How To Sell Gold and Silver For A Premium Price
By Chad Castellanos – Gold and Silver Investor
Gold and silver are extremely valuable, and you are going to want to weigh in all your options before selling these precious metals. One of the most important things to consider is the more time you are willing to spend trying to sell your item, the better chance of getting a higher price.
There are several different ways to sell your gold. Some of your items might be really unique, and you might want to try and sell it as a jewelry piece above spot price at first. It will take a lot longer for you to sell it, but it might be worth it for you. In general, I find that most jewelry for sale online is about double the spot price. So if the “melt value” of your gold item was $200 you could try and sell it for $400 as a jewelry piece.
When I buy something for a really good deal and consider it a unique enough piece of jewelry that someone might want to purchase it for a premium price, I have often used Craigslist and eBay as my vehicle for selling. The only setback to this approach is that you may not be able to sell it for the price you are asking, and you are risking the price of gold going down. The gold price can fluctuate quite a lot from day to day and month to month, so it is important to be aware that if you decide to sell your item as jewelry, you could suffer a loss that was once a profit.
Selling On Craigslist and Ebay
Posting your items on Craigslist, and eBay is simple to do. However, you are competing with a lot of sellers, and it is important to make your ad just right to stand out from the rest.
The first thing you need to do is clean the jewelry so that it shines in your photos. The next thing I recommend is to create a white background by a window with natural sunlight coming in. Place your jewelry on top of the white background and snap at least 10 photos with any kind of smart phone camera or professional camera. If you don’t have a professional camera, a smart phone camera will do just fine as long as you get the lighting right
You want to get several different camera views of your item for sale. Make sure you include a nice photo of the karat stamp to display in at least one of your photos.
The next thing you want to do is make your item stand out in the title and description. Use positive words like elegant, beautiful, stunning, rare, magnificent, etc. The words we choose to use are powerful. Choose them wisely.
Which ad title do you think would sell best out of the following two:
Ad Title #1: “For Sale Gold Necklace $600.”
Ad Title #2: “ Stunning Gold Necklace For Sale $600”
I am guessing you agree that Ad Title #2 is more attractive. One extra word in the title can make a big difference.
Once you have figured out your title. The description is the same thing. Choose your words wisely. Present your item with as much relative information that you can give without boring your customer. Include the weight, karat, length and width and any unique details that you can think of.
A good example would be…
I have up for sale a stunning gold herringbone necklace. It is truly a one of a kind piece. This necklace looks brand new. It has been cleaned, and well taken care of.
Weight: 32 GramsMetal: 14k Tested and Verified
Length: 18 inches
Width: 2.5 mm
Once you come up with an ad, you can use the same description on both Craigslist and eBay. If you are selling on Craigslist you have to choose what form of communication you would like your buyers to use to get in touch with you. It is probably a good idea to allow them to get in contact with you through all forms of communication. That will make it easier to sell the item. After you receive an offer from someone, and are communicating by text or email, be sure to talk to them on the phone before you go and arrange a meeting with them. You can tell a lot from a person by hearing their voice.
I have had situations before where I was communicating with a buyer or seller through text or email, and when I finally arranged a meeting with them by phone call I immediately recognized that something was off, and I made an excuse and backed out of the deal. You have to use your judgment in these situations. When you find a deal through texting and you then call them and the conversation isn’t flowing right, or that sixth sense is telling you that this doesn’t seem right, listen to it. Make sure you have a backup plan when you run into these situations so that you know how to talk your way out of meeting someone if it doesn’t feel right.
This is not to scare you away from buying and selling on Craigslist because 99% of the people are legit. I have done this a thousand times and have never once felt in danger, but it is important to be aware and smart about what you are doing. Always meet in a public place in a decent neighborhood. I would recommend meeting during the daylight at a coffee shop like Starbucks.
The last thing to note about CL is that a lot of people are going to waste your time with offers that are much lower than what you are asking. It really isn’t that bad to just delete the offer or say no, but just to warn you it may be frustrating with how many offers you receive that are way below what you are asking.
In order to sell on eBay you must have an account with eBay, and a PayPal account. They are very easy to set up, and once you have both you can start selling. Your eBay ad will look very similar to your Craigslist ad except there are a few different options available to enhance your sale. There are options to get your item to more people, photo number options, page enhancement, etc… all for a different uploading fee. You can also chose to either do a “buy it now” sale or an auction type sale.
Buy It Now Sale Vs Auction Sale
The “Buy It Now” feature is nice because it allows users to purchase your gold at any moment once it is up for sale. If you chose the auction feature it allows users to bid on your item for a certain period of time. You can set a starting bid which would be set at your lowest offer. From there it has the potential of being bid up to much higher levels than what you were originally asking for.
The setbacks of this feature is that sometimes people don’t want to bid and will skip over your item to find a “buy it now” sale, and you also have to wait for a period of time for it to sell where the buy it now is an instant transaction.
The other setback is that you are responsible for shipping a very valuable item, and it is important that it is packaged and insured properly which can get expensive.
The final setback of eBay is that they have a listing fee and a selling fee, and both are a percentage based on the price of your item. These fees can get excessive because of how highly priced your items are. The fees also change from time to time. Check to make sure you have calculated all fees before you consider selling on eBay.
Quick Sale
If you have exhausted all your options to sell at a premium, or you want to get rid of your items quickly, there are always companies that are willing to buy your gold or silver below the current spot price. The key is to call around to find the place that is paying the highest price. You don’t need to know much about gold to know which place pays the best price. Just call around and ask how much they are paying for 14k per gram and choose the place that gives you the highest number. Make sure you are calling on the same day though, because the gold price can fluctuate quite a bit from day to day!
We wish you the best of luck!
About Chad Castellanos
I’m Chad Castellanos. I have been in the precious metals industry since 2007. I have owned a precious metals business since 2012, and I help educate people on how to get the best price for their gold and silver.
In addition to educating people on how and where to sell, I assist individuals in starting their own business based on a unique strategy I have developed over the years.