Jewellery in essence is much like fashion and it tends to get out of fashion and more often than not it is left lying about somewhere unwanted and unused. What a lot of people do not realise is that old jewellery (ones that contain gold) are worth a lot of money and even if it is a piece of jewellery that your grandmother bought for a hundred dollars 50 or 60 years ago, it would or could be worth close to a thousand dollars based on current market prices.
Most people hardly realise that they are sitting on a fortune that is lying about somewhere in a box in the attic, as old gold is still gold and it is in fact worth much more now than it was worth when it was purchased. Gold jewellery is often seen as a purchase that is aesthetic superficially as well as a long term investment. What most people do not know or realise is the fact that 15 % of the total gold that is produced every year around the globe stems from recycled gold and although the recycled gold comes from electronic products and other contraptions which include tooth fillings, the majority of it comes from jewellery.
This is due to the fact that, a lot of people turn in their gold to second hand gold jewellery buyers or in some instances gold traders for cash. These buyers, offer the sellers cash based on the amount of gold that is contained in the jewellery pieces based on market prices. However, often sellers are short changed by gold buyers due to their lack of knowledge about jewellery. In most instances sellers are offered way below the market prices and often get 30 % lesser than they should, if they knew the actual value of the gold jewellery that they are trying to sell.
An easy way to estimate the value of a gold jewellery is to look for the ‘karat markings’ on them and weight the gold piece. If at all the jewellery piece weighs or instance 2 grams and it is marked with an 18 k stamp on it, which means that the piece of jewellery actually contains 1.5 grams of gold. Now all the seller has to do is multiply the 1.5 grams of gold with the market price of gold for one gram (for example if the market price for 1 gram of gold happens to be 100 dollars, then an 18 k gold jewellery piece that weighs 2 grams would be worth 100 x 1.5 = 150 dollars). However, gold buyers almost never give the exact market value due to the cost for extracting the gold from the jewellery.
In most circumstances a fair price would be 5 to 10 % lesser than the market value depending on the quantity of gold that is being put up for sale (the more gold jewellery pieces you try to sell, the closer the price to market gold price). So if at all you have a box of jewellery that belongs to your grandparents, maybe you should take it to the nearest jeweller or gold buyer and get it appraised!
For more information on selling gold jewellery, please visit the Brisbane Gold Company website.
