Purchasing

What type of items do you purchase?

Gold Standard purchases any gold items (including rose gold and white gold), as well as platinum and silver items.  This includes (but is not limited to) rings, bracelets, chains, earrings, watches, coins, dental gold, pendants, charms, flatware, etc.

 

We are unable to make offers on gold plated, silver plated, or gold filled items.

 

Gold Standard is also able to make purchase offers on certain luxury watches, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Cartier, etc.  

 

For all other types of valuable/collectible items that you may be interested in selling, please contact us - we may be able to make you an offer.

.........................................................................................................

How do I know if my items are solid gold or plated?

Most solid gold pieces are stamped with the karat expressed as either a 3-digit number expressing the percentage of gold purity (i.e. 375 would be 37.5% gold) or with a K or KT designation.  Stamps are not always easy to spot, however, and some solid gold jewelry may not be stamped at all, especially in the case of custom made jewelry.

 

Silver items are also typical stamped "sterling" or "925," indicating 92.5% purity.  Items that are

stamped "silverplate" or "silver plate" are not solid and we are unable to make an offer on them.

 

Gold and silver are typically not magnetic, so anything attracted to a magnet can typically be

ruled out.  Bear in mind that many earring backs are plated while the earrings themselves are

solid.  Many jewelry clasps also have springs or other types of metal which are magnetic, even if the rest of the jewelry is solid.

 

When in doubt, bring it in – we’re happy to test anything you're unsure about!

.........................................................................................................

What is the difference between the different karats in gold?

Virtually all gold jewelry is an alloy of pure gold plus other metals because pure gold, on its own, is too soft to be worn.  The higher the karat, the higher the percentage of solid gold that was used in the alloy.  For example, an 18-karat item has 75% pure gold while a 10-karat item has only 41.5% pure gold.  Consequently, the offer you will receive will be higher per gram for higher karat items, reflecting the higher gold content.

.........................................................................................................

How much will I get?

The cash offers given by Gold Standard on jewelry are typically based on the metal value only and are not reflective of potential resale or replacement value.  For an estimate of the type of offer you might get, try our Gold & Silver calculator.

 

If you have an attractive piece of jewelry in excellent condition or designer jewelry such as Tiffany or Cartier, Gold Standard may be able to offer a premium over our normal rates. Otherwise, it may be worth testing the second-hand market to determine if there is any demand for it as jewelry.

​

For designer watches, while an appraisal covers the retail cost of the most current replacement model available, Gold Standard bases its offers on the prices of recently sold items of the same model and year, reflecting actual market demand.

.........................................................................................................

I have an appraisal for my item - will I get a better offer?

A formal jeweler's appraisal is typically made with an insurance value in mind, which covers the highest price it could be expected to cost to replace the item with another of like kind and quality at a local jewelry store.  This is typically also true of watches.  The appraised value ensures that you are guaranteed to be able to fully replace your item under your insurance policy, but is typically inflated above the true market value, which is why appraisals are often much higher than the original purchase price.  As a result, even in the event of the loss of the item, it is extremely unlikely that you will receive the full appraised value.

 

Consequently, while an appraisal can certainly help expedite our evaluation, it will not necessarily lead to a higher offer.

.........................................................................................................

What do I need to bring with me to make a sale?

Your item(s) and a picture ID.  Some additional contact information will also be taken for our records and - in some instances - we may require additional information for ownership verification.

.........................................................................................................

Why do you need my picture ID and contact information?

For the protection of the Bermuda public, we take every reasonable step to ensure that we are only buying from authorized sources.  We will NEVER sell or market your private information, but we will ALWAYS cooperate fully with any police investigation regarding the theft of stolen property.

.........................................................................................................

How do you test my items?

For jewelry, Gold Standard employs state of the art electronic testing to determine the purity of each gold and platinum item while an acid test is used for silver.  We also employ a legal-for-trade scale accurate to within 1/10 of a gram to accurately determine the true amount of precious metal in each item.

 

For all other types of items, Gold Standard may enlist the services of outside experts to verify the authenticity of an item as well as second-hand market sales data to make an appropriate offer.  Items that include all their accessories - such as boxes for watches and dust covers for handbags - will typically receive a higher offer than those without their accessories. 

.........................................................................................................

What kind of evaluation will I receive?

In the case of precious metal items, after testing is complete, we can provide you with a complete breakdown of the tested purity and weight (in grams) of the submitted items, the resulting precious metals content and a line-by-line cash offer.  We offer this high level of transparency to ensure our customers are completely satisfied with their final decision.  There's never any pressure to sell all or nothing - you're free to pick, choose and refuse.

 

For all other items, we simply provide a cash offer based on our analysis.

​

Please note that the evaluation you receive should not be considered an appraisal for insurance/replacement value.

.........................................................................................................

My jewelry has precious/semiprecious stones – how are those accounted for?

Except in the case of specific high-end brand jewelry, stones are generally not included in the offers Gold Standard makes.  We strongly recommend that any valuable stones be removed prior to sale (though we are able to offer some limited stone removal at no charge). We are able to make offers on larger and lab certified diamonds – please contact us for details.

.........................................................................................................

Do you purchase coins/bullion?

We would be glad to make a competitive offer on any investment grade/collectible gold, silver or platinum products.  However, our offers will typically only reflect the precious metals value and not a special premium for numismatic/ collector’s value except for exceptionally rare or desirable coins.

​

Also note that any particular high dollar value sales may be subject to AML/CFT regulation per the Bermuda Financial Intelligence Agency.

.........................................................................................................