold jewelry is real gold and know it’s approximate value (or you can use our handy free Online Gold Appraisal tool right now).
Look on your jewelry piece for the karat marking. All real gold is marked with a purity percentage ranging from 10k to 24k — 24k being the purist. The karat marking is the percentage of pure gold alloyed with other metals, such as copper or silver. Anything under 10k is not enough to be considered gold.
There are many websites that can give you an online gold appraisal for your gold jewelry. You will be prompted to enter some information, such as whether it is a ring, necklace, bracelet or earrings, the karat purity marking and the weight in grams. Submit this information online and you will then be given the estimate of your gold’s worth.
If you are going to sell your gold pieces at a jewelry store, be sure of the reputation of the business first. Check with the Better Business Bureau or ask a friend who has dealt with the jeweler in the past. You are probably better off using Cash4Gold, as they are offering higher gold payout rates.
Whether you wish to sell your gold jewelry online or at a place of business in your town, and have done your homework by following these tips for selling gold jewelry, you already have an idea of your gold’s value. If an offer has been made that you are less than pleased with, you don’t have to settle. Either take your jewelry to another business or hold on to it a little longer. Better yet, try Cash4Gold — if you don’t like the offer they make, they will send the gold back to you free of charge.
Tags: cash4gold, gold appraisal, how to, jewelry appraisal, karat, purity, sell gold, selling, tips
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21 Responses to “How To Tell If Your Gold Jewelry Is Real Gold”
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Wow, thanks for the tips! The video on selling gold is hilarious!
Thanks for the interesting article. The post was professionally written and I feel like the author has extensive knowledge in the subject. Thank you.
Hi, is this available in Canada
When my wife buys new jewelry, I often wonder if its pure. But, I had no way to find out. Now thanks to your amazing post, I’ll check all my wife’s jewelry from now on.
There are many websites that are scams!!. You will be prompted to enter some information, such as whether it is a ring, necklace, bracelet or earrings, the karat purity marking and the weight in grams. They are just fishing for you to Submit this information online and you will then be given the estimate of your gold’s worth – not true!
Neil’s last blog post..Charter Communications reported higher revenues and operating income
This is contradicting to what I’ve read from other site but it looks more logical.
Can you provide more information on this?
Inflation is coming. Gold will be a great investment.
Funny video. Thanks for sharing the idea of whether our jewelry is really a genuine gold.
This is good knowledge to know and I wish more retailers would present this type of information. Nobody wants to pay money for real gold and get some fake knock off.
I don’t watch much broadcast TV, and when I do I skip as many commercials as possible, but even I have seen the incessant televised advertisements for a company called Cash4Gold, and I’m sure most of you have, too (they even had a Super Bowl ad). The company is being heavily promoted online as well.
The sell sounds great on the surface: You pack up all your old jewelry that you’ll never wear again into an envelope and send it, insured, to Cash4Gold. They melt it down and cut you a check for the value of the gold. End of process. It sounds better than going to a pawn shop — the process is simple and requires no personal interaction with an appraiser — so what could go wrong?
A little online sleuthing finds that I’m not the only one who figures that if Cash4Gold has this much money to spend on TV ads, someone’s getting the short end of the stick, and it’s probably the people sending in their family heirlooms to be melted into ingots. The folks at Cockeyed.com put Cash4Gold to the test, rounding up a bunch of old rings, necklaces, and earrings, and taking them to a regular pawn shop to be appraised. The offer: $198 for the lot. They then sent the items to Cash4Gold and waited for a check in the mail. It arrived within a few days as promised… in the amount of 60 bucks. (You don’t have to accept the check; the deal isn’t done until you cash it.)
That price alone is practically criminal, but that’s where the truly slimy part of the operation begins. First, if you call Cash4Gold and ask for your stuff back, you abruptly get a better offer: In the case of the above experiment, the offer was a whopping $178. That’s a better deal, but still not market rate, though the caller was told that Cash4Gold could “manipulate the numbers on their end” to make it appear that more product was sent than was in reality. Bizarre, but it’s really the only way Cash4Gold can cover its behind to convince you the original offer wasn’t a wholesale ripoff.
As bad as that is, it’s far worse if you opted for the company’s “Fast Cash” option. Here, that original offer ($60) is wired into your bank account within 24 hours of them receiving the booty. It sure is fast, but it’s not much cash — and you don’t have the option of declining the offer at all. You’re stuck with a pittance for your valuable gold items. (It’s also worth noting that a publicist working for Cash4Gold later offered Cockeyed cash (allegedly without Cash4Gold’s involvement) for removing its expose from the web…)
What if your jewelry says a number instead of the number of carats? Is it goldplated?
Some people believe that the economy is going to completely collapse and that when it does, gold will skyrocket in value because it has intrinsic value, unlike paper money that can be printed to infinity. I think companies like cash4gold are banking on this to happen, leaving them with a great investment.
That video is funny. This is a good resource for anyone interested in selling their gold.
I had no idea you could get an online gold appraisal. It certainly makes it easier for people to decide whether the gold they have is worth cashing in.
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I think that is the funniest video I have ever seen. Seems times are really tough in this economy and people are selling all their jewelry to people without really knowing the true value of their items. I think that is a shame.
People today don’t really have a clue what their jewelry is really worth. I think it is really sad that people don’t try and learn more before they sell their items.
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yes , I agree.. the best and easiest thing to do first is to check the karat marking on the jewelry , weather it’s a ring , necklace , earrings , bracelets , it has to be karat marking on it.
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Good suggestions. These tips are helpful.
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That video is hilarious, Thanks for sharing the Gold appraisal tool!
Nice to see this type of blogs, now days its very hard to get something for reading which really help people. Thanks , keep it up.
Cash for gold is actually a pretty good company – even though their commercials are kind of weird.
Better yet, hold on to your gold! Gold prices are higher than they’ve ever been and if you have gold chances are you will be rich in a few years.