Gold Rush

In March, I wrote about another survival tool, selling gold. At that point, gold coins hovered at $1,000 an ounce. Today, gold coins closed at $1,242.45. That's a 24.5% increase in value in three months. I wish I had bought some. Instead, after consistent underemployment for over a year now, I decided it was time to sell some of my gold and silver jewelry. At my sister's suggestion, I tried a place called Gold Rush Stores, on the second floor of the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square Mall. The young women working there were quite friendly and helpful. They walked me through the process.

I was genuinely surprised at how much of my jewelry wasn't 100% gold or silver, merely gold or silver plated. Out of over two dozen objects, only four were silver or 14kt gold. First they used a magnet to test the item. Anything that moved toward or clung to the magnet was plated. The plated items were returned to me and the sell-able items were inserted into plastic bags labeled silver, 10K, 14K, etc. Each bag was weighed and an estimate was generated based on the weight and the material. Once the customer accepts the estimate, the Gold Rush gals perform more detailed testing, rubbing the item against a test stone, and then using nitric acid or potassium dichromate salt to test for purity. Then the items are weighed again and a final price is given. The final price turned out to be about twenty dollars higher than the original estimate.

Most of the items turned out to be plated. My grandfather's 1950's gold lighter, a pair of delicately thin gold leaf earrings, a birthday charm that Nana used to wear on her charm bracelet with the ruby chip on my date of birth, and the silver heart that I received on Valentine's day from my college boyfriend. What I did have of material value were three broken gold & silver chains, and a nice sized lump of 14K gold. All in, I netted four hundred bucks and a little more knowledge about how jewelry is made and sold. And then I did an even more important thing, I took half of that money to pay off my Macy's bill and kept the rest to cover this month's utilities and expenses. Now if I could only come up with a way to pay for the rest of the mortgage. What else out there is earning 8-10% per month in value? Certainly not my condo.

For more info on Gold Rush Stores.