The single biggest advantage you can have is arithmetic. Weigh your gold on any kitchen scale, check the karat stamp, and run it through our melt calculator against the live Kitco board. Now you know the ceiling before anyone opens their mouth.
A customer who's done that is the easiest one in the world to deal with honestly — and the hardest to lowball. Do it before you come to us, too.
Including us. The gap covers refining, assay, and the cost of keeping a lit counter and a licensed safe. Any buyer promising you 100% of melt — or "above spot" — is making it back somewhere you can't see, usually on the scale or the karat test. The honest question isn't whether there's a spread, it's whether they'll tell you what it is.
People forget this is a choice. If you need cash for a few months and want the ring back, a pawn loan keeps ownership: no credit check, nothing on your report, and the piece comes home when you pay it off. If it's a genuine exit, sell outright and take more money today.
We'll say this plainly even though it costs us: take it to a few places. Debbie Dawson took five items to five different shops before settling on us — and what brought her back wasn't only the price, it was that our staff were "very knowledgeable and patient in educating me through the process."
A business that's been in one town since 1982 wants you to shop around, because the comparison is the pitch.
Scale facing you, tests on the counter. Nothing goes into a back room. Ever.
Weight, karat, purity, the board it's priced from, and the spread.
A good buyer tells you when NOT to melt something. Once it's gone it's gone.
Take the number home. If that's a problem for them, that's your answer.
Kitco New York spot. Pull it up on your phone at any counter in the Valley, ours included, and compare. A dealer who flinches is telling you something useful for free.
We've been on Blackstone since 1982. The comparison has been working out for us for forty-four years.
