October 5th, 2009
After scouting through some of our well known competitors, we stumbled across a price comparison for scrap gold buyers dated 14th September 2009.
The swish websites, television advertising and celebrity sponsorship all make it very attractive for the public to send in their unwanted gold jewellery. When looking through some of the frequently asked questions on the websites, we see things such as this:
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Are your prices good compared to the rest of the market?We regularly monitor the “Gold Fix” (twice daily) and adjust our price accordingly to ensure that we offer a very competitive price alongside our fantastic service. Our aim is to build a sustainable long term business, largely based on our customers referring their friends and relatives to us – so providing a highly competitive price is in our long term interests.
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Are your payouts higher than a jewellery store or pawnshop? Yes. We do not have to pay rent at expensive High Street locations and we operate on a larger scale, therefore we can afford to pay you top prices for your items.
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Why does xxx not give a quote on the phone or the website? The price of gold fluctuates on a daily basis. Also, until items are analyzed we have no way of independently verifying the weight and fineness of the piece. Since any price we would quote in advance of receiving your items would be different from the actual offer, we simply avoid this practice.
The statements above are all cleverly worded sales pitch and do not tell the full story. All these competitors are national advertisers and it costs a lot of money to advertise services on the television, radio or in the press. These costs need to be recovered somehow, and the only way to do this is by giving the public a low rate.
The market value for gold on the morning of the 14th September 2009 was £601.628 per ounce. This equates to £7.06 per gram for 9ct scrap gold or £141.20 for 20g as shown in the price comparison below.
- This means that our highest paying competitor will purchase 20g of 9ct gold from the public at only £89 and then sell it on for close to £140.
- Our lowest paying competitor will purchase 20g of 9ct gold from the public at a measly £26.81 and sell it on for close to £140.
At today’s rate, FalkosGold.co.uk are paying £7.01 per gram for 9ct gold in any condition. This equates to £140.20 for 20g of 9ct gold as shown in the sample below. This means that the FalkosGold rate is over 60% more than ANY of our large competitors.
With FalkosGold, you know that you are getting amongst the most competitive prices in the UK.
Even if you do not sell your gold to FalkosGold, we have one recommendation for you… Your local jeweller or pawnbroker WILL pay you a better rate than any of these competitors.
Tags: cash4gold, cashforgold, gold2pounds, money4golduk, postalgold, postgoldforcash, Scrap Gold, scrap gold buyers, scrap gold prices, scrap gold rip off, scrap gold scams
Posted in Scrap Gold | 2 Comments »
September 10th, 2009
Introduction
In the UK, Hallmarking dates back approximately 700 years and is possibly one of the earliest forms of consumer protection.
Hallmarks are small markings stamped onto Gold, Silver and Platinum Metals. They tell the consumer that the metal has undergone testing and conforms to all legal standards of purity (also known as fineness).
The tests are carried out by one of four assay offices in the United Kingdom (London, Birmingham, Sheffield & Edinburgh).
It is illegal for anybody to describe a metal as gold, silver or platinum without a hallmark.
Current UK Hallmarks
Since January 1999, all UK Hallmarks must contain 3 symbols.
- Maker or Sponsor’s Mark
- Metal & Fineness Mark
- Assay Office Mark
The image to the right show examples of the symbols contained within all hallmarks.
Testing Gold, Silver or Platinum without Hallmarks
FalkosGold purchase gold, silver or platinum scrap without hallmarks. We are able to test Scrap Gold, Silver and Platinum of most carats in-house using a well respected acid test within minutes.
For foreign and other gold which is above 22ct in purity, FalkosGold will be able to pay up to 22ct on the day. If the gold is not hallmarked and our customers wish to be paid against a higher purity, then the gold may need to be taken for a ‘Melt and Assay’ which will determine the purity.
This also applies to precious metals used for industrial purposes where a hallmark may not be present. Examples include Platinum Crucibles, Platinum Thermocouples, Rhodium etc.
