If you understand what is written below you cannot be taken advantage of:

Today’s gold price of approximately $1,325 per ounce is still very high. If you are contemplating selling but unsure of how much gold you own and what is a fair price to receive, here are some of the intricacies that you should understand first. 

When something is valuable, like a great employee, we might say “He’s worth his weight in gold”. If he weighed 180 pounds, at the current high prices, he would be worth more than $3,816,000 dollars. By comparison, in 2001 when gold was less than $300 per ounce, he would have been worth only about $864,000. His value has gone up more than 4 times in 11 years. Not only has gold increased in value over the past several years but so have platinum and silver. Today may be the best time to “scrap” or melt your broken and unwanted jewelry, sterling silver flatware and tea sets.

When gold is $1,325 per ounce, that price is for a troy ounce of pure (24 karat) gold. Very few of us own pure gold. Jewelry is generally 18kt, 14kt, or 10kt. To calculate how much pure gold is in one ounce of 18kt gold, divide 18 by 24 and you will see that 18kt is only 75% or 3/4 gold. This means that an ounce of 18kt gold would only be worth $993.75 ($1,325 x 75%). Similarly, on ounce of 14kt, 14 divided by 24 is worth $768.50. Unfortunately, not all gold jewelry is stamped, and not all jewelry that is stamped, is stamped correctly. To see how much your gold weighs, you CANNOT just put it on a scale at home that weighs ounces or pounds. You may have heard the seemingly simple question “What weighs more, an ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold?”. Many of you would answer that they both weigh one ounce so they weigh the same – and many of you would be wrong. The ounce of gold weighs more. Precious metals are weighed in troy ounces or 31.1 grams and feathers are weighed on your kitchen or bathroom scales in avoirdupois ounces which is 28.3 grams. This sounds complicated but if you determine your weight in grams, a gram is always a gram and if you know that an ounce of gold equals 31.1 grams, you will know your weight of gold in troy ounces. (number of grams divided by 31.1 = troy ounces)

Most of us do not have large enough quantities of gold to go to a refiner, have it assayed, and determine the exact weight of pure gold. My advice is that if you are going to sell gold, deal with a reputable, professional jeweler. If you are contemplating getting an offer from an out of town company that setups in a local hotel room, or prior to mailing your gold to an unknown TV advertised company, contact a professional jeweler for an offer. Professional jewelers often pay the most because they are not paying for expensive transportation, full page buying ads in newspapers and TV or paying for hotel rooms with security.