You may have seen some of the recent advertisements online and on television for websites that offer to buy your old gold jewelry for cash. You may be wondering if these cash for gold offers are legitimate and, if they are, how the system works. The good news is that such offers to buy old jewelry for cash are totally legit. The reason there has been such a proliferation of companies and websites offering to buy consumer jewelry is simple. It has to do with the cost of gold. The fact of the matter is that gold is a commodity that is sold on commodity markets everyday. As such the price of it can go up or down over time. Now, what has happened is that the price of gold has skyrocketed in the past ten years due to a number of reasons. Because the price of it has become so high, it is highly profitable for companies to buy gold jewelry so that they can melt it down and resell it on the open market.

What this means for you is that your old jewelry has never been worth more than it is today. You may be surprised to learn that gold is currently selling for more than $1,000 an ounce. This means that old gold pieces, which can be melted down for their gold, refined and sold, are extremely valuable. Hence you have seen the proliferation of these gold buyers. It may not have made much sense to buy gold jewelry from ordinary people when gold was selling at $400 an ounce, but now that gold is selling for more than $1,000 every body is making a lot of money. Therefore, if you have old gold jewelry you can make a nice amount of money by selling it to one of the gold buyers either in your area. The important thing to realize is that the price of gold is always fluctuating and there is no guarantee that the price will remain high, so if you have been thinking about selling some gold jewelry for quick.

There are many places that you can go to, to buy jewelry made from gold, and though many are safe, and sell gold jewelry that is what it says it is, it is best to be safe. When buying gold in northern America, look for jewelry retailers that have the logo of Jewelers of America. Outside northern America there will often be an association that has a set of standards for the members. It is a good choice to make sure they have that membership, as it shows in most cases that you are getting what you actually wanted.

When buying gold, you may have heard the word – karats. A Karat, is a way of measuring the pureness of gold jewelry. Because the metal is soft in its pure form and unsuitable for wearing it is often added with other metals to make it stronger. As an example 24 karat gold is pure gold and is very soft. In this state is easily malleable and would likely bend and change shape every time you try to wear it.

24 karat gold is often used for other purposes, such as making CD layers or in computer processors. 18K jewelry is the next level down and is 75% pure, then 12K gold which is half gold and half is other metals. Another karat you may find is 10 karats which is actually only 41.7% pure gold. As you get to the lower percentages the more stronger the jewelry made from gold, but also the less real gold contained within the jewelry. It will be something to consider which type you want to purchase.

Anything below 10 karats is not really classed as gold jewelry, so much so that in the US, it is against the law to label an item as being gold, if it contains less than 10 karats. Even though many are safe, and sell gold jewelry that is what it says it is, it is best to be safe and buy from jewelry retailers with a membership to a jewelry association. This applies online, and the sites will often display such logo’s and hallmark information.

All jewelry made from gold will come with a karat mark. If you find jewelry without this mark either online or offline it is best to take it back, as it could end up being an item with no gold in it or one which has less than 10 karats. When you look to buy gold jewelry, you will also see a mark of the jewelry manufacturer. This information is good to know. As jewelry with a known mark is going to be more likely to be a genuine product.