The problem with attending a gold party, like any of these tupperware/underwear/candle type parties is that you are going to feel obliged to participate.

The difference is that if you’re not careful, instead of wasting £30 on something you don’t want or need to show support for your friend hosting the party, you could end up losing hundreds of pounds.

As you’ve no doubt heard from all the adverts on TV, the price of gold really is quite high at the moment, in fact it has doubled over the last 4 years.

What this means is that the Gold Party valuer can offer you 50% of the actual value of your gold, and you may still think you are getting a great deal.

So before you go to a Gold Party make sure do the following.

1) Know what you are selling.
Don’t take antique jewellery, designer jewellery, or anything containing expensive stones. The gold that you sell is being bought for scrap (to be melted down). Anything that is not gold will be removed before weighing, and most gold buyers have no interest in the stones/gems. Similarly antique and designer jewellery may be worth more to a collector than the scrap metal value alone.

The gold valuer will test your jewellery for purity, but it doesn’t hurt to check for hallmarks before you go – the difference in price between 9 carat and 24 carat gold is huge.

2) Know the real value.
If you know what your gold is worth at todays prices, you are less likely to fall victim to the wow! factor when the valuer gives you a price. Separate your scrap jewellery into 9ct, 18ct, etc, piles and weigh it on the most accurate scales you have.

We update the latest gold prices twice daily in grammes, imperial ounces and troy ounces so you can work out the real value of your gold.

3) Be Fair.
There are many places that will buy your scrap gold from you for 8-10% below spot (the price we list on our site). However if you’re at a gold party held at someone’s home you may need to accept a little less to cover the cost of having the valuer in attendance, they need to cover their costs and make a profit (and let’s not forget the party hostess gets a hefty 10-12.5% commission too).

4) Tell your friends.
There can be a lot of pressure to participate at these types of parties. Avoid any social awkwardness by making sure you’re not the only one objecting if the price offered is insultingly low.
You could share this page with your friends on Facebook Share

or at the very least make a note of the latest scrap gold prices and take them with you to the party.

Related posts:

1. Scrap Gold Prices
2. How to tell what your gold is worth
3. Selling Gold – Guide to getting the best price

New scrap gold buyers are appearing every week so I’m afraid you’ll have to bear with us if this list appears less than complete.

The object of this guide is to provide an update to date list of all the scrap gold buyers around as well as the prices they offer for your gold.

Obviously some sites update their prices more often than others, and some make claims that are frankly very unlikely (to be polite). Sadly we’re not currently in a position to perform continual tests by actually sending gold ourselves, so for the time being we can only report on the claims made on their websites, starting with the prices they claim to offer. Over time we hope to add a page for each scrap gold buyer highlighting the “need to know” terms and conditions as well as any comments (good or bad) we find on other blogs, forums and discussion boards.

Scrap Gold Buyers That Publish Their Prices
(Prices per gram of 9ct gold unless otherwise stated)
Note: For your reference the published London Fix price at the time of checking was £8.56 per gram

howcashforgold.co.uk £8.20
GrantsofCornwall.com £8.31
CashForYourGold.co.uk £8.20
cash4mygold.co.uk £8.25
gotgoldgetcash.co.uk £5.20
falkosgold.co.uk £7.46
bestpriceforgold.co.uk £7.90
scrapgolduk.co.uk £8.49 (less 8% refining charge) so…£7.81
sellgoldonline.co.uk £8.10

Scrap Gold Buyers That Don’t Publish Their Prices
www.gold2pounds.com
www.goldbuyerman.com
www.Money4Gold.co.uk
www.postgoldforcash.com
www.cashforgold.co.uk
www.goldrefiners.tv
uk.cash4gold.com
www.cashmygold.co.uk
www.jewelleryscrap.co.uk
www.postgoldgetcash.co.uk
www.mygoldmine.co.uk
www.ounces2pounds.co.uk

Please be sure to read our guide to selling gold before you consider selling your gold jewellery or similar.

Looking for another way to make some money? I’d sell my phone.

Related posts:

1. How to tell what your gold is worth
2. Selling Gold – Guide to getting the best price
3. Sell My Nokia N95 8gb Mobile Phone

To get an accurate picture of how much your gold is worth, obviously you need an up to date price.

As a traded commodity the price of gold fluctuates constantly, however all the gold buyers that we’ve come across so far base their price on the London Gold Fixing.

London gold prices are fixed twice a day at 1030am and 3pm London time by five members of the London Bullion Market Association. You can read more about the London Fixing over at Wikipedia.

For our purposes we will display the price in Pound Sterling per Troy Ounce as published by the London Bullion Market Association, and the equivalent values of the lesser carats based on that price.

Current Price of Gold – 2nd August 2011

Remember these prices are equivalent to the prices gold bullion is traded for on the markets and represents the maximum value of your gold.

This doesn’t take into account the cost of turning your scrap gold into bullion or the profits of the gold buyers. 80-90% of this value is realistically the most you can expect to receive and personally I would view with suspicion any goldbuyer offering this value and higher (unless of course their website simply hasn’t been updated following a significant price change).

