Worth its weight?
Saturday April 30 2011
With gold prices soaring, consumers are increasingly looking to cash in. But when it comes to your jewellery, all that glitters may not be gold.
With many households having a golden hoard of necklaces, rings, broaches and earrings, a growing array of cash-for-gold services have sprung up as gold fever runs high.
However, there are substantial variations in the cash you will be offered for your gold, depending on the company you haggle with.
A survey by the Consumers' Association Of Ireland found prices for 30g of nine-carat gold differed by over €120.
The prices quoted were:
Dublin Gold Exchange - €270
Scrap-gold-buyers.ie - €243
Goldparty.ie - €210
Goldtocash.ie - €157.50
Goldrush.ie - €147.51
While Goldrush.ie will most likely offer you the lowest cash for your stash, part of the proceeds (22.5pc) goes to the Jack and Jill Foundation, which established the service two years ago to help raise money for severely ill children.
"It was set up to allow someone to give something to Jack And Jill and still get something back," says Ian Molloy of Folamh, Jack and Jill's recycling partner which operates Goldrush.ie.
"Most people are happy to use the service and while some even offer the full amount to the charity, we are also happy to advise people looking to get the maximum value to shop around."
However, if you are expecting to reap a windfall from the rapidly rising price of gold you might be in for a shock.
"I would say that people over-estimate the value of items for two reasons," says Mr Molloy. "Firstly, the mark-up between what a jeweller charges you against the actual gold value of the product is absolutely astronomical. The other thing is when people get items valued for insurance purposes its actual gold value could be a third of what they insured it for."
Consumers should also expect to pay at least 10pc of the gold's value for the cost of melting the gold down to perform the valuation. Indeed, according to the Consumers' Association, potential gold diggers could find that a €200 necklace could fetch as little as €20.
Originally published in
