News & Info

A karat by another name is not the same…as say a carat.  Although these two words sound alike and look alike since some people figure that the letters “k” and “c” might be used interchangeably, they are actually very different.

Carats
A carat is a measurement used for the weight of diamonds and other gemstones. Since the early part of the 20th century, most countries decided to that a carat would equivalent to one-fifth of a gram or 200 milligrams. Notice we said most; there are some countries that do not recognizes carat weight as the official measurement for diamonds and other gemstones.

As you can see, a carat is about the weight of a gem. It does not tell you much about the purity of the gem or if it is flawed.

Karats
On the other hand, a karat is used to indicate the purity of gold. Gold purity is measures in parts per one thousand. And like most test scores and other measurements, the higher numbers mean that the gold is of greater purity. Lower numbers indicate that there is less gold and that the item contains more alloy that pure gold.

The standards uses to indicate the purity of gold have been around since 1957 and these same guidelines are still in use today. Precious metals like platinum and silver have different standards of purity. So if someone ever tries to tell you that an item with these metals can be measured in karats, then you know that you should be wary of that person.

This is good information to have, so when you get ready to sell gold, sell silver or sell platinum, you have an idea of how it is valued and the ways in which that value is measured. Your gold should not be measured by carat weight any more than the value of a diamond can be judged by karats.

When you sell your gold jewelry to a gold buyer the value of your gold jewelry will be measured by the purity of the gold that it contains. The gold will be tested to see if it is pure gold or if it is a gold alloy that contains other metals. Either way, a gold buyer will let you know how much your gold is worth and then when you sell your gold you can trade in those karats and get cash for gold.

We are used to hearing tales of deep-sea divers finding treasures that were lost long ago in the depths of the ocean. But the days of lost treasure are still here. It is too bad when modern-day treasures get lost, but good to know that we have the technology to retrieve these treasures much faster than we did in the past.

Gold that has been mined in Argentina was recently lost in the ocean. Gold bullion by the ton is not on the floor of the ocean not far from the coast of Chile. The boat that had carried all of this gold bullion was capsized during a storm.

Just as they might have done in times of old, the ship’s crew abandoned the ship. In days past they would have escaped the storm and death, knowing that the ship and all of its gold treasure might not ever be recovered.

This time, the crew had to leave the engines running to lessen the possibility of pollution from the ship’s fuel. And although they left to ship to save their own lives, they know that the gold they were transporting may very well be found. In fact, right now, other ships are prohibited from entering the waters where it is believed the storm-wrecked ship may be found.

Before the storm derailed their journey, the ship’s crew was taking the gold bullion to Switzerland. There was no word of what the plans were for all of this gold bullion, but it is too bad that has been lost, although the loss may only be temporary.

Do you know where your gold treasure is? Is it buried deep in old suitcases? Has it been left in jewelry boxes that are in the back of a closet that you are afraid to clean? No matter where it is, you surely can get to your gold much faster than anyone will be able to get the shipwrecked gold that is in the ocean.

Once you dig up your gold treasure you can sell gold to a gold buyer. You will not have to wait for divers to retrieve your treasure. Instead, you can contact an online gold buyer and get a postage-paid envelope so you can send your gold in for evaluation. And then it won’t be too long until you get cash for gold.

Those Oscar statuettes that certain stars took home last night many not be worth their weight in gold. According to one newspaper, they are not made of solid gold, but are made of gold-plated britannium. The gold-plated britannium statue is placed on a metal base and in total the approximate value of an Oscar statuette is $500.

Now if the Oscar statuettes were actually made of gold, then they might be worth around $132,000.  But as we have stated, these awards are not made of pure gold. Their worth does not lie so much in what they are made of, as it lies in the prestige and honor that comes with winning such an award.

Not that any of this speculation matters; the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has rules against the selling of Oscar gold. Each gold statuette is engraved with a serial number and Academy policy requires that all winners sell the gold statuettes that they don’t want back to the Academy for a dollar.

