Gold has always been a metal that is highly prized commodity. Gold was discovered centuries ago and has been found in ancient civilizations. If you have been considering investing in gold, these tips will be of help.

Get a value from several buyers before selling your gold. There are many buyers who purchase gold, and they each have different target margins. Getting estimates from several establishments will help you to understand what you can get for your gold.

When you sell gold, get an idea of value from a number of sources. Many jewelry stores and gold buying services are available, and they will all usually take a different profit on the gold they are purchasing. Getting multiple estimates helps you get a fairer price on your gold when selling it.

The high price of gold may put you off. You can acquire gold jewelry items without spending a lot at a local jewelry store. Pawn shops can offer many good deals and online sites have hundreds of gold pieces for sale.

Current Market

Before you buy or sell your gold, make sure you understand how the prices of precious metals work. The prices of metals like platinum, gold and silver can fluctuate greatly in just one day. Before you do any buying or selling, check the market prices beforehand. You must be prepared to pay higher percentages over the melt values for fractional gold pieces like 1/10, 1/4th, and 1/2 ounces versus one-ounce pieces.

Check out current market before you sell your jewelry. This allows you set a dealer’s offer against the current market rate.

If you want to send jewelry to a gold company via mail, take the time to read over their fine print before getting involved with them. Find out when you will receive your money, and make sure you insure your package.

Before going to sell your jewelry, investigate what the current market price of gold is. You can then discern whether you are getting the right price for your jewelry pieces. Dealers will charge you a premium on top of market value so they can make some money too.

This can be done over time, and can lead to an accumulation of real value in the span of a year or two. Store it in a safe hiding spot until you are ready to sell it.

Separate your gold into groups based on karat weight.Some buyers will weigh all of your items at one time and pay you what the smallest karat weight is worth. This is a scam that will result in you money.

When buying gold jewelry for another, make sure you can return it. There are time where you may have to return the jewelry. If that happens then you’re going to want to return it and get your money back.

Read each form thoroughly when you are going through a gold dealer.This is a business with big dollars attached to it. You must be aware of what you are committing to. If you feel any ounce of uncertainty, do business with someone else. You absolutely must protect your finances at all costs.

Gold is a very lucrative but this precious metal can also be volatile. If you cannot tolerate ups and downs, stay away. If you are up to the challenge, then you can still limit the downside risk involved. Only invest a small overall percentage of your portfolio in gold. A good limit is about five percent.

Get an appraisal to find out the exact value of your jewelry. Although you’re spending some money up front, at least you’re getting fair market value for your items. Make sure you go to an accredited and reliable appraiser to get valid appraisal papers. Remember if you sell, you will not receive the full price of the appraisal.

The purity of gold is measured by karats. The more the karats, the costlier and more pure the gold will be per ounce. You cannot just rely on the karat stamp. You will not inadvertently purchase bad quality if you know the methods to testing gold purity tests.

A good way to get a good value out of gold is to ask your relatives for their broken jewelry. If you use an accurate scale that is designed for jewelry, you can make a profit.

Before you ship gold jewelry to a buying service, find out whether you will be charged for return shipping. If you are not satisfied with the offer, you will have to pay this amount. A lot of buyers offer free shipping but will charge you a lot to send the item back. It’s best to be prepared so you are not surprised by return shipping charges.

Gold Coins

A good way to invest in gold is buying United States gold coins minted prior to 1933. Gold coins were used every day until President Roosevelt put a stop to their circulation. Many people still kept these coins anyways and you can still buy them today.

Sell only to gold buyers who are licensed by the state. This does not prevent you from getting scammed, but a licensed buyer probably has a better reputation. There are various people and stores that can buy gold, so do not think that you must go with the first one you encounter.

Make sure that you do not overbuy when you are investing in balance with your total investment portfolio. Gold does not bring income to the table like bonds or stocks do. The price tends to fluctuate a lot in the gold is also extremely volatile. It escalates in value during times when equities devalue. You shouldn’t invest more than five percent of your investment portfolio into the gold market.

If you’re selling multiple gold items, weigh each karat type separately. This is the only way you are accurately paid for your gold pieces.

There are many sites where you can purchase gold, such as GoldMoney. This is the equivalent of establishing a gold bank account. You put money into it like any other account, (e.g. a savings account) but it’s converted into gold bullion. Although you own the gold, it remains stored securely in the company’s vaults. You can sell it, portion it out, or even (given the right conditions) arrange to take deliver of it yourself.

Monthly and weekly charts are great for performing your market analysis. Using both of the charts can help your research be more comprehensive.

Jewelry with higher karat rating is worth more. Make sure to separate the items before you carefully inspect each piece and put it with similar items.

If you’re at a gold party you should speak with the person in charge so you can figure out what karats are in the jewelry. Many pieces of jewelry will be stamped with a karat rating. However, there are some times when there aren’t visible signs, so the reps have ways to determine it. A way to tell if a gold representative is new and inexperienced is if they use an acid test. This is a simple test used by newer gold dealers.

Take pictures of all your jewelry before letting a potential buyer inspect them. Also inquire about guarantees if the jewelry is lost or stolen while in the buyer’s possession. Make sure to have all this in writing to protect yourself.

Remember your identification when you sell gold. Thieves like to target gold as it is worth a good price. To catch them, laws are in place that mean anyone selling gold has to have proper identification. This makes it more likely that stolen goods.

Always read small print in sales contracts. You need to know what you’re getting into if you’re using a mail-in purchasing service to sell gold. You can then ascertain the amount of fees and commissions you will be charged.

Gold bullion is one of the best options for gold investments. Bullion is comprised of high quality gold and their value is easy to calculate thanks to the marking on the bullion itself. Buy bullion from a legit seller and have an appraisal done.

Even though pawn shops have scales, its accuracy may not be as good as yours. Scales are inexpensive and can assist you in getting the price.

Get a jewelry appraisal before you consider selling it for scrap. This is particularly true with pieces that have intricate details with considerable workmanship. Although you will probably have to pay for an appraisal, you might find you have something worth a lot more than you thought. Appraisers also may know of an interested party for your precious jewelry.

Now you know about the absolute value of pure gold and why it’s treasured by many people. Gold is a wise investment and is beautiful to wear as well. Use the ideas and knowledge from this piece to make your own initial gold investments in the near future.