Gold for gold! Transforming old shinies into new shinies!

April 30, 2010 6:03 AM

Do you know of any other firms that will recycle your gold and make jewelry for you? I know of EcoKarat, but they don't offer the stones I want for my custom jewelry. Barring that, what's the best way to sell the unwanted gold jewelry I have? All of those cash4gold websites look unsavory.
posted by emkelley to Shopping (7 answers total)

There are lots of custom jewelry makers who can do this--it doesn't have to be a firm that specializes in recycling. My (first) wedding ring was made out of junk gold from my mom.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:23 AM on April 30, 2010

I do not know about recycling gold into jewelry but if you are just selling gold scrap Midwest refineries gets good reviews from the goldbugs I know. They are better than these folks. If you have a distinctive piece that has artistic value perhaps consigning it or Ebay might be better.
posted by Iron Rat at 7:34 AM on April 30, 2010

I sold my gold to a locally owned family jewelry store and got a really good price for it. You may want to call around and see what the going price is for gold and whether you local jewelry stores would buy it from you. Those "send us your gold in the mail and we will cut you a check (for some piddling amount)" companies seem to be rip offs judging by the number of negative reports about them on Consumerist.
posted by MsKim at 7:43 AM on April 30, 2010

Go to a custom jeweler or diamond setter. My mother's jewelry were all custom and when she tired of a design would simply have it cast again into something more pleasing. Jewelers will also get you loose stones for settings as well if you are unable to provide stones.

My wedding rings were made from old jewelry and a combination of new and old stones. Really, you do not need to go to shady gold buyers if all you want is to convert your old jewelry that suits your taste better.
posted by jadepearl at 7:58 AM on April 30, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, all. It didn't occur to me that local jewelers did this; I thought the refining/melting was a special process. I now have a call into my guy that I've been using.
posted by emkelley at 8:25 AM on April 30, 2010

Indian jewelry stores do this and will likely give you a really fair price for the gold - but they also usually deal in 18k+ gold.
posted by echo0720 at 2:29 PM on April 30, 2010

Awesome. I was just about to post a question about this very thing. Thanks all for the advice!
posted by darkstar at 7:02 PM on May 17, 2010