Before going to a gold shop, give them a call. Talking to the shopkeeper on the phone is an excellent way to ask him for confirmation of the evaluation, to ask him a few questions about the sale, and above all, it is also an excellent way to understand what kind of person you will be dealing with.
Sometimes some shopkeepers refuse to make a telephone evaluation of the metal, making a thousand excuses: some say that an evaluation cannot be done without seeing the metal, and others instead talk about the many factors that influence the final evaluation.
The reality is that they will SURELY offer you a LOWER amount than you would have found elsewhere and for this reason, they won’t tell you.
REMEMBER: The gold price is not a state secret. If a gold buyer doesn’t want to tell you over the phone how much the metal withdraws, it’s only because he pays much less for gold than the competition.
Getting the weight of semi-precious stones estimated.
Old jewelry often has zircons and colored stones that have no gold buy value. They are all useless weight and for this reason, it is not calculated.
Sometimes estimating their weight is not easy, especially if many objects have them.
In these cases my way of working is to estimate the weight of the gold excluding the stones, obviously keeping a more or less high margin of error depending on their quantity, after which if the customer agrees, I proceed with the disassembly of the stones, so that only the metal remains to be valued.
There are shopkeepers instead who stop at the estimate, that is, they don’t disassemble the stones. Most of them do it in good faith to be clear, for someone in the trade it is quite easy to accurately estimate the weight of some jewels with a few stones.
However, some shopkeepers work this way to make money.
Let’s say you have a necklace with many zircons, let’s say that the weight of the stones is about 3 gr. A shopkeeper who wants to make money deliberately makes a heavier estimate, for example, 6 g. If you accept the correct estimate and don’t have the stones removed, you have unknowingly lost 3 grams!
REMEMBER: After the estimate, always have the stones disassembled in front of you, it takes a few minutes and is a way to be sure that you are paid correctly for the metal.
Accepting payments over €3,000 in cash
Earlier this year, the government raised the limit on the use of cash from €1,000 to €3,000. This means that if you have a lot of gold to sell, you can receive up to €2999.99 in cash, and the excess will be paid by tracked methods such as a check or bank transfer.
People are often a bit reluctant to receive a form of payment other than cash. It’s understandable, it’s one thing to receive cash, it’s another to receive a piece of paper from a stranger. A thousand doubts arise in the customer’s mind. Is it to be trusted? Will it be covered? What do I risk?
It is for all these series of reasons that some shopkeepers offer cash payments even for amounts higher than those permitted by law.
Naturally, an offer like this can tempt you, do you want to put the difference between €5,000 in cash and a bank transfer receipt?
What you need to know, however, is that in the event of checks, you risk a huge fine. The sanction envisaged ranges from 1% to 40% of the amount paid with a fine which in any case cannot be less than €3,000! Is it worth the risk?
The shopkeeper probably offers this type of payment to all customers, maybe it’s already controlled by the police, are you sure it’s worth it?
When using a reputable gold buyer, don’t be afraid to accept a traceable payment. Online wire transfers enter your account in one working day and are fast and secure.
If you have a lot of gold to sell, don’t forget to always carry your account IBAN with you.
REMEMBER: By accepting payments of more than €3,000 in cash, you risk running into very high fines. Payment by bank transfer is a fast and secure solution.