For help calculating the value of your gold, refer to our guide: “How much is my gold worth”

If you have weighed your gold in either grammes or imperial ounces (for example on the kitchen scales) you can find the equivalent prices broken down on the following pages:
Gold Price Per Gram
Gold Price Per Ounce

Related posts:

1. Selling Gold – Guide to getting the best price
2. Gold Price per Ounce
3. Scrap Gold Prices

If you are thinking of selling gold, the chances are you have noticed the never-ending stream of adverts on the TV informing you that gold prices are at an all time high and now is the time to cash in.

Whether you should sell now or take a chance on the price rising further is a decision no one can make for you, but assuming you decide to sell, one thing is for sure – You want the best price possible.

The only way to be sure you are being offered a fair price is to know beforehand what your gold is worth.

You hear horror stories of online companies offering 20% of the value then only improving their offer when you ask for the items returned.

If there are independent jewellers nearby you can ask them for a valuation, even then it’s good to have an idea in your head as to the true value.

Our How Much is my Gold Worth guide will help you calculate the true value based upon the current market price. Remember this is only a guide and the amount you are offered will generally be less to accomodate the buyers profit margin, but ideally that will be no more than 10-20%.

Once you have an idea of the value, you can set about selecting one of the numerous gold buying sites to do business with.

Some sites display the prices they are offering – Although you will be offered the price on the day they process your items, you can get a good idea of their profit margins by simply deducting the price they are offering today from the actual value you can see on any decent news or financial trading site.

The sites that don’t display prices work on the principle that you send your gold off, they assess it and contact you with a valuation (or in some cases simply send you a cheque, which you are at liberty to return if you disagree with the amount).

These companies know that once you have gone to all the trouble of sending off your loot, you are likely to accept what they offer you (especially if you have the cheque in hand) rather than quibble about the price.

This is why it is essential to know what your items are worth beforehand, don’t be afraid to haggle – remember it is easier for them to simply increase their offer than to package and return your items, losing out on the postage, insurance etc that they have already paid for.

It is certainly possible to get good money for your gold at the moment if you enter the transaction with your eyes open. Best of luck, and feel free to drop by with comments, positive or negative of your experiences selling gold.

For an alternative way to make some easy money – I’d sell my phone

Related posts:

1. How To Make Money Fast For Christmas
2. How to tell what your gold is worth
3. Scrap Gold Buyers

The biggest concern most people have about sending their gold off in the post to a gold buying company believe it or not is not whether their items will be lost in the post (you can insure against that) but whether they will actually receive the true value of their gold.

This guide shows you how to estimate the value of your gold before you send it off.

Please bear in mind that the gold buyers are not interested in any gems and will remove them before weighing your piece(s).

Also if you have an item that you think has particular value because it is antique or is a designer piece, you are advised to seek an independent valuation. The value you’ll get from an online goldbuyer is based on what they’ll get for melting it down

If you have several pieces of jewellery to send off, repeat this process for each item.

1) Check that your item is real.

The easiest way to check if your gold (or silver or platinum for that matter) is real is to hold it up to a magnet. Real gold is NOT MAGNETIC – even gold that isn’t pure won’t contain enough metallic alloys to be attracted to a magnet. If your item is magnetic, chances are it’s worthless.

2) Check for hallmarks or stamps.

The only way we can estimate a value before sending off our jewellery is if we know the purity of the gold. Luckily most gold in the UK is stamped with a hallmark. Make a note of the markings -

This table will show you the purity percentage.

9k 375 37.50%
14k 583 58.33%
18k 750 75.00%
22k 917 91.66%
24k 999 99.90%

If you don’t see any markings you can still send your gold off to have it tested, but this guide will only be able to provide you with a very vague estimate.

3) Weigh your item (preferably in grammes).
Gold buyers have very accurate scales, the more accurate the scales that you can weigh your item on, the more accurate your estimate will be. Don’t forget to remove any gems or embellishments that aren’t gold before weighing the item.

4) Find the current price of Gold (preferably per gram).
Please bear in mind that if the price you get is per ounce, they are talking about a ‘troy ounce’.
A Troy ounce is a unit of measurement used almost exclusively these days in precious metals markets.
The difference between a troy ounce and a regular ounce?
31.103 grammes = 1 Troy Ounce
28.35 grammes = 1 normal everyday imperial ounce

Most online gold buyers will show their current prices on their websites. At the time of writing this they are quoting £22.50/gram.

5) Grab a calculator!

The most you can expect to receive will be as follows

Weight in grammes X Price per Gram X Purity Percentage

Example
10grammes x £22.50 x 37.5% (9carat) = £84.38

Please Note: Some sites may list prices for 9k, 14k etc – in that case just use that figure rather than applying the purity percentage to the pure gold value.

Hopefully this guide will help you decide whether it is worth your while selling your gold, and avoid any surprises when you get your valuation.

If your still undecided about selling gold, why not consider selling your phone

Related posts:

1. Selling Gold – Guide to getting the best price
2. Current Price of Gold
3. Scrap Gold Buyers