But this “no-sell” rule does not apply to the gold statuettes that were made before the rule was in place. And since the rule dates back to the 1950s, gold Oscar statuettes from the early days of motion pictures can be sold. Michael Jackson is said to have purchased a gold statuette that was made of honor the movie “Gone with the Wind.” The media recently made mention of Jackson auctioning off belongings, so it possible that this gold statuette was sold with other belongings.

It is not easy to put a price on something like the gold Oscar statue that people get for the various aspects of working on a movie. For some who may have had a bad experience, it may be worth very little. For others, they cannot imagine trying to attach a dollar amount to the time they spent creating a cinematic masterpiece.

Good thing for us that when it is time to sell gold, we have some very definite sources that we can turn to get information on the value of gold. You do not have to try to “guesstimate” how much your gold is worth. You can consult a gold buyer and also look to websites like www.kitco.com to find out the price of gold.

It is great when something that was lost gets found. Earlier this week, we told you about how an alert parent at a Boys and Girls Club came across the gold and silver Olympic medals that were stolen from an Olympic swimmer. This is a great story because it has a happy ending. However we are still shaking our heads over the fact that the swimmer left these gold and silver Olympic medals in an unlocked car in the first place.

What we really just love are the stories about people finding or having their gold jewelry returned after many years. Often the gold jewelry is returned long after the owner has stopped looking and has given up their gold jewelry for lost.

A woman in Malaysia lost her gold wedding ring after the shop that she owned was hit by a flood twenty years ago. Surely, this woman was very excited to have escaped the floods with her life, but that does not mean that she did not mourn the loss of the gold ring. Her husband told the media that value of the gold ring did not lie in what it cost him to buy it, but in the fact that it was a symbol of the couple’s love.

It was plumber who discovered the gold ring. The gold ring was lodged in a corroded pipe. The ring’s owner was able to identify it because of the inscription it bore. Interestingly enough, the woman herself owns a jewelry store. So she was surrounded by many lovely piece of jewelry, and probably saw a good number of gold rings on a daily basis. Yet she did not know that the one gold ring that meant the most to her was still around in the shop, hidden in plain sight.

This is a heartwarming story, but we know that all gold jewelry finds are not so emotional. You may come across some gold jewelry that you had forgotten in your home and feel no particular attachment to it, for any number of reasons. That is okay. If you are not fond enough of your gold jewelry to keep it, then you can sell it to a gold buyer. Surely you have a fondness for currency and when you sell gold, you can get cash for gold.

Three gold medals, along with one silver one that had been stolen from Olympic swimmer Josh Davis were returned. Last week, Davis’s attorney spoke to the media, telling them that it was likely that the Olympic gold and silver medals were stolen from the athlete’s unlocked vehicle. These gold and silver medals that had been stuffed into sock were left at a Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club. A man who was there to pick up a family member saw the sock and brought it to the receptionist. The receptionist had noticed the sock earlier, but thought that is was debris that would need to be swept away later on during the day.

Those medals represent all of the medals that Davis one during his Olympic career, save one. In total, Davis earned three gold and two silver medals at Olympic Games in Atlanta and Sydney.

And at least one news outlet reported that Josh Davis had lost silver medals at some point in the past. Hmmm…there seems to be a pattern here. It is hard to believe that someone would leave gold and silver medals in an unlocked car. The swimmer is of the opinion that alerting the media made it impossible for the thief to try to capitalize on the crime or sell the medals.

As they say, you shouldn’t cast pearls before swine…or leave gold medals in an unlocked car. In some ways, this is ignoring their value, since something as precious and valuable as a gold or silver medal, earned through arduous Olympic training and competition is nothing to take lightly.

Are you ignoring the value of your gold? Do you have gold that you leave laying around, unused, collecting dust? In case you have not been paying attention, the price of gold is rising and now is a good time to sell gold.

We are certain that you would not actually leave your gold in an unlocked car, but that does not mean that you are not taking it for granted in other ways. If you do not want your gold jewelry, gold coins or other gold items, sell them to a gold buyer and get cash for gold.

The man who found those gold and silver medals belonging to Davis will be getting what you might call cash for gold as well—a reward in an undisclosed amount will be divided between the finder, the Salvation Army and the receptionist at the Salvation Army.

