We’ve all seen those cash for gold commercials invading our television sets and we’ve also heard stories from our friends and family of their bad experiences when selling gold. However selling gold jewelry in Calgary does not have to be a chore and can be a lot of fun, especially when you are going home with $100 bills caressing your pant pocket. Therefore in this blog post we at Calgary Gold want to give you three tips to improve your experience when you sell gold in Calgary.

1) Get to know your gold: Knowing the weight, purity and general value of your gold will decrease your chances of being taken to the cleaners by a gold buyer in Calgary. Many gold buyers know the balance of information is in their favour and will take advantage of your lack of knowledge.

To figure out the weight, a good digital kitchen scale will probably give you the best idea, but another (less exact) option is to simply compare its weight to another item with a known weight. For example, hold a loonie in one hand and your gold in the other, do they weigh about the same? Loonies weigh about 7 grams (the newer ones are a little less). If it’s less than the loonie, try a quarter, they weigh about 4.5 grams. The purity of your gold jewelry is usually indicated by a hallmark, a small number usually located in an inconspicuous spot. It will likely say 10k, 14k or 18k but some European jewelry is stamped with a 417, 585 or 750, gold from Asia is usually stamped 22k, 917 or 999.

Most reputable gold buyers will post their prices per gram online listed by the purity. Our buying prices can be found here. Simply find the price for your purity of gold jewelry and multiply it by the weight and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what your gold is worth!

2) Shop Around: Many gold buyers will start off with a low offer hoping you’ll bite. Their buyers are usually paid on commission and will earn more if you accept a lower offer. Our buyers are not paid commissions and offer the highest payout up front. This is why it’s important to check prices first, be sure that you are at least being offered the rates they post online. Many gold buyers will post impossibly high prices online to lure you in, only to lowball and deduct once you are in their office assuming you will negotiate up from the lower value.

3) Check out Ratings: Most established businesses are assigned a rating by the Better Business Bureau based on the number of complaints they have received from actual customers. The BBB compares the number of complaints to the volume of business that is conducted as well as the typical complaint rates for businesses in that industry (unfortunately in the gold buying industry this rate is usually quite high). Click here to see the BBB ratings of gold buyers in the Lower Mainland. Always make sure that the gold buyer you are dealing with is listed by the BBB and is not a typical “here today, gone tomorrow” establishment.

With so many gold buyers in the Calgary area it can be hard to find the right place to sell your gold jewelry and get the fair payout you’re looking for. However keeping the three tips above in mind when you sell gold jewelry, you can rest assured that you won’t cave to pressure sales tactics and improve your gold selling experience, leaving you happy, educated and with some extra cash in your pocket!