The term ETF stands for exchange traded fund. An ETF for gold is a purchase of the precious mineral that is traded on a major stock exchange. It usually is an investment in more than one company, and it is usually conducted on the American Stock Exchange. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ both enable investors to buy gold ETF but not to the extent that AMEX does.

A gold ETF fund buys up a lot of gold and stores it. The fund then issues groups of ETF stock. The expectation is that the gold will go up in price, driving the shares of its stock up as well. Of course, the best gold ETF is one that has consistently delivered a profit for its shareholders. The first ETF for gold was introduced by Central Fund of Canada in 1961.

There are two distinct advantages to buying precious metals through an ETF. First, a gold ETF is the easiest way to buy bullion. As with any other stock purchase, all it takes is an online transaction or call to a broker to make it happen. Second, most ETFs allow an investor to purchase fractions of an ounce, which lets someone without a great deal of investment funds to take part in a gold buy.

There can as well be tax advantages to owning gold through an ETF. Many countries do not consider the ETF investor as an owner of the precious metal for purposes of taxation. Capital gains taxes are usually less for ETF trads than other more traditional mutual fund trades.  This is because of the way the trades are structured in ETFs. It is all very technical so I will not address it here, but it is enough to know that ETFs are considered a tax advantaged investment.

The easiest way to sell old gold jewellery is to simply take it to a local store which purchases these kinds of items. Examples include some jewelers, pawn shops, and specialty gold buyers. If you have the time and resources, it is a good idea to have your items appraised before going to one of these stores. Even with an appraisal, this option for selling old jewellery is likely to result in a lower profit than some alternatives. The advantage is that it is quick and hassle-free. To sell my gold jewellery this very day, it is possible to take it down to the pawn shop and walk away with cash. More profitable options tend to require slightly more effort and a little more time.

Selling old jewellery online or through the mail is another convenient route that many people choose. Many gold buyers can be found on the Internet, and some advertise mail-in services on television. These types of companies usually ask people to send gold items through the mail. After receiving the items, the company comes back with an offer. Selling gold jewellery by this method has a couple of main benefits. For one thing, it is quite easy. Just mail the items in, and the gold buyer does the rest. Also, these specialty gold buyers tend to offer a somewhat better price than local stores. The drawback is that it can take some time. Be sure to find a reputable company with which to do business, because scam artists sometimes pose on the Internet as gold buyers.

The most profitable way to sell gold jewellery is also the one that takes the most effort. Selling old jewellery at auction allows for the option of setting a minimum reserve price. An appraisal will need to be done prior to approaching an auction house with items for sale. Once up for auction, items can potentially be sold for a substantial profit, since buyers will have the opportunity to bid up the price. As an alternative to a live auction, online auction sites like eBay can also be used.

Options for selling old jewellery exist to fit all needs, whether a person is looking for an immediate profit, a larger payout, or minimal hassle. In any case, it is certainly not a complicated task. It is actually an easy opportunity for someone who wants to make a little money.

There are numerous ways to sell gold to get the most money from your unwanted jewelry. One very popular way is contacting online gold buyers that offer fast and safe service. Sellers simply visit their website to request a prepaid jewelry return pack be mailed to them at no cost. An easy to fill out form with detailed instructions and an envelope with secure tracking is provided to mail items to a professional facility. Each package they receive is individually opened and photographed to protect your precious contents when selling gold jewelry.

Specially engineered equipment is used to get the accurate gold content and determine value. A cash price is paid to you when selling gold rings based on value information and a check is sent immediately or money is deposited directly into your checking account. There is no obligation to sell, if you do not like the offer your gold is promptly returned to you. It is truly a risk free way to learn how much a piece of jewelry is worth if you want to sell gold ring for good money.

Selling gold rings at a pawn shop is the fastest way to get money when you need it the same day. It is a straightforward process of visiting a pawn shop like the show Pawn Stars featured on the History Channel. Your gold can be weighed and valued to ensure you receive the fairest cash offer available. Pawn shops pay in cash money without any delay. In cases of financial emergencies often the best method to access money is by selling gold rings when you need a source of instant cash flow to take care of a bill that has to be paid now.

Online auction sites are another great way to take advantage of selling gold rings using the Internet. You can create a bid listing that includes item description, images, and asking price. The really nice thing about selling online is you have the option to set a minimum bid and watch the price soar as buyers make offers or you can set a fixed price that allows a buyer to purchase your item instantly. Being able to turn unwanted jewelry into money you can use is exciting and fun. Selling gold jewelry has never been easier or more profitable.