Just the other day, a company took out an ad in a major newspaper to let the world know that gold is the only thing that grows more precious with each passing day. Now there are many intangible things like memories or happy thoughts that someone may hold more and more dear, but there are very few material things that appreciate in value the way that gold does.

Take you car, for instance. A car depreciated in value as soon as you drive it off of the lot (sooner actually). You may appreciate having it, but it is highly likely that you will be able to sell the car for what you paid for it, much less at a profit.

There are very few things that you can use and then turn around sell, perhaps with the expectation that you will see some gain. Used cars, used furniture, used clothes—all of these things can be sold, but you cannot expect to really make a whole lot of money on them. Plus, it is not easy to sell these things because even in a troubled economy people are looking for a bargain. They will only want to pay for used items that are of near-new quality.

In contrast you can sell gold to a gold buyer no matter the condition. You can sell an almost new gold ring. Or you can sell broken and damaged gold jewelry, like broken gold chains or a gold earring that is missing its mate. A gold buyer does want to use these items as they were originally intended so there are not worries if they are not in pristine condition. A gold buyer will melt your gold down to separate it from any other metals present and extract the pure gold.

One investment firm confirmed just as recently has last night that the price of gold is very likely to increase for the second week in a row. And of course these gains in the price of gold did not surprise trade analysts in the least. When asked at the very beginning of February, many predicted the increase in gold prices.

What does this mean for you? It means that this is a good time to sell gold. Yes, the price of gold does fluctuate and you want to sell when prices are high.  You can check the price of gold here: www.kitco.com

One of the very sad results of the Ponzi scheme involving disgraced investment guru Bernie Madoff is that some of the victims of his crimes have had to scramble to recover their finances. One antiques firm has had to handle these kinds of sales for several Madoff investors. In fact, the swindler has now given his name to such events; no longer are they just estate sales, they are Madoff Estate sales. When someone hears that, they can have no doubt as to what motivated the sale in question.

At one of these sales, someone had really did have to sell the family silver. The idea of selling the family silver comes into play when someone’s fortunes have been so decimated they are willing to get rid of some of their most precious possessions in order to keep from going under. This expression is often used as a metaphor when someone takes an action that seems drastic to others; people equate it with selling the family silver. Actually selling the family silver may not be drastic, so much as necessary and a life-saving move. In this case, however, there really was silver sold. It was not metaphor. The set in question was sterling silver flatware and it was pictured online.

And we imagine that the family silver was not the only precious metal that people had to sell. They likely had to sell gold as well. And this was probably not easy to do at all. These people thought that by investing with Madoff they would not only get to keep what they had, but be able to add more to their financial cushion and have something to leave their children or to worthy causes.

The idea that one would have to sell one’s family heirlooms after being so ruthlessly taken advantage of is terrible. However, you do have to admire these investors for being courageous enough to see that something had to be done. If you feel like you need to sell gold to get your finances in order, there is no shame in that whatsoever. And rather than go through the public spectacle of an estate sale, you can sell gold to an online gold buyer. There need not be any announcements or listings and your neighbors do not have to know what you are doing.

A fair is definitely a place where money is a necessity. It is hard to visit a fair without it. You cannot even be admitted to some fair without paying first. Money makes a fair go round.

No matter the type of fair, you know that a lot of money has been lost, won, exchanged and spent at fairs worldwide, but did you know that there is a fair that is dedicated exclusively to money itself?

The World Money Fair took place this past weekend in Berlin. Although it is called the world Money Fair, it is a fair dedicated coins, specifically. In fact it is the biggest coin fair in the world, so no dollars or alternative currencies need apply.

The World Money Fair is a place for coin collectors to meet with others who understand their fascination with metal currency. Coin dealers and suppliers also attend. It is also a time for new coins to be unveiled.

