Folks should be aware that those mail businesses that ‘buy your gold’ pay less than 30% of the value of the gold content. Local pawnshops and jewelers generally pay more.
This is just the way it has always been. In the 1980s, with gold selling at over $800/troy oz, scrap prices were $9/dwt or about $180/troy oz for 24kt and 14kt was the most common. Silver was higher than today and, as jewelers, we got several calls a day from folks looking to sell anything from a 10 kt thin gold bangle to an antique sterling or coin silver teapot.
A refiner also has to factor in the waste, as well as the cost of alloying up to 24kt from whatever is in the melt.
Back then, it was being characterized as an historic melt of art pieces, especially the sterling. A shame, really. When prices dip, both the money and the intangible artistic value of many pieces are gone forever.
However, I can foresee a situation where we would reluctantly sell whatever we have, if it was essential to survival. We just wouldn’t sell to the mass melters, but would alloy it up to 24kt for the gold and offer casting grain to jewelers for spot minus premium. Both of us would profit. Fabrication costs have risen since we acquired sterling in various forms, so we could sell that to jewelers as is, at spot, and again, both parties would profit.
It is close to selling an antique at auction. Both buyer and seller pay the auction house a premium for their services. The nonprofessional gold seller is taking a lower price than spot and the gold buyer is paying paying a higher one. Way of the world.
I’ve read it’s closer to 10%