It is amazing how much people love selling their old junk. How else can you explain the popularity of yard sales? From old broken watches to their kid’s beat up toys, almost nothing is off limits. People get even more excited once they realize that they can actually make a decent amount of money by selling certain items. The most recent craze to hit suburbia is selling scrap gold for cash.

What is Scrap Gold?

Scrap gold is essentially any metal that contains at least a small amount of gold. Examples include bent or broken gold jewelry, class rings, wedding bands, dental crowns or bridges, and earrings. The unique thing about selling scrap gold is that the condition of the item is not even a consideration when trying to determine a fair value. If your scrap gold cannot be fully restored it can simply be melted down and made into a new item.

Where to Sell Scrap Gold

As you begin thinking about where to sell your scrap gold, it is always a good idea to first get an appraisal of the items you want to sell from an independent third party. Imagine how bad you would feel if you sold something extremely valuable for pennies on the dollar just because you did not take the time to fully explore your options.

Once you are sure that your gold is scrap, and not something much more valuable, there are two basic options to sell your gold. Perhaps the quickest and easiest option is to simply sell it on eBay. Take a few good pictures, enter your asking price, and hit publish. You may be surprised at how well scrap gold can sell.

A second viable alternative is to sell your scrap gold to a local pawn shop. With this option you do not have to worry about shipping the items to the winning buyer, buying insurance from the post office or dealing with customer complaints. You may or may not get as much money for your gold when compared to eBay, but you will get your money right away.

Regardless of where you ultimately decide to sell your scrap gold, you should always remember that it is your gold. If you do not like the price that is offered you do not have to sell it. Since the price of gold continues to increase almost daily, there will always be another buyer at a later date.

What particular outlet will be the best for buying or selling gold scrap will change from day to day, right along with the daily change in the price of gold, and while this change can be slight, it still affects the prices that gold scrap will be bought and sold for.  This illustrates one of the most important aspects of the gold market, the current gold price, as this will determine all of the other prices from scrap gold to open market trading.

Relative Values

One of the main reasons that gold scrap is so popular right now is the proliferation of old jewelry and coins or similar items that are in abundance all over the country, and while these items may have cost hundreds when new, with today’s gold scrap price, they may be worth thousands.  Using an online gold scrap calculator, such as the one on the Mid-States Recycling website, multiple karat weights and purities can be estimated at once, as well as what that price translates to from their refinery.

The Terms

The online gold scrap calculator is a great reference tool, but the final price for those that buy or sell gold scrap will find that there are fees involved for processing and refining, which can be substantial, in some cases.  These aspects have motivated many to seek melting and refining processes from home, which are not that difficult, but are best suited for those dealing in large quantities of gold scrap, and the refineries are the best options for most.

Getting Stock

One of the best strategies for making good profits with gold scrap is to purchase a stock of scrap jewelry, watches, coins and other items when the market price of gold is low, and then sell a lump sum when the price is right.  Online outlets like E-Bay and Amazon, as well as local and online pawn shops, are some of the best places to get stock where items may not be priced in accordance with current or predicted gold scrap price.  Some of the search abilities of E-Bay can even perform as an online surveillance system for getting the best deals when they emerge, as these search items can be set up to email notifications to the user as soon as they are listed.