DENVER - Your old jewelry can make you some money. Gold is in hot demand these days and selling at near-record prices around the world because it is seen as a safe asset in uncertain times.
You probably have seen the ads asking you to send off your old jewelry to receive a check in the mail.
But you should not expect a pot of gold in return. In fact, consumer experts say the best and safest way to cash in on your gold is to compare prices around town.
9NEWS brought a few pieces of jewelry to several stores to see what they were offering.
The difference was almost $2,000 in one case.
Our biggest piece was a thick, 14-karat gold necklace, made up of two bracelets that lock together.
The jeweler examined and weighed it before calculating the price based on the percentage of weight in gold.
The price for the heavy necklace came to $1,572.78.
Then we pulled out a few old bracelets and necklaces, five pieces in all, for a price.
The pieces were worth more than $756, bringing the grand total of the jewelry and heavy necklace to $2,329.60.
"If people have got it and they want to sell it, I think now is as good a time as any," one jeweler at William Crow said.
9NEWS took the same pieces of jewelry and went to a handful of stores, all in the same day.
First, we went to a pawn shop in Wheat Ridge, where the staff would not even accept our heavy necklace, saying it was fake, even though it was worth more than $1,500 at a Denver jeweler.
They did offer money for our other necklaces and bracelets.
After tapping buttons on his calculator, the worker said, "I'll go as high as $400 for you."
That was compared to the $2,329.60 from our first offer, which included the necklace.
The next pawn shop we visited in Lakewood also refused to offer anything for the heavy necklace, after examining it, also saying it appeared to be fake.
The store was willing to go as high as $650 for the other jewelry; no where near the amount of our first price quote.
Finally, somebody else was willing to buy our thick heavy necklace at a pawn shop on Colfax in Denver.
Along with our other jewelry, it was the second-highest offer.
"We'll get you $2,175 [for all of the jewelry]," said one worker.
Our last stop took us to a Cash for Gold kiosk in an area mall.
After examining the pieces, the worker came up with an offer of, "Close to $1,500, possibly as much as like $1,500 and change."
It was still far short of the $2,329.60 offer we received at our first Denver jeweler.
While one Denver jeweler said he would offer 75 percent to 80 percent of the current value on the jewelry, consumer experts warn that many companies will only pay as high as 15 percent to 20 percent of the value.
Experts also warn that some stores may be willing to pay good money to reuse your old jewelry, but others will give you the lowest value and end up making money on it by scrapping it.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
Be careful out there it's a jungle. Go to more than one shop.
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