How much is your gold worth per gram at a pawn shop? And, is a pawn shop the right place to sell?

Grace from Minneapolis asked:

How much is gold worth per gram at a pawn shop?

Alan, reDollar expert, answered:

Many people first think about pawn shops when they have made plans to sell gold. Today, we want to discuss the price you can expect to get paid at a pawn shop and if it’s smart to sell gold to a pawn shop.

How much is gold worth per gram at a pawn shop?

We investigated the pawn shop industry and, unfortunately, pawn shops usually don’t pay much money for gold. It’s a common practice to rip people off by paying only a fraction of what their gold is worth. Expect to get paid only between 40% and 60% of the real value. Sure, some pawn shops pay more and some are also reliable, but the majority of pawn shop operations tend to pay too little money for your gold.

Average pawn shop offers: 40% to 60% of gold’s real value
reDollar.com offers: 90% to 95% of gold’s real value

Is it smart to use a pawn shop?

Yes and no. We believe that it depends on your personal circumstances. If you urgently need money right away, a pawn shop may be your only choice. If you can wait up to 48 hours, reDollar.com is the better way to trade your gold because you will get paid much more.

reDollar.com Works Like a Bank

reDollar.com runs a laboratory where all evaluations are done carefully and precisely. We don’t perform “counter-top evaluations” like your neighborhood pawn shop or gold-buying operation. We are thorough in our price determinations and do not rush the process or cheat our customers. reDollar.com operates like a bank on the highest possible level.

reDollar experts discuss gold price

How much is gold worth per gram at a pawn shop? The Fact Check

Although gold is a precious metal, very valuable and always in high demand, pawn shops usually won’t offer you a great deal on it. The average business philosophy is to lowball the customer to get their gold cheap. We believe we know why many pawn shops rely on this approach.

Pawn shops have higher risks

The first reason pawn shops offer significant lower prices is that they have a higher risk than an online gold buyer like reDollar. They buy gold from the public for cash on hand, which leaves pawn shops with a higher risk of buying gold from fraudulent activities. Another risk for pawn shops is to buy falsified or gold-plated items that are ultimately worth much less than expected when purchased. The average pawn shop uses either an acid test to test your gold’s authenticity or a so-called “electronic gold tester”. There are two potential problems with these methods. First, you need a lot of experience to interpret the testing results correctly, and second, if you do the testing wrong, the outcome can be totally inaccurate. reDollar.com uses high-tech equipment like an ultrasonic machine and a XRF tester worth tens of thousands of dollars. Such an investment is a big financial burden for a pawn shop, which is why most pawn shops don’t own the kind of equipment we have in our lab.

Pawn shops don’t buy large amounts of gold

Another reason pawn shops pay less is that a pawn shop’s customer base is limited to its neighborhood or the city where it operates, while reDollar.com is able to reach people from New York to Alaska, making it possible to handle thousands of gold transactions. If you buy a large amount of gold, you are in the position to put a lot of pressure on the refinery where you resell the gold. While we are able to resell the gold we buy for the very best deal, pawn shops get paid less, which is another reason why they can’t pay as much money for your gold as reDollar.com can.

reDollar.com compared with local pawn shops

Wondering if we can really beat the competition? Compare our prices with local pawn shops, and you’re sure to end up selling your gold directly to reDollar.

reDollarAverage Pawn Shop
10K Gold$1016.60 per oz$451.82 to $677.73 per oz
14K Gold$1429.59 per oz$635.38 to $953.06 per oz
18K Gold$1832.81 per oz$814.58 to $1221.88 per oz
24K Gold$2576.94 per oz$814.58 to $1221.88 per oz

Questions about pawn shops?

Many people still have questions left, and many folks don’t even know exactly what pawn shops do or what the difference between pawning and selling is. Let us help you with your questions. Advice is always free- even when you don’t sell to our company.

    reDollar expert, AlanWe are proud to have our Head of Laboratory, Alan Jensen, on board. He belongs to a group of highly skilled experts with many years of experience handling precious metals. He is even able to do a fire assay and is very good at explaining things in layman’s terms. We encourage you to get in touch with him if you have questions about how pawn shop pricing works.

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