But should you go to a gold buyer or hit up a pawn shop?

How do you know if youve secured a good price, or ensure you arent being ripped off?

Heres how to get the best prices for your shiny goods.

Rubin also notes that a piece of jewelry wont sell anywhere near an appraised value for insurance purposes either.

Add a discount to what you see, as your buyer will be looking to turn a profit.

you’re able to easily find qualified appraisers throughThe National Association of Jewelry Appraisers web site.

Warning: the wrong cleaning can damage and even destroy jewelry.

Ammonia based cleaning products are used throughout the jewelry industry, but they can damage some gems.

Try and avoid them.. You could damage the item further if you dont know what youre doing, greatly impacting the value.

If youre dead set on selling it, though, let a pro take a look first.

Reciprocity is a powerful force.

Alternatively, Beaty suggests consignment jewelers can take a stab at sell your jewelry for you.

The one thing pawn shops have over all other options is speed.

If you need cash extremely fast, its your best bet.

This is also the easiest way to sell your jewelry.

But with gold jewelry, youre likely to get only 70% to 80% of the melt value.

This will be quoted in $ per ounce.

Determine the items weight .

Pennyweights (dwt) and grams are both used in the trade.

Re-figure spot gold per dwt or per gram.

20 dwt = 31 grams = 1 troy ounce

Figure the purity of the item.

Fourteen-karat (14K) gold is .585 pure gold.

585 X $21.75 = $127.23

Now for the variable part.

They are also speculating on the future gold value, which may be less than it is today.

Expect to be offered less than 50%.

Its ill-advised to sell a loose diamond without knowing more about it.

They verify everything is hunky dory (your item is legit, they paid in full, etc.

), then they send things where they belong so nobody gets conned.