Gold has soared to record highs. Now, in these tough economic times, many consumers are wondering how to sell their gold. When you want to sell gold, whether it is old, broken, and unwanted jewelry or gold coins and bullion, there is one important rule of thumb: an educated consumer is a smart consumer. If you are selling old gold jewelry, much of the retail price takes into account the specific piece's artistic design and the retail price usually reflects a 300-400% markup relative to the cost of the actual materials. In the scrap gold market, the items sold at some discount to the actual gold value usually anywhere from 20-50% depending on how you sell your gold. The leading gold buyer pays up to 80% for all that old jewelry gathering dust on your dresser. There a few steps sell gold safely and securely. First, pure gold is 24 karats and based on one troy ounce, which consists of 31.1 grams or 20 pennyweights. One pennyweight is equal to 1.555 grams. Because gold is a very soft metal, almost all jewelry contains less than 24 karats of gold. In order to determine how much pure gold are in the item you need divide the karat quality of the gold by 24. Most gold jewelry sold in the United States is in the form of 18k karat, 14 karat, or 10-karat gold. 18-karat gold is 75% pure, 14 karat is 58.3% pure, and 10k gold is 41.7% pure. There should be a karat stamp somewhere on the piece of jewelry. One thing to note is that unlike, most gold buyers do not pay for diamonds so make sure that you deal with a gold buyer who will pay for any diamonds your items contain, or will remove them and send them back to you. Diamonds weighing less than 1 carat are of lesser quality and have a very limited resale value, and diamonds with a GIA certificate are worth a small premium to those without. Prices changing daily based on the London PM Gold Fix. Typically, in order to refine and assay a piece, there is a 10-20% discount on the gold price in addition to the cost of providing a safe, convenient service.

Rings

A finger ring is a circular band worn as a type of ornamental jewelry around a finger; it is the most common current meaning of the word ring. Other types of metal bands worn as ornaments called rings, such as arm rings and neck rings. Rings worn by both men and women and can be of any quality. Various ring shapes and styles exist. The following are but a few. Flat wedding bands are the simplest form of ring. A flat wedding band consists of a strip of metal bent around into a loop and joined where the ends meet. Half-round rings, also called D-shape rings, are flat wedding bands filed half-round on the outside. Sleeve rings are rings that consist of a thin inner ring or sleeve, with several other rings stacked onto it to form one solid ring. Either the rings soldered onto the sleeve or the ends of the sleeve can be upset to keep them all together. A little of both can also be done. Solitaire rings are rings with a single large stone as a centerpiece, usually a diamond. Eternity rings are rings with stones, usually diamonds, of the same cut and size, set in one row all around the ring. The stones are usually round or square, and the setting is usually either claws or a channel setting. When the stones do not continue around the entire ring, but stop halfway around the finger, it is a half-eternity ring. Trinity rings or Trilogy Rings are three rings worn at one time. Cluster rings are rings with a group of stones in a cluster setting, forming the focal point of the ring. The cluster setting usually consists of one large stone in the center surrounded with several smaller stones. Tension Rings are a type of ring in which a single gemstone is held in place by pressure rather than prongs, a bezel or other mounting. The metal setting is actually spring-loaded to exert pressure onto the gemstone. In the United States and Canada, ring sizes specified using a numerical scale, with quarter and half sizes. An increase of a full size is an increase of 0.032 inch in diameter, or roughly 1/10 inch in inside circumference. Generally, sizes in quarters and halves will not relate conventionally to anything on any known ruler. On one finger alone, a person may vary more than a whole ring size- depending on time of day, work performed, and other swelling-inducing activities/conditions. Therefore, in most cases quarter-sizes are meaningless unless one needs precise accuracy with a particular ring.