Many may consider 1 oz gold bars for sale among the many sizes available. When looking at gold bars, one should look to see how much actual gold is in the bar since this will determine its value. For instance, a bar that is .9999 is 99.99 pure. Bars of one ounce or ten ounces are very common, but some are also beginning to invest in kilo bars and 100 gram bars. The people who turn to kilo bars prefer this option because they are easy to store. However, kilo bars do not necessarily make the best investment, especially when using the U.S. Postal Service to transport them. Instead, 100-gram bars have slightly higher premiums and they can be shipped within the post office’s insurance limits.

Coins are also popular investments, especially for the collector. One may find antique gold coins for sale from a variety of sources. However, it is important that these coins are authenticated since much of the value of antique coins comes from their rarity. It is also important to know how to make distinctions among coins since some types are not as valuable as others. For instance, a Double Eagle gold coin is not the same as modern Gold Eagles.

Some investors may even look at gold and silver for sale when considering a worthwhile investment. As with gold, silver may come in the form of bars, bouillon and coins. For example, silver bars have grown in popularity because of the compactness and uniformity of their size that makes them easy to store. Gold and silver coins for sale come with their own sets of distinctions that need to be heeded when determining their value.

Finding gold for sale can be a safer type of investment when one knows how to determine what will reap the greatest rewards. One must research the trends in gold for sale and learn how to read where these trends will go. With a little patience and willingness to do the work; looking into gold for sale can create a feasible opportunity.

Here’s our top 5 reasons why you should go online to get your cash for gold paycheck.

1. It’s easier:  You don’t even need to leave your house!  Just use your web browser and fill out the form online and they will mail you the information kit along with a postage paid envelope.   When you deal with local merchants, you have to drive around from store to store while carrying your valuables with you.
2. You’ll probably get a better price:  The big online gold buyers deal in such volume that they can demand more when they sell it.  That means that they can afford to pay you more.  Chances are that your local jeweler doesn’t do enough of that type of business to command higher payouts.
3. It’s safer:  Hauling your valuable gold jewelry around town from one store to the next is inherently dangerous.  A lot of jewelry stores aren’t in great neighborhoods (why is that?) either.  When you mail your gold into one of the big online sites, they usually insure the package for you.  Be sure to check the details on that before you send in your stuff.  As I said in an earlier post, make sure you know all the terms and conditions of the deal.
4. It’s quicker:  Most cash for gold online sites offer to direct deposit your payment into your bank account.  You don’t even have to wait for a check!  They also have the whole process down to a science so they can turn around your order very quickly.
5. You can actually save money by doing it online:  Driving around town uses up gas and eats away at your free time.  By doing it online, you save time and gas money.  These days, every dollar counts!

I encourage you to look at all your options, both local and online.  Don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from choosing the online option.  All of the information on this site is hopefully enough to make you a more informed consumer.

Most people are aware that gold is used as the basis for the monetary system in the U.S. (hence the term “the gold standard”).  This means that all of the U.S. currency is backed by a gold reserve that guarantees it’s value.  This gold reserve is the United States Bullion Depository (Fort Knox).  It’s a heavily fortified vault which stores a large chunk of the U.S. official gold reserve.  There really is a stash of gold that is the collateral for the U.S. currency.

So why is gold so valuable? The short answer is because the market says it is. Through years of trial and error, people have used it and valued it enough to use it as money.   Gold has passed the test of time and there are several reasons why:

It’s rare – Gold represents about 5 parts per billion of the earth’s crust.  Extracting gold is an expensive, dangerous and difficult process.  Part of the appeal of gold is that is is difficult to obtain and very labor intensive.

It’s virtually indestructible – Gold doesn’t tarnish or decay over time.  It’s inert and doesn’t interact with other elements.

It’s flexible – You can stretch it and cut it, pound it thin, roll it, etc.

Controlled production – Only so much gold can be mined in any given time.  Unlike paper currency, the government can’t just make more gold.

All of these factors go into making gold valuable.  It’s shiny and pretty, can be shaped into different forms, mixed with other metals and doesn’t wear out.  It’s also rare and hard to get more of.  There will always be a demand for gold (or so it seems).  One aspect of gold that is of interest to us is that as other forms of currency falter (such as the U.S. economy crashing), gold prices go up.  Because there is a steady demand for gold, it is a more stable investment.  If the U.S. dollar were to lose all value tomorrow, you could still trade gold for goods and services because almost everyone recognizes it’s worth.  That’s why it’s so easy now to get cash for gold – the gold buyers understand that gold has a value and are willing to exchange paper money for it.

The price of gold is always fluctuating, since it is traded on the open market (just like the stock market).  It is a commodity, meaning that large quantities of similar quality can be traded.  An easy way to find out the current price of gold is to visit the Kitco website at www.kitco.com.  They even provide HTML that you can embed in your site to display a chart or graph of the current gold prices.

