How to Sell Gold to a Refiner

Selling gold to a refiner is usually the fastest, simplest and easiest way to exchange your gold for cash. Some refiners will even allow you to exchange your gold for better gold, such as trading broken jewelry for gold bullion. If you have jewelry that is in excellent condition, then you may get a better price by selling elsewhere, but if you have damaged jewelry or raw gold to sell, then a refiner is your best option by far.

Things You'll Need

• Digital scale

Instructions

1. Use a digital scale to weigh your gold. This allows you to judge the buyer’s honesty when an offer is made for your gold.

2. Monitor the price of gold. Gold prices are updated twice each day. You can always get the current rate of gold by visiting kitco.com (see Resources below). Following the day-to-day fluctuations in the price of gold will allow you to better gauge what your gold is worth.

3. Locate local refiners. Most metropolitan areas have at least one gold refiner within driving distance. Using the local telephone directory is one way to look up refiners, but online search engines are probably more efficient. Start by doing a search for refiners in your city, and if no results are found you can expand your search to the state level and then see what refiners are close. For example, if you live in Atlanta, you can first search for “Atlanta gold refiner,” and if no results are found you can expand your search to “Georgia gold refiner.”

4. Choose a refiner. Once you have identified the refiners that are in your local area, call them to determine what rate they are paying for gold. Tell them what how many carats (k) your gold is and how much it weighs, then ask what rate they pay. This will allow you to compare rates without driving all over town. Once you know who is paying the highest rate, it is a simple matter of taking your gold in and trading it for cash.

Tips & Warnings

• Never use a mail order refiner, such as goldkit.com or cash4gold.com, unless you are selling large quantities of gold. These companies are usually a good option if you are selling more than 310 g, but anything less will usually result in you being paid around 5 percent of the melt value of your gold.

Resources

• Digital Pocket Scale
• Kitco Precious Metals