With all of those coin enthusiasts gathered in one place, it was a good time for The Royal Canadian Mint to announce that it has a new collection of gold coins. Now, at last year’s fair, The Royal Canadian Mint announces a million dollar gold coin. This year’s collection of collectable gold coins are valuable, although not valued a million dollars. The gold coins that The Royal Canadian Mint will present this year were commissioned to commemorate the winter Olympics that will take place in the Canadian city of Vancouver next year. The Canadians likely hope that these commemorative gold coins will foreshadow their bringing home actual Olympic gold. After all, they didn’t issue a set of commemorative silver coins or bronze coins did they?

But you do not have to make plans for next year’s World Money Fair or be a numismatist (that is someone who collects or studies coins) to get into some coin selling action. If you have gold coins that you want to sell, why not contact a gold buyer on your own? There is no need to travel all the way to Berlin. You can sell gold coins without traveling very far at all.

An online gold buyer will send you a postage-paid envelope so that you can send them your gold coins for evaluation. Then you can get cash for gold without taking a trip.

Last night, people stayed riveted to their television sets to look at the dresses, hear the speeches, watch the performances and gauge losers’ reactions as music biggest stars gathered to see who would win Grammy gold.

When it comes to choosing a material for a very coveted award, no metal says “winner” like gold. Gold is valuable for its actual chemical and physical properties, but also for hat it represents. Getting a gold award means that you really are the best. Gold is a precious metal that is known to be very strong, very versatile and very beautiful, so it is fitting that the trophy that represents the top honor in the American music industry would be made of gold as well.

But is the Grammy award actually made out of gold? Well, no, it is not solid gold, to be sure. And the awards that are given out at the ceremony are not really Grammys. The awards that you see handed out as you watch the broadcast are “stunt” Grammys.

The Grammy is a replica of a gramophone, a musical device that has been out of use for many, many years. But the Grammy Awards pay tribute to it and there is not need to replace it with newer devices that play music. These devices change so often than the trophy would have been redesigned several times by now.

These trophies given to award the year’s best in music are made by hand. Different pieces are put together and the gramophone that sits atop a base is plated in gold. So although news outlets talk about “Grammy gold,” they should technically be referring to Grammy gold-plated gold. But that just does not have an appealing ring to it.

When rumors fly that some star or another has sold a Grammy, they are likely able to sell it based on their star power or musical talent. As mentioned, the Grammy trophy is not made of pure gold. Someone who buys a Grammy trophy is not buying it for its gold content. They are buying it for other reasons, since they are likely to want to display the Grammy trophy that they have bought from someone else.

In contrast you can sell gold items like gold jewelry and gold coins based on the gold that they contain. A gold buyer will be happy to evaluate your gold and give you cash for gold.

Two hundred and sixty-four years ago the famous British man-of-war, the HMS Victory, sunk in the English Channel. Only recently have deep-sea explorers found what they believe are the remains of that ship that lived on in legend despite its untimely demise.

It is believed that there were 4 tons of gold on board the ship when it was traveling through the English Channel all those years ago. And now there are very high hopes that this gold treasury will be recovered. That is a lot of gold. Just how much gold is in a ton? Well, that depends because a British ton actually weighs more than an American ton. But to give you a rough idea of how much gold it might be, we can tell you that if they are able to recover all of the gold, it will weigh at least 2000 pounds.

In addition to this, it is thought that a good amount of this gold (if not all of it) is in the form of gold coins. As you can imagine with records stating that the ship had this kind of cargo, many people have been looking for and hoping to find the ship for years now. The thought of  that much gold provided a motivation that another metal may not have.

Pieces of the HMS Victory turned up in various places, but no one was able to figure out exactly where the bulk of the ship ended up until now. Deep-see divers found the ship and 330 feet underwater.

At the time of the ship’s sinking, its commander and the man in charge of the lighthouse that was to guide the ship were heavily criticized. With a large ship, a crew, and 4 tons of gold at stake, you can only imagine the pressure they were under.

Are you under some pressure now? Perhaps people are asking you when certain bills will be paid and you are not sure of what to tell them. One way to help yourself out is to sell gold. Even selling a just one gold necklace or a few gold coins can take the edge off. When you get cash for gold after selling gold items to a gold buyer you can use that money to go towards debt or daily expenses.