CGS EDUCATIONAL CENTER

Gold is a very rare precious metal commodity that is traded world wide. There is approximately 5.4 Billion troy ounces of Gold on the entire planet, or a 20.4 meter cube -approximately the size of a Tennis court. That is it!

Throughout history gold has had two basic uses: Money & Jewelry. Due to its soft supple nature and beautiful yellow color humans have been using gold for jewelry and as money since recorded history. Unlike any fiat currency (paper money) there is a very limited amount of gold and as a result gold could never be inflated which leads to price stability. As a result of these strong fundamentals, during times of uncertainty people gravitate towards gold. Through out history, no fiat currency has ever survived. Eventually, all fiat currencies go to their fundamental value of zero.

The Cash for Gold Business is very simple.

You bring your items in and the dealer evaluates them, tests them, weighs them, and pays you accordingly. However, how is one to know if they are getting a raw deal? Here are a few things to know:

1. Know the Price: Look at Precious Metal Prices online at Kitco or Check our Prices. Our prices are based on the Spot Price and have the corresponding market values for each Karat, both in Grams and DWT.

2. Know your Weight: Multiply the price times the weight and that should give you a clear indication of your items value. Now, note that this is what you can expect in a perfect world where jewelry is always plumb, where there are no claps, stones, or anything else that would influence the amount of gold you have.

3. Know the Value: Now that you have a general idea of your items worth, meet with a buyer or come to one of our locations.

4. How Much You Will Get: When determining a price to sell, you need to consider that getting spot will be nearly impossible for scrap jewelry, even for the dealer. There is a lot of hard work and invesment on the part of the buyers and refiners. You have to consider the overhead costs of the buyer, their marketing and advertising costs, local laws which require buyers to hold on to items and process them against stolen goods, refining costs, and of course the buyer's profit. Each of these will be influenced by local laws, cost of doing business in a particular community, and the level of competition among other factors.

Getting Paid: Many dealers pay by Check due to local laws requiring some sort of paper trail.

1. Did you know that some Gold Buyers pay as low as 10% of the Market Value?
We let you name your price!

2. 75% of Pawn Shop customers are unhappy with the prices they are offered
Most all our customers return at least two times!

3. Most Jewelry Buyers hide the Test & Weight of your precious metals
We weigh & test in front of you and show you exactly what your precious metals are worth

4. Most ‘Top Price Guarantees’ require a Very Hard-To-Get Signature
All we need is a valid number from a valid competitor!

5. According to Department of Weights & Measurements: Over 200 local Gold Buyers were fined $50,000 for having bad scales
Our Scales are legal for trade.

6. Do you know the Credibility & Trustworthiness of a Business?
We are part of the BBB, we have an oustanding reputation, and are often featured on the News!

7. Know Our Price!

1. Is the business you are dealing with legit and legal? Often fly by night operations that focus on the buying and selling precious metals defraud their customers, use illegal scales, fail to comply with local authorities and can even be dangerous. Dealing with unscrupulous dealers is not worth the risk.

2. What is the reputation, ratings, reviews of the company you plan on doing business with? Do they have a good reputation and what is their BBB rating? Quite often many companies have a terrible track record, its advisable that you know this ahead of time and save yourself the head aches.

3. Are they Honest, Transparent, and Fair? An honest dealer will show you what you have, how much it weighs, the test results, the Spot Price of the Precious Metal, and your items true Value. A dishonest dealer will try to hide as much as possible and will avoid answering the tough questions.

4. Live Quotes vs Phone Quotes. Phone quotes are meant to be enticing. Often dealers will quote you in dwt instead of grams to make their payouts more appealing. Other times, you may be quoted an inflated price designed to draw you in, which is very hard to get unless you have massive quantities. Its always best to go in person. Find a few dealers who have a good reputation, a good track record and visit them. There is a big difference on how one dealer treats and evaluates your items versus another dealer. In the end, there is really only one way to find out what a dealer is willing to pay you and that is to go in person.

5. Top Price Guarantees. Nearly everyone has a “Top Price Guarantee” and most of them are near impossible to get. For instance, most such guarantees require a hand written and signed quote on the day of the sale. Most buyers will not furnish such a quote only to see their business go elsewhere.

We Purchase the following Precious Metals:
Gold, Platinum, Silver & Palladium

Jewelry is usually stamped for recognition purposes, here is a short synopsis of each stamps and what they mean:

Gold: Gold uses the karat system, so whenever you see a K, KT, Karat, C, CT, Carat, this is to indicate that the item is solid Gold. Often Gold Stamps can be followed by a P, meaning Plumb or exact. So here is what it all means:

1) 10K or 417: Means that there are 10 out of 24 parts gold or a gold percentage of 41.7%. Now of course this is in a perfect world. In reality, there might be closer to 38-39% purity. In some cases it can be even lower than that and the purity can be in the low 30th percentile or even lower.

