Selling gold is easy; there seem to be gold buyers on every corner interested in buying your gold.
However, for gold prospectors, it is important that you take your time and do your research before you sell your hard earned placer gold. Unlike scrap gold jewelry, placer gold and especially larger gold nuggets are valued by collectors, and can commonly bring a small premium above their melt value alone.
If you can market your gold directly to a mineral dealer or collector who wants your gold for its collectable value, you will make more money than you will from the average gold buyer.
It Can be Hard to Get a Premium Price
Let’s use an average gold nugget as an example… Remember that a natural gold nugget is not pure 24 karat gold; but will have a small percentage if impurity. This is what makes them so difficult to get a good price from the average pawn shop or gold buyer.
The average purity of a gold nugget is generally around 85% – 90%, so that percentage will come right off the top. Then you must consider that whatever gold dealer you are selling to needs to make a profit, which will probably be at least 10%.
This is why the best price you can generally get from the average gold buyer for placer gold is around 75% – 80% of spot price. When the final result of the gold is to be melted, spot price is the top, and impurities and profit margins must be reduced from that level.
Marketing to Collectors
This is why it is so important to market your gold nuggets and specimens directly to collectors or dealers who can bring a premium price. They are not limited by the “melt” value of the nuggets, and will almost always be able to pay better prices than the average “cash for gold” type business and refineries.
What they are able to pay will vary on each nugget based on the size and overall beauty of the gold nuggets for sale.
For average placer gold dust and fines, which are relatively common, their prices may be a bit higher than others, but larger gold nuggets and specimens will almost certainly get a higher offer.
Even for large beautiful nuggets, a business who wants to melt your gold will rarely pay higher than 80% of spot price, where as a gold nugget dealer will commonly pay around 90% up to full spot price for a nice gold nugget.
With nice gold in quartz specimens, this can be especially true. Gold in quartz will rarely bring a good price from a refinery or pawn shop because of the high quartz content. A dealer who sells rare specimens directly to collectors is not as concerned about the quartz, as it often enhances the beauty of the piece.
Take Your Time and Find the Right Buyer
If you have a nice gold nugget or collection of gold nuggets that you need to sell, it is highly recommended that you avoid the average gold buyer and refinery who only want to melt down your gold. After impurities and profit margins are factored in, you are not likely to get the best price for your gold.
Seek out gold nugget dealers who are specifically interested in the collectable value of your nuggets and specimens and you are much more likely to get the best prices available for your hard earned placer gold.
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