It Pays to Compare Gold Buyers

If you watched the Super Bowl last week, you probably saw the ad with Ed McMahon and MC Hammer – both known as men sometimes in bad need of ready cash – touting a company called Cash4Gold. According to a recent article in Newsday, the Florida-based company spends millions each month on advertising on the Web and the airwaves to convince folks to mail in their gold jewelry, coins, medallions, or trophies to get cash back in a flash. What Ed and MC didn’t mention is something that the company’s Web site does: Customers may get more at their local gold dealer.

In other words, Newsday reports something that we have been telling our readers for a long time. That is, many local dealers provide substantially better buying offers for gold. And that if you are concerned about getting the best price for your gold (or for anything else you want to sell) information and comparative shopping are your best defense.

The Newsday article cites Amit Verma of Nassau Gold Buyers, in Hicksville and Rockville Centre. She says that gold sellers should go to several dealers to convince themselves that offers are competitive, and “get referrals from people who are happy with how they are treated.”

Murray Gordon of Whitman Coin & Jewelry in Melville, a store that buys gold jewelry and gold collectibles and which has a pawnbroking section as well, also confirms the fact that mail-in companies could easily pay less than what the gold could get elsewhere.”Believe it or not, a few earrings can add up to a hundred pennyweights, which can be worth $1,500, $1,800, depending on the quality of the gold,” said Mr. Gordon.

So San Diego gold jewelry sellers don’t forget to call around to your local gold buyers or drop by their shop before deciding who you are going to sell your gold to.

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It certainly is obvious that selling used gold is becoming a hot trend in San Diego and around the country. For further evidence about the selling gold for cash trend, read this interesting article: More Folks Turning Gold Jewelry into Cash.

More Folks Turning Gold Jewelry into Cash

More Californians are taking advantage of a jump in the price of gold to turn their old gold jewelry into cash, says the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The price of gold, which rose to $1,000 an ounce last February and March, then dropped to the mid-$900s, is back above $900 an ounce, sparking a gold rush.

The newspaper article mentions that Santa Cruz Pawn is the only licensed and bonded pawn shop in the city of Santa Cruz, and that it has been in business for more than 10 years, paying cash on the spot for jewelry that might be damaged, missing pieces or just not your style. Bruce Pedersen, owner of Watsonville Pawn, says that most people don’t know that they can come to a pawn shop to sell their gold jewelry. This is unfortunate, since Pedersen said that when he called the “cash for gold” phone number advertised on television, he got referred to another phone number, where he found the voice mail full and no longer taking messages.

Pederson also stated that the $900 per ounce advertised price quote is misleading because it applies only to pure 24-karat gold. Most gold jewelry is 10 karat or 14 karat, so it is worth less, he said. For example, 12 karat is 50 percent gold so the price could be $450 an ounce, half the rate for 24 karat gold.

Other advice worth remembering is that “if it’s gold over silver, it’s worth less,” says Michael Craig, owner of Monterey Bay Estate Jewelry and Antiques, explaining that silver is priced at $12 an ounce.

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While people of all walks of life are turning gold jewelry into cash, the opposite is true too. Many people are now turning cash into gold, seeing gold as one of the few secure investments in this volatile economy. To read about the cash to gold trend, go to this article: Record Sales for Gold Bullion and Coins.

Record Sales for Gold Bullion & Coins

San Diego gold buyers and sellers take note. According to the Financial Times, investors are buying record amounts of gold bars and coins. Why? Because they are shunning risky assets for the relative safety of bullion as renewed fears about the health of the global financial system resurface. Read more

Is Gold Going to Become a Mania Asset?

Steve Ellis, a manager of RAB Gold Strategy, is reporting for Yahoo News that the US Federal Reserve has flooded the market with liquidity by more than doubling its balance sheet in less than six months. This means it may be unable or unwilling to withdraw it in time for fear of precipitating a secondary relapse in economic activity. Meanwhile other central bankers are predicted to face intense pressures to “support” their domestic economy by weakening the currency, leading to competitive currency devaluations. Read more

Gold Prices Jump to 7 Month High

The good news keeps coming for people looking to sell their gold in San Diego. Bloomberg reports that gold climbed to the highest level in seven months on demand from investors who want to protect the value of their assets as stocks slump and the global recession deepens. Read more