2) 14K or 585: There are 14/24 parts gold or about 58% when plumb. Most often the percentage is closer to 56% however, in some cases it can be as low as 12K or 50%.

3) 18K or 750: There are 18/24 parts gold or about 75% when plumb. Most often the percentage is closer to 72% however in some cases it can be closer to 16K or about 60%.

4) 24K: Very very rare. Most high karat jewelry is closer to 22k and gold found in nature is between 18k-22k. 24K is impossible to have, even gold coins are marked 9999 meaning 23.9999K.

5) Dental: Gold found in teeth, also referred to as dental gold, on average tends to be around 60% depending on the manufacturer. There may be other precious metals such as Palladium present as well. One of the difficulties with evaluating Dental Gold is when it is mixed with porcelain. The amount of porcelain to gold ratio will vary from tooth to tooth so each tooth will have to be evaluated separately.

Most Jewelry in the USA is 10K and 14K and anything over 14K is rare. Manufactures in the US focus on the lower karat items due to costs while overseas the opposite is true. In many Asian countries anything bellow 18K is considered cheap and not worth having.

Interesting Fact: In 1982 due to the fact that Jewelry Manufactures were overestimating the amount of gold in items, (labeling 12k items 14k) Congress passed a law which required that numbers be used instead of Karats. This lead to a very confused public and jewelry sales plummeted in the 1980's until the industry changed back to the Karat System in the 1990's. To this day, there is no Government Agency that confirms the stamps to insure that the purity is accurate.

Silver: Usually labeled 925 or Sterling which means that there are about 925 out of 1000 parts
Silver of 92.5%.

Platinum: Usually Labeled PT, PLAT, or PLATINUM will have a number such as 800, 850, 900, 950 preceding it. The number indicated parts Platinum out of 1000.

Palladium: Usually Marked Palladium. Very rare to find it in Jewelry

The refining process can be quite arduous and may take as long as 3days! Here is a very quick insiders peak at what happens when the gold is ready for refining.

Once gold jewelry is ready it is collected and then melted down via torch melting. The melted concoction is then poured out into a beaker to make “corn flakes”. Literally, the poured gold looks like golden corn flakes! Next, the flakes are dissolved in a bath of Nitric Acid which is designed to break down the non-gold alloys. The mix is then heated and filtered. Many of the other broken down alloys will be in the filter. Next an Aqua Regina bath is begun and Nitric Acid is added to get rid of the Silver Chloride Crystals -if present. Then, sulfuric acid is added to get rid of the lead (pb), and water is added to knock off any of the silver. After they are dissolved the acid is filtered. Now Sodium Metabisulfite is added to precipitate the Gold out of the solution. Within 24hrs pure gold precepts will materialize and fall to the bottom as “sponge”. Now comes the washing phase: three tap water washes followed by two Hydrochloric Acid wash (cold and hot) and finally 3-5 distilled water washes. After washing the gold flakes they are dried and now comes the last phase. All of the cleaned pure gold flakes are melted once again and poured into the desired cast. And there it is folks, as easy as 1,2,3, well maybe not that easy.

There are many secrets in the Cash for Gold Industry. For instance, most cash for gold companies try to hide the real value of the items that they purchase. Some will even attempt to hide the weight and karat of your items. There is a strong point of fear, that if the customer knew what we know, then there would be a big change in the way business is done. This particularly could effect some of the establishments that most take advantage of the knowledge gap between buyers and sellers by using the 'pawn shop' approach (basically asking you how much you want and hope that you guess low).

However, as Cash for Gold is becoming ever more popular, and competitive, the market is changing. The days where Gold Buyers could get away with paying 10 cents to the dollar are all but gone and in their place many legitimate businesses have emerged. As with any business, profit is a central driving force; however, at the end of the day, for any business to have a future there must be a win-win scenario where the customers are fairly rewarded.

Here at CGS we are trendsetters in our honest and transparent educational approach. We feel that it is in our best interest, and the best interest of our customers, that they know how much their items are worth and how our industry operates. Now knowing this, we will never be able to buy at rock bottom prices like many of our competitors using the 'pawn shop approach'; however, our goal extends farther out than short term profits. We are looking to build a loyal following based on honesty, transparency, and education. We wish that you use all our videos, tutorials, our blog, and the internet to educate yourself on gold and to know what your items are worth so you can come to the bargaining table with knowledge and power.