You won't believe it, but it happened...:stars:

[vlad]

I was at a coin dealers shop in Beaumont and got him to look at a ring I had found stamped 10K with probably a Garnet mounted. He would have paid me $49 melt value ($7 per gram) and sold it for 2X that.
I come back to Lake Charles to a nationally franchised pawn shop to get another opinion. I told her I found it at the beach with a metal detector. She replied, "THEN ITS GOLD PLATED SILVER BECAUSE YOU CAN'T FIND GOLD WITH A METAL DETECTOR." She went on to do scratch it and apply
acid, and it turned a shade of green. The only problem is that is the correct procedure for determining karat weight by comparing it to a color chart.
This has to be the most ignorant and stupid person I've ever met, or dishonest, because she is probably paying people silver prices for gold. Regardless, I'm going back down there with a detector and I'm going to test HER gold rings, and then after my CZ picks them up, ask her to do the scratch test.

 

[Bill Ladd]

Some guy who was convinced that a metal detector was like a big magnet or something told me that I wasnt finding gold because gold is not attracted to a magnet. I tried to explain in laymans terms that the coil was not a magnet but the guy was sure I didn't know what I was talking about

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Hard to find a reputable dealer and even if you do they will give you pennies on the dollar for scrap gold and if ring is a fasionable have outlets and get double plus as they are sold as gold rings and get at least half their value not pennies on the dollar...Of the 60 plus gold rings I found usually give them away to a friend, relative rather than let the dealer steal them from me. Of course the 14 kt turn of the century 16 diamond party ring was sized for my wife...
Heres a trick to find a reputable dealer take about 20 silver coins to a dealer and have one with a good date. If he offers you silver value for run of the mill dates time to move on..I know some fellows that have found fashionable ladies rings advertised in paper and sold them for twenty times the scrap gold value..so that is an option also...
Am sure there are reputable dealers around but one has to shop around...

 

[deerman]

I bring mine to a jeweler and have them checked, most wont lie becouse its there livly hood,but thay will try to under price it in case you want to sell it to them,but thay want to make a few $$$ too so you cant blame them for trying

 

[vlad]

For scrap gold or silver, just like they do coins in various grades or quality stones. But there are jewelers, and there are jewelers, and generally your local Coin & Jewelry shop is your best bet. [Stay away from the guy who comes in on the weekend to buy your scrap gold and silver.]
I was sitting in Heartfields one day going through a $1000 bag of dimes [have you ever gone through a $1000 bag of dimes?] when a mother and daughter came in. Clint looked at the bracelet said something, the girl started crying and she and mom left. When I asked what happened he said he showed them the same bracelet for $85, and the girl paid $300 at a store in the Mall. He went on to say most jewelry stores, especially in expensive locals have a markup between 900% and 1200%, and their markup was just 300%.
You did not get your EDGE,CZ,OR F-75 to find something nice and then get ripped off. Do we have stupid stamped on our foreheads? That Pawn Shop was not trying to make a buck, that was flat out fraud. The guy I do business with told me what he would pay for the gold, and what he would sell it for. That's fair-you can only hope for a higher gram price. And he would have paid a different amount had it been 14K. Look at the paper for the gold and silver prices. Harbor Freight sells a digital scale at a low price. Then use your calculator. We may never find Jean LaFoot's Treasure [you remember him-the barefoot pirate], but maybe we can find a minuscule amount of it a little at a time.