How to Figure Gold Trading Prices
Gold trading prices will fluctuate depending on what type of gold you sell, the middleman system or format you choose to use for the transaction, the market spot price for a troy ounce of pure gold, and public sentiment about their financial comfort. With so many variables involves, the daily and monthly swings in gold prices become a bit easier to understand. Pulling all of this information together requires a bit of discipline, regularly paying attention to the news, economics, market pricing, and keeping track of your precious metal investments. Then, when you sell, timing becomes key.
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Instructions
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Inventory your current gold holdings by type and amount on a notepad. Group the gold in similar categories such as government-issued coins, ingots, jewelry, and miscellaneous gold. Detail within your information the karat quality of the gold if you happen to know it (most government-issued coins are 24 karat if over 0.900 purity).
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Use a computer and an Internet connection to begin tracking market spot prices for a pure ounce of gold. Reference stock trading sites or your brokerage account for up to date market spot prices. Try to also capture the market price information by visiting websites that focus on precious metal market pricing. Take this price per ounce information and input it into a spreadsheet program on a regular basis (once a day or once a week is fairly regular depending on your need).
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Consider if your interest in gold prices is to buy or sell. Compare your interest with the spot prices you've been tracking on a spreadsheet. Determine whether you wish to buy from a dealer, a private party, or a government issuing agency of gold. Compare the prices of each versus the spot price using your spreadsheet program and Internet access to their website catalogues. Purchase from the gold provider that offers the best price as a safe seller.
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Determine, if selling gold, which format you wish to sell your gold through as a middleman. Use an auction format if you want to let people bid and sell to the highest bidder. Set your price at the spot price for gold plus enough to cover shipping costs to the buyer and any commission you have to pay to sell through the middleman company. Use a gold dealer sale, alternatively, if you want to sell fast and you are willing to lose some profit to transact quickly.
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Tips & Warnings
Your real trading price of gold is the final price you pay or sell it for. If you're not in a hurry to buy or sell gold, prices can fluctuate quickly over a few days. You may get a better price by waiting a week if a private sale or auction sale pricing is not sufficiently high or low enough for your needs.
Avoid selling gold in-person to private parties you don't know. This is a fast way to get robbed by criminal elements who use classified ads to find easy victim targets with easy-to-liquidate assets.
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