Where to sell gold in Metro Detroit: five kinds of buyer and what each pays.
Where to sell gold in Metro Detroit comes down to five kinds of buyer — a dealer's counter, a jewelry store, a pawn shop, a mail-in buyer and a refiner — and each one prices the same ring a different way. The gold does not change between them. What changes is how much of its melt value you are offered, whether you see the test that sets the number, and how long you wait to be paid.
This page is the comparison, written from the counter in Madison Heights that buys gold every day. It names no competitors and quotes no payout; it shows you the arithmetic every buyer runs, so you can tell a fair offer from a poor one wherever you take it.
The number every buyer starts from: melt value.
Gold has one price, set on the world market by the minute, and every honest buyer in Metro Detroit prices off it. A piece of jewelry is worth its weight, times the share of that weight that is actually gold, times the gold price per gram on the day. That is melt value, and you can work it out at home before you talk to anyone: the estimator on the sell page does it against the live spot board.
No buyer pays the full melt value, because refining the gold back into a bar costs money and the buyer carries the price risk until it is sold on. What separates a good place to sell from a bad one is how much of the melt value you are offered, and whether the karat and weight it is based on were established where you could see them.
Melt value, worked out
- Weight
- grams, on a kitchen scale
- Karat share
- 10k .417 · 14k .585 · 18k .750
- Gold price per gram
- today's spot ÷ 31.1
- Melt value
- the product of the three
A buyer pays a share of this figure. The share is the whole difference between them.
Five kinds of buyer, and what each one keeps.
A dealer's counter is built to buy gold: the karat is tested and the piece weighed on your side of the counter, the offer is a stated share of melt, and coins are priced as coins rather than melted on paper. It pays in cash the same visit, and it is the only one of the five where you watch the whole process.
A jewelry store would rather sell you something than buy from you, so its best number is usually a trade-in credit against new jewelry; its cash figure for the same piece is lower. A pawn shop is a loan desk — the buy price allows for a loan margin and a fast resale, and sits well under melt. A mail-in buyer takes the gold out of your hands before any number is quoted. A refiner pays closest to melt but buys from dealers by the lot, with minimums and assay fees a single chain cannot carry.
For a few grams of broken jewelry the gap between the best and worst of these can be a third of the money. For an estate, a coin collection or a bar, it is the difference between being paid for what you have and being paid for the metal in it.
A dealer's counter
Tests karat and weighs each piece in front of you, then pays a stated share of that day's melt value. Coins are priced as coins. Cash the same visit.
A jewelry store
Usually a trade-in credit toward new jewelry rather than cash, and the credit is worth more than the cash figure the same store would offer.
A pawn shop
A loan desk first. The buy price is set for fast resale and a loan margin, so it sits well under melt, and the test is rarely done where you can see it.
A mail-in buyer
You post the gold in a kit and receive an offer by email days later, with a return window if you decline. You never see the test or the scale.
A refiner
Buys from dealers in bulk and pays closest to melt — but with lot minimums and assay fees that make a single ring or chain uneconomic.
Five questions that sort the buyers.
Ask the five questions in the aside at any door, in any order. A buyer who answers yes to all five is pricing your gold on what it is; a buyer who hedges on the first two is pricing it on what you do not know. The answers at this counter are on the standards page, and the method is the same whether you bring one ring or a drawer.
Whoever you choose, bring a government photo ID: Michigan requires every precious-metal dealer to record one with each purchase. And if an item might be worth more intact — a signed piece, a pre-1933 gold coin, a graded slab — say so before it goes on the scale, and expect a buyer who buys coins as well as gold to tell you the same thing unprompted.
- Will you test and weigh it in front of me?
- Is the offer a stated share of today's melt value?
- Are coins priced as coins, separately from scrap?
- Am I paid today, in cash, with a receipt that names each piece?
- Can I decline and walk out with my gold?
Questions about where to sell gold
- Where is the best place to sell gold near me?
- Wherever the test happens in front of you and the offer is stated as a share of that day's melt value before you decide — a dealer's counter, in most of Metro Detroit. In Madison Heights that is this counter, a mile off I-75, where karat and weight are established while you watch and the number is paid in cash the same visit.
- Is a pawn shop a good place to sell gold?
- It is a fast one. A pawn shop is a loan business, so its buy price allows for a loan margin and a quick resale, and the figure usually sits well under melt value. If you want a loan against the gold and intend to get it back, a pawn shop is the right door; if you want to sell it, a dealer's counter pays more for the same piece.
- Should I sell gold online or in person?
- A mail-in kit is convenient and the better services are honest, but you give up the two things that protect a seller: watching the test, and hearing the number before you hand anything over. In person, both happen in a few minutes, and if you decline you walk out with the gold in your pocket rather than waiting for a return parcel.
- How much is my gold worth before I sell it?
- Weigh it on a kitchen scale, multiply by the karat share — 14k is .585, 18k is .750 — and multiply by the day's gold price per gram. That is the melt value; a buyer pays a share of it. The estimator on the sell page runs that arithmetic for you off the live spot board.
- Where can I sell gold coins and jewelry at the same place?
- A coin dealer that also buys jewelry, so the coins are not weighed as scrap. At this counter a sovereign coin or a graded slab is priced on what it is and the chains and rings are priced on tested karat and weight, on the same visit and the same receipt.
- Do I need ID to sell gold in Michigan?
- Yes. Michigan law (MCL 445.484) has every precious-metal dealer record a government photo ID with each purchase, so bring a driver's license or state ID whichever kind of buyer you choose. A buyer who does not ask for it is not following the statute.
Know what it's worth before you sell it anywhere.
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