Cash for Gold Guide - Atlanta Gold Selling Guide 2010

Atlanta's Cash for Gold Guide 2010 - Getting the most for your gold without getting ripped off...

UPDATE: Regarding one particular Gold Broker in Gwinnett County: Gwinnett Gold Brokers:
While it's true that Gwinnett Gold Brokers limits their clientel to either Gold Dealers or High Rollers (Those with a minimum of $1,000 in gold or other precious metals.), we've uncovered good news for those with less than $1,000 to sell.

The Gold Dealerships typically consist of "Cash for Gold" storefronts or "We Buy Gold" dealers who simply don't meet the strong qualifications needed to deal directly with refineries. They may not be US citizens or may have become citizens very recently, they may not have what it takes to become certified, they may not have credit or trade references or they simply may not have a bond for what ever reason. In recent years, the department of homeland security has made it somewhat more difficult to do business in this highly sensative market for obvious reasons.

Customers dealing with these "CASH for GOLD" or "WE BUY GOLD" dealers have to realize that the store owners have to profitably cover their $5k to $10k in monthly overhead out of the sales they make each day. In addition, since many if not most of them can't deal directly with refineries - they have to pay additional middle-men like Gwinnett Gold Brokers an extra 10%.

It's important to remember that just because they can't afford to pay as much as the higher volume dealers - this doesn't make them unreasonable or dishonest. Most of them are honestly doing the very best they can. Unfortunatley, some of them feel that they can't always affort to be truthful with customers and this is where much of the outrage comes from.

In recent months - many of those selling their gold have figured out two things:

1. - By selling their jewelry directly to Gwinnett Gold Buyers, they receive twice the amount they'd normally receive from all the many "Cash for Gold" storefronts seemingly everywhere these days.

2. - Some individuals have figured out that they might not initially have the approximate $1,000 minimum in jewelry or coins typically needed to sell directly to Gwinnett Gold Brokers. But when you consider that GGB values precious metals at approximately twice the amount that the typical dealers place on it. This means that one ounce of 14k gold to other dealers could very well meet the minimum requred by Gwinnett Gold Brokers.

"We Buy Gold" - "Cash for Gold" Stores - Many, if not most of these stores pay only half the price that legitimate gold brokers in the market are paying. Plus, these stores are now paying by check either at the time of sale or promise to send you a check some time in the future. And if that's not bad enough - bank tellers and check cashing clerks across Atlanta are reporting that a good portion of those checks have a "Stop Payment" on them. Please keep an eye on your local news sources for developments on this matter.

It's important to point out that these stores do offer one advantage over some of the other alternatives. These storefronts are seemingly EVERYWHERE! Convenience of location is probably the single most important benefit these dealers offer. Customers do often pay a premium of at least 50%, but that's the price individuals are sometimes forced to pay and in certain circumstances - they find it well worth it.

Pawn Shops - We're happy to report that pawn shops throughout the Atlanta area are very well kept and, for the most part - their owners and employees are very professional and polite. They also seem to do their best to pay a fair price and are almost always eager to explain how things work - along with answering any other questions you may have.

Pawn shops are required by law to not sell the gold they purchase for 40 days while authorities can determine if the jewelry is stolen or not. For this reason as well as others, pawn shops are limited to a certain ceiling they can pay for their gold and still make a small profit.

Local Gold Brokers - Overwhelmingly, the highest price we've found consistently being paid is by legitimate "Gold Brokers." Well established gold brokers can usually be found by searching Google in your specific areas, such as "Gwinnett Gold Brokers" or "Mall of Georgia Gold Brokers."

For many reasons, local Gold Brokers typically pay at least twice the amount that all their competitors pay. It seems the biggest reason for this is the fact that Gold Brokers charge their customers only a small percentage fee for their services. Granted, they make much less off each transaction, but they normally do ten times the business that their competitors do.

Craigs List - "Bait and Switch" seems to be the most popular game played by those using this service to do their advertising. And why not - it's free! They have NOTHING to lose. They can say anything they want on the phone to get in front of customers and then everything changes when it comes time to dealing with customers.

