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Accurate Precious Metals

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Knowledge Base

Who is the best person to sell gold to?

The best buyer for your gold is one who tests and weighs it in front of you, pays a published percentage of the live market price, charges no fees, and is the end user of the metal rather than a middleman. Accurate Precious Metals is a refinery, publishes its rates, and charges nothing to evaluate or ship your gold.

Your typical options

  • Pawn shops mainly make loans and need a wide margin, so their purchase offers are usually a small fraction of melt value.
  • Jewelry stores may buy gold, but they typically resell scrap to a refinery and price in their own markup.
  • Mail-in "cash for gold" operations vary widely; some pay reasonably, others pay very little and count on you not bothering to request your items back.
  • Coin and bullion dealers are usually a good choice for coins and bars, but many still send jewelry and scrap on to a refiner.
  • Refineries are the end of the chain. Because they process the metal themselves, they can pay closest to actual value.

What to check before you sell

Look for a few concrete things rather than taking a claim at face value:

  1. Is the buyer a licensed dealer with a real, verifiable business address you can visit?
  2. Do they sell directly to a refinery, or better, are they the refinery? A middleman reselling your gold for a markup has to pay you less.
  3. Do they publish their payout percentage instead of just saying "top dollar"? A published rate lets you compare offers.
  4. Do they charge evaluation, assay, shipping or "receiving" fees? Those quietly reduce your payout.
  5. Do they have a real, verifiable track record of reviews from named customers?
  6. Will they test and weigh your items where you can watch, and explain the result?

How Accurate Precious Metals measures up

We are the refinery itself, not a middleman that resells to one. We publish our rates: close to the live spot price on gold bullion and based on the metal content we measure on gold jewelry and scrap gold, with your exact offer depending on purity, condition, volume and market conditions. We charge no evaluation fees, no shipping fees and no hidden or receiving fees. Our staff work from a live feed of the international markets, so your offer reflects the current price; spot gold is around $4,166.71 per troy ounce right now. You can bring items to our Salem, Oregon facility and watch them tested, or use our free insured mail-in program. You can also read hundreds of five-star reviews before deciding.

Know roughly what you have before you go. Check hallmarks (10k, 14k, 18k, 585, 750), weigh items on a gram scale, and look up the per-gram value of your karat; 14k gold is currently worth about $78.14 per gram of metal. Separate pieces by karat, and remove anything that is plated or clearly costume. If an offer is based on pennyweight or a vague per-item price rather than grams and karat, ask them to convert it so you can compare directly.

Whether you sell to us or someone else, a buyer who is transparent about testing, rate and fees is the right person to deal with. See our gold buying process here.

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