Wednesday, January 23, 2008

How can I sell my gold jewelry?

We hope everyone is having a happy and prosperous New Year!
We're finally getting around to posting after the busy Holiday season.
With the markets at an all time high in the precious metals commodity markets one frequently asked question now is "How do I sell my jewelry?".
When trying to give good advice sometimes there is no short answer. Let's start by bracketing a basic framework of jewelry resale markets that follow a descending resale pricing structure:

1.Selling your item directly to a consumer will likely get you the highest asking price. This of course requires marketing(advertising), sales presentation, and issues with security,insurance,collecting payments,shipping/delivery etc. Welcome to the jewelry business.

2. Consign your item to a jewelry reseller. You may actually get almost as much for your jewelry using this option however, you could wait a long time for your item to sell. A commission structure will be in place to provide compensation to the reseller for all the costs listed above and their own profit margin which usually means you will accept less for your item to have it sell in a reasonable amount of time.

3. The last option is to sell your jewelry directly to a second hand buyer such as an estate jeweler, pawn shop or bullion dealer. While this usually results in a lower price received for your jewelry it is immediately paid. The strength of the second hand dealer's bid is usually based on the current metals market for worn, broken or outdated jewelry and for better goods the dealer's resources for resale jewelry sales.

So back to the short answer. To sell your jewelry there are three basic options; retail it yourself, consign to a reseller, or sell to a reseller for cash offer.
Weigh your time and cost needs and get some quotes, with the high precious metals markets you may be surprised what you can get for your unwanted jewelry.