Very Typical Example: A private gold buyer on Craigs List will advertise $20 per gram for 14k gold and will also promise to pay in cash. By the time they're in front of their customer - they're suddenly only paying $10 per gram for 14k gold and can only pay by check. They'll draw upon their lengthy list of excuses to explain their sudden changes and should the customer walk away in disgust - they've lost nothing.

We'll continue to update our Atlanta's Cash for Gold Guide 2010 as more information becomes available. Please email us with your experiences and we'll include you in our research. In your email, please indicate whether or not you'd like us to publish your story.

Gwinnett Daily Online Reader Response Email address: RealNetGM@att.net

We also encourage everyone to shop around on the phone before getting on the road. If a gold buyer doesn't want to quote you what they're paying over the phone - it's probably wise to stay away from them.

ALSO - Very Important! - Always insist on CASH ONLY! Too many times we've seen stop payments placed on these checks and weeks later, a settlement is reached between the two parties for pennies on the dollar.

If a company doesn't have cash to pay you on the spot for your gold - simply move on to the next gold broker. There are plenty of them everywhere!

Cash for Gold Becomes Serious Business in Atlanta Area

ATLANTA - Does it seem like there are now more "We Buy Gold" signs around Atlanta then there is Kudzu? They seem to be EVERYWHERE you look.

And with the market value of gold being at an all time high with no sign of it peaking - it just seems to make sense to cash in on things you stopped wearing years ago - if ever. Especially now, with the holiday season being upon us and money being so tight.

So exactly where does one go to get top dollar for their valuable jewelry and not get taken advantage of? After six months of thorough research - Gwinnett Daily Online has done our very best to find the answers you've been looking for. We've studied every conceivable method of selling one's gold and jewelry, including pawn shops, cash for gold stores, out-of-state gold buyers, gold parties, online services and a couple other efforts that simply are not worth mentioning.

Here's what we found out so far - Beginning with the most popular...

"We Buy Gold" - "Cash for Gold" Stores - We found the employees of these establishments to be exceedingly polite, very well trained and found their establishments to be well above par in just about every way. There's just one question that begs to be asked. With all the expensive overhead about, combined with the fresh startup costs of opening the store - can these businesses afford to pay five figues per month in overhead and still afford to pay customers a fair amount for their gold?

So we asked customers as they exited some of these stores if they were happy with the value they had received for what they had sold. Their answers were overwhelmingly not. Many left the stores without selling anything, expressing that they had expected two to three times the amounts they were being offered. These were people who had done their homework and had a good idea of the value of their gold. The only customers that expressed a favorable response seemed to be indivduals who had a very small amount of gold to sell.

We were also surprised to notice that these stores only seemed to be doing consistant business on Saturdays. The rest of the week seemed extremely quiet. We even asked many of the stores' sales staff if they found business to be slow during the week and most of them concurred.

Pawn Shops - We're happy to report that pawn shops throughout the Atlata area are very well kept and, for the most part - their owners and employees are very professional and polite. They also seem to do their best to pay a fair price and almost always eager to explain how things work along with answering any questions you may have.

Their store overheads are much lower than the gold stores, because it's spread over the shop's other revenue streams. Plus, they're required by law to not sell the gold they purchase for 40 days, while authorities can determine if the jewelry is stolen or not - so it seems that pawn shops have come a long way in improving their industry.

Overwhelmingly, the highest price we've found consistantly being paid in the market is by legitimate gold brokers who have no stores or other exorbidant overheads. One such broker is located just outside the Mall of Georgia. We've heard time and time again from dozens of their customers how they continually pay more that
twice what the other gold buyers pay, and we've been hearing the same thing for over six months now.

While we hesitate to recommend any one company over another, we do all we can to discourage people from sending off their valuables through the mail to out of
state companies with clever advertisements on TV.

We also encourage everyone to shop around on the phone before getting on the road. If a gold buyer doesn't want to quote you what they're paying over the
phone - it's probably wise to stay away from them.

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