Sell Gold, Silver, Platinum, Rhodium Scrap without hallmarks
Please contact FalkosGold on 0207 096 1749 or enquiries@falkosgold.co.uk for up to date advice and best prices for selling your gold, silver, platinum or Rhodium without hallmarks.
Tags: assay office, carat gold, hallmarks, industrial precious metals, melt, melt assay, no hallmark, platinum, rhodium, Scrap Gold, scrap platinum, scrap silver, sell rhodium, silver, test, thermocouples
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September 10th, 2009
Many online gold buyers claim to be offering in excess of £7.10 per gram for scrap gold. Whilst this may have been true on Friday, gold is now trading 2% lower. As such, it is likely that ALL gold buyers will also drop the prices which they offer by 2% also.
Most gold buyers will not update their prices until the 10:30 AM gold fix.
FalkosGold recommends that any person wishing to sell their gold wait until the AM Fix after 10:30 to avoid disappointment.
FalkosGold are proud to announce that we shall honour the price offered to customers over the weekend despite the drop in value.
We would recommend that if you choose another scrap gold dealer, then you check that the price you have been offered over the weekend will be honoured also.
Sell scrap gold to FalkosGold today.
Tags: gold buyers, gold fix, gold prices, help selling gold, morning fix, Scrap Gold, scrap gold prices
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September 10th, 2009
Selling scrap gold is an interesting way of making money which much of the general public is not yet not aware of.
With the price of gold being at an all time high, you may find that selling your gold as scrap gold you will get back more than you paid for it originally.
Jewellers and pawnbrokers purchase scrap gold by weight and carat purity. Typical values range from £2.50 per gram through to £5.50 per gram for 9ct gold – Well below bullion market rate.
Without trying to sound salesy, we at FalkosGold set up a site offering an online scrap gold service to the public.
Business has quickly picked up whereby over 120 customers currently use our online service every week and a further 50 customers opt to visit us instore and use our counter service.
Due to the popularity of the service which FalkosGold offer and the quantity we purchase on a daily basis, we are now in a position where we can offer over 94% of market rate (currently £6.90 per gram for 9ct gold).
We have also found that over 10% of our customers are trade customers as we are now able to offer more than many bullion dealers for scrap gold.
>I would be interested to hear from you all what you think of selling scrap gold jewellery online.
>Any experiences you have had with online gold buyers
>your experiences with offline gold buyers
>Have you used FalkosGold before and what do you think
Tags: buy scrap gold, online gold buyers, online gold dealers, scrap gold buyers, selling scrap gold
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September 10th, 2009
When thinking about selling scrap gold, it is easy to get confused as to how much your gold is worth when measuring in ounces. This post should go a little way into clearing up any confusion which may arise.
Gold is quoted on the open market in terms of the price per troy ounce.
31.1 grams (g) is equivalent to 1 troy ounce (ozt)
If you put 31.1 grams of gold on a set of kitchen scales however, you will find that the scales say you have 1.1 ounces of gold.
This is beacuse kitchen scales use a different conversion called avoirdupois ounces whereby only 28.35 grams make an ounce.
If ever you buy or sell gold jewellery, and a jeweller talks about ounces, then they will be talking about troy ounces (31.1 grams).
FalkosGold deal in grams and quote customers in grams. This way, there is no cause for confusion between us and our customers.
Tags: gold, grams, ounces, Scrap Gold, troy ounces, weighing gold, weights
Posted in Scrap Gold | 1 Comment »
September 10th, 2009
A carat (also known as karat) is a unit of purity for gold. One carat is contains 1 part gold to 23 parts other substance. 24 carat is pure gold, which means that there are 24 parts gold.
When making gold jewellery, the gold is usually mixed with other metals like silver or copper which reduce the carat purity.
Reasons for doing this include changing the colour of the gold and to increase durability of the gold because adding other metals make the gold harder to wear.
The most common purity of gold jewellery in the UK is 9 carat. This means that there are 9 parts gold to 15 parts other metal.
