Unlike other precious metals such as platinum and palladium, gold has a variety of levels of purity. Pure gold is commonly used to create gold coins or ingots, which people can buy and sell as an investment. When it comes to timing your gold investment, do you have 24 carat gold to sell? With 100% purity, 24-carat gold is the best of the best when it comes to the value of gold. It's the preferred way to buy gold as an investment, and understanding the right gold investment timing can help you maximize your return. You'll usually find 24-carat gold in the form of coins and ingots.
Gold jewelry is usually less pure, since adding other metal alloys can strengthen it and prevent wear and tear. However, if stored securely in your safe (or Fort Knox), 24-carat gold is the preferred way to store value. Most of the “gold jewelry” sold today is 14 carats, meaning that only about 58 percent is gold. To get the most gold for your money, search for 22K or 24K.
There are three main places to sell gold: reputable online gold buyers, ingot pawnshops, and local jewelers. We generally recommend selling online if you're looking for the highest possible price for your gold, although each option offers its own range of advantages and disadvantages. Jewelry made with 24-karat gold is often considered to be the best quality gold you can buy. However, very few people own jewelry made of 24-karat gold because it's rare for jewelry to be made of solid gold without any other metal alloys mixed in.
Generally, if you sell gold online, you'll get the best price, although you'll have to send your gold items to the buyer for evaluation (most will provide prepaid email) and wait 24 to 48 hours after the appraisal to receive payment. We'll explain this in more detail below, with information on how you can roughly determine the total amount of pure gold in several common gold items. Similarly, used jewelry from brands such as Hermès, Gucci and other haute couture brands may contain only a small amount of gold, but still have significant value as second-hand jewelry. They will almost always offer you the best price for your gold, with a quick and simple process, free of any aggressive sales tactics.
Gold is a popular commodity that is traded around the world in markets such as the COMEX in New York and the bullion market in London. We've also detailed the most common mistakes to avoid when selling gold, as well as the pros and cons of selling gold online instead of doing so locally through a pawn shop, jewelry store, or other type of gold buyer. While 24-carat gold is bright in color, it also has a warmer tone than most other jewelry, making it more attractive. If you have gold in the form of bars or coins, you'll get the best prices by selling them to a dealer specializing in gold bars.
If gold doesn't have a mark or can't be searched, its purity should be determined using a more scientific chemical test. As in the stock market, determining whether the price of gold will rise or fall is not easy, and “overtaking the gold market” is something that even the smartest investors consistently strive to achieve. 22-carat stamped gold jewelry is approximately 91 percent pure gold, and the other 9 percent generally consists of copper, silver, or other metals. We generally recommend Abe Mor for gold jewelry because their rates are lower than those of other gold buyers, meaning you'll get a higher percentage of the spot price of the gold you sell.
So, while pieces with a high gold content are more malleable, they're also very beautiful and have that rich buttery-yellow color.
