Like many other places that buy gold, Fuller's says it's willing to help newbie sellers learn the process. And getting smart about gold is a good idea, said Chris Burgess, vice president and chief compliance officer for the Dallas office of the Better Business Bureau.
He warns potential gold sellers to be prudent about their transactions. BBB offices across the country have been fielding complaints about gold resale, he said.
Some of the complaints are about potential scams, but others are from people who don't understand that a gold transaction isn't as simple as buying peas at the grocery store: A low initial offer should be the start of a negotiation that the seller can walk away from.
"There is a certain amount of dickering that has to be done in this transaction, and there is not a lot of experience in the American public with doing that," he said.
Consumers can check with the BBB for ratings and complaints about individual companies.
Cash4Gold, for instance gets a C+, which the BBB considers a "good rating." A relatively few customers from last year's 500,000 transactions complained about not getting their jewelry back fast enough if they wanted a return, or not getting what they thought was a fair offer.
Other places will pay more for gold, but they don't provide the same level of convenience and service, Aronson said.
"I'm never going to be the highest payer on the street, nor do I ever want to be," he said.
Fuller's has an A rating with the BBB.
People seeking to resell their jewelry need to realize that it doesn't matter how pretty it is or how much they liked it, George said. For scrap sale purposes, it might as well be a hunk of ore.
"I'm just looking at it as raw materials," he said.
Al Dia staff writer Lorena Flores contributed to this report.
MARKET TEST
Wondering what your unwanted gold jewelry might be worth? We tested the resale market with some trinkets -- three 14-karat gold rings and three shiny charms that turned out to be gold-plated and essentially worthless.
Calculated worth:
We had 14.2 grams of 14-karat gold, which is 8.2 grams of actual gold. The price for gold on the day we got our bids was about $29 per gram. So on the spot market, we had about $238 worth of gold.
The offers:
--$150 for the rings from Fuller's Jewelry Store in Addison
--$110 for the rings, plus $3 for the golden flakes on the J-shaped trinket, from the traveling GemCo appraisers who set up for the week in a Richardson hotel
--$105 for the rings from Central Diamond Center in Richardson
What we learned:
--The offers will be much less than you originally paid.
--Don't be afraid to bargain; this is a negotiation.
--Go to several places.
--The more gold you have to sell, the better price you can get per ounce.
--"Golden" doesn't mean it's gold. Gold-plated jewelry has no gold resale value.