If you divide 9 by 24 and multiply by 100, you will get 37.5. 37.5 is the percentage purity of 9ct gold. You may have even heard of the term parts per thousand (ppt). All hallmarked 9ct gold jewellery in the UK has a 375 stamp on it. It means that there are 375 parts gold per thousand.
Other carat purities are listed in the table below.
Carat – % Purity - PPT
9 – 37.5 % - 375
10 – 41.6 % – 416
14 - 58.3 % - 583
15 - 62.5 % - 625
18 – 75.0 % - 750
22 – 91.6 % - 916
24 - 99.9 % - 999
Falkos Jewellers purchase all types of gold from 9ct to pure gold bars. Whether the gold is hallmarked or not, we are able to test its carat purity in-house.
For gold items which are not hallmarked, but in a raw or industrial form, this may involve melting and assaying the gold to determine its purity.
Sell Scrap Gold to Falkos Jewellers
Tags: 10ct, 14ct, 15ct, 22ct, 24ct, 9ct, carat gold, gold purity
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September 10th, 2009
There are plenty of places for you to sell your scrap gold including:
- Pawn Shops
- High Street Jewellers
- People who come knocking at your door
- Online Scrap Gold Buyers
It is quite difficult and time consuming to call or visit every jeweller or pawnbroker in town to get a valuation for your scrap gold, and you just don’t know if or when a gold buyer will come knocking.
In addition to this, we find that most Pawnbrokers and door-to-door gold buyers quote 50% less than the actual gold value. High Street jewellers tend to offer a little more but not much.
A quick google search for scrap gold will bring hundreds of online gold buyers, but which ones to sell to?
Even if you decide not to use FalkosGold’s services, we recommend you make the following checks.
- Avoid any company who ask you to post to a PO Box address
- Even if you intend to post, call to see if you can sell your gold in person. If they refuse then steer well clear.
- Check the firm’s scrap gold prices over the course of a week, if prices are consistently high compared to other online scrap gold buyers, then you know you will get a competitive rate. We have seen several unsavoury gold buyers hike their quotes up to encourage consumers to send their gold in, only to drop prices the next day.
- Several sites manually add customer feedback to their testimonials pages. FalkosGold allow customers to add unedited feedback live to the site. Customer Feedback.
- Several firms charge to send cash / cheque or bank transfers to their customers. They may be offering an extra 2 pence per gram, but consider that they may take £5 + off the total price to send you cash for your scrap gold. FalkosGold do not charge their customers and the price you see is the price you get.
- All online gold buyers change their prices on a daily basis, but check what happens if the scrap gold price goes down. Do you get the price when you filled in the claim form or do you get the price on the day? FalkosGold allow our customers to choose which option they prefer.
- Double check the yellow pages (yell.com), if the company are not listed then steer well clear! Just because they have a pretty website, doesn’t mean that they are a well established firm. Any established firm will be listed in the yellow pages.
- Look for a photo of the premises on the firms webpage. FalkosGold put our shopfront image right on the front page so you can see that we are a real company.
- So you have found a buyer you like, well don’t go and post all 500g of your gold, send in a small amount like 20-30g and if you are happy with the service, then send the rest. Better safe than sorry!
- Call up the scrap gold buyer and ask questions you already know the answer to… You will soon see if they are trying to make a quick buck or are decent and honest. I will not name the company in question, but one of our customers called an online gold buyer up and asked them how much they would get for a Krugerrand. The gold buyer told them that the gold coin weighed 25g. At today’s rates, if this customer posted the coin to them, the gold buyer would have stolen nearly £150 from the customer.
This post is not meant to scare you, as selling gold online can be a painless and pleasurable experience. All we ask those who read this post is to be safe and not sorry.
Should you have any queries in relation to this blog, please do not hesitate to get in touch. enquiries@falkosgold.co.uk
0207 0961749
Tags: gold buyers, gold dealers, how to sell gold, Scrap Gold, scrap gold buyers, selling gold, selling scrap gold
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