Hello, How does one get the most for 14K gold without falling victim to the online hawks? In particular, I have a 5.5 ounce gold medal where the spot gold price exceeds the value as a collectible. Is it possible to have it melted and purified to make it into a pure gold ingot? It should yield 3 ounces. What are the costs of that and assay? Or can one get close to spot somewhere? Thanks. rick
Hmm I'm no expert in spot prices and all that stuff, so you might want to do research on prices for melting. Maybe try finding your local metal melting facility or something like that and they might be able to tell you their fee for melting. You could also sell the medal at spot price. It makes no sense that the spot price is BELOW the value of the collectible. It's like if you sold a one ounce silver mint coin for less than the price of an ounce of silver. If I were you, I would just sell it at spot price or a bit above.
Hang onto it and sit back until the price of gold goes up! It doesn't make sense to spend money on it, JMHO.
I've been collecting medals for 25 years or more. In silver medals alone, I have about 500 ounces. The spot price of silver has always been below the collectible value. It's the same for silver medals as it would be for most uncirculated silver coins. Would you expect to pay $15.00 or less for a 1904 Morgan dollar? If so, let me know the name of the dealer you use. I'll gladly buy every Morgan he has in stock. ~ Chris
If your medal is marked 14k, a dealer will work from that, if not, a scratch test with acid should show karat value. If interested, there is a YouTube channel called sreetips; it shows the refining process of gold and silver.
Thanks, for your prompt replies. In researching here in Atlanta, the melters deal only with the trade. My concern for skipping the scrappers are their margins are too greedy, from what I have read and seen with local TV coverage. Yes, the medal is marked 14K and has been verified. Curious, that a few of you said to hold it for higher gold value. Today spot is $1756, which is what makes it worth more for gold than collectors want to pay - what is the ceiling?
>>“The spot price of silver has always been below the collectible value.” They can be the same. The metal price can control the price of the collectible, especially when the metal is on its way up.
With your medal marked 14k, it is easily sold; if you don't need the money, hold it for a while as every market is volatile right now and demand for precious metals is up; that is why premiums are so high.
Thanks, but when I do want to sell, do you have any recommendations where I can get at least 90% of spot?
You would get 100% of spot, minus the dealers premium and that is the pain. You have to check daily with a dealer, as the premium and spot constantly changes and decide how much you want to pay. Your cut would be spot, minus dealer premium. Recently, at my coin dealer, I saw a gentleman sell 370 oz. of silver and the dealer premium was $4 per oz. because of demand. The seller took it.
Maybe you could just list it for sale on this website in the For Sale forum, not saying it will sell but you never know! Sometimes when you're selling gold, you have to let the spot price go and settle for a profit that is $35-$50 over what you paid for it. It's happened to me quite a bit, so the way I see it is any profit, is a good profit!
I agree, with most collectibles, but this is the first piece I have owned that the bullion aspect is present and outweighs the collector value. I do have it in a upcoming national auction, where the reserve is the bullion value. True, something is worth what you can get for it from collectors, but when that item can become 3 oz of solid gold, it enters another realm. One, like it sold in April, for $3800 whereas the spot gold price is over $5200. I'm not that altruistic...
I meant it the other way. It makes no sense that the collectible/total value is lower than the spot price.
I took it that way. For my medal, it is a recent occurrence, as there were two others sold in the last 20 years; the first did $5500 and the second $5300 - and that was when gold was much lower than it is now. A combination of a slower market and higher gold price.
If you look here - https://dillongage.com/refining/ and https://dillongage.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/RefiningFeeSchedule-Feb2019-image.pdf - you can see what the refiner is paying, whether it's coming from a reputable dealer or a hotel cash-for-gold ripoff. Don't miss the $30/lot assay fee too. 50oz of gold is a big sale for almost anybody ... 50 ozt of 14kt would be a $50K+ payout. Selling your item won't get you quite that % of spot, but it's a benchmark between fair deal and ripoff.