When the company receives your gold items, they are tested to see what type of gold it is.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this.  Any or all of these may be used by the gold buying company.

The first method of testing is done by an electronic testing device.  A wire is attached to the customer’s item and it uses an electric current with a test solution to measure the quality of the gold.

Another method is to scratch the gold piece and apply a special solution to it.  The scratched area will interact with the solution and turn a different color.  This color is matched against known gold samples to determine the quality of the customer’s gold item.

The most accurate test is an X-ray fluorescence scan.  This requires a very expensive piece of equipment and involves X-rays and examining the wavelength dispersion.  This type of test will reveal the makeup of all the different metals in a specific piece.  It is the most expensive test to perform and is only done if an accurate measurement can’t be determined by the other methods.

The quality of the gold is measured in karats.  Each karat is 1/24th pure gold.  Therefore, the highest quality is 24 karat gold.  Gold jewelry can be anywhere from 1 karat up to 24.  It’s important to note that many pieces are engraved with the karat measurement (such as the inside of a ring stating “18k”, but these are not always accurate.  It is illegal to mislabel a gold piece in this manner, but it is done quite often.

Once the quality of the gold is determined, the piece is weighed on a very accurate scale.

Gold is a commodity that is sold on trading markets and it’s value is always fluctuating up and down.  Once the company has the weight and karat rating of the piece, they look up the current price of gold and determine it’s value.  They will then make you an offer for some amount less than that (after all, they have to make a profit).  You won’t get the full value, but unless you have access to the gold market, you have to use a third-party to make the sale.

The first thing that I would like to point out is that you should always get as much information as you can about how the deal is going to work.  If you’re dealing with an online site make sure you read every page, especially their Frequently Asked Questions page.  You may even want to print them out in case the pages get changed at a later date.  These sites are very active and may change their website frequently.

One you receive the information and mailing packet from the site, make sure you read all of the documentation there too.  This is especially important because there will usually be a form that you need to fill out and sign, thus creating a legally binding contract.  Sometimes the terms of the deal are on the back of the form, so make sure you check out all of the pages, front and back.

If there is anything that is unclear or you don’t understand something, make sure you ask them to clarify it for you.  You can either email or call (if they provide a phone number), but I recommend email so that you get a response back “in writing” from the company.  Don’t send them your gold items until you are sure that you understand all of the terms of the deal and you are comfortable with them.

When you try to get cash for gold one of the most important things that you need to understand is the timeline of events.  Most sites will say that you have “x number of days” to reject their offer and get your items back.  What they may not tell you is that they start counting on the day when they receive your items.  If they take 2 or 3 days to process your items and mail you a check, you may only have 1 or 2 days to reject that check once you receive it.  And once that time limit is gone by, don’t expect them to still have your items.  They have probably already sent them to the refinery to be melted down.  The cash for gold phenomenon has taken the country by storm and the really popular sites and super busy and work like clockwork, so don’t expect them to give you special treatment.

Something that you can do to protect yourself from being ripped off is to photograph each piece that you are mailing in and you may even want to weigh it.  You can then compare your weight to theirs to see if they are on the up-and-up.

I don’t want to alarm you and make you think that all of these gold-buying companies are trying to rip you off.  Thousands of people have done business with them and had no problems at all, and they are happy to have gotten some easy money.  I just wanted to make sure that you don’t go into this type of deal blindly and take some steps to protect yourself.  If you do sell some gold for cash, chances are that your deal will go just fine and I hope that you have no problems at all.  In fact, if you have done business with one of the online sites please leave a comment and let me know!

It’s important to understand the process of how this all works, so this article hopes to educate you and help you about how to get cash for gold.  There are many, many different companies offering to buy your “old, unwanted jewelry” for cold, hard cash, so I won’t even try to list them here, there are just too many.

Most of the online sites work something like this:

1. You give them your contact information
2. They mail you an information kit
3. You mail them your gold, usually in an envelope they provide
4. They assess the quality of your items and weigh it and mail you a check
5. Once you receive the check, you have a certain period of time to reject their offer and get your items back

In a nutshell, that’s how the transaction works when you are dealing with an online gold buying company.  But there’s another way to get cash for gold that doesn’t involve the back and forth mailing process.  Many local jewelry stores have begun offering this service.  You bring the gold into the store, they assess and weigh it and make you an offer.  It may be done on the spot, while you wait or you may have to leave it with them and come back in a few days.  Either way, it’s a little more personal and less scary to do this process locally, but the local stores may not be able to offer you as much money as the popular online sites.

When you are selling your gold, you should always be careful to read the fine print and make sure you know exactly how the transaction is going to take place.  If you miss the deadline for rejecting their offer you may not be able to get your old gold jewelry back because it has already been melted down!  Look for future articles on this site for more information about using these cash for gold services.