Selling gold to a local jeweler?

It is not unusual. Many people don't bother to shop around so they give them a low ball price. The folks who advertise on TV are the very worst. I saw an article where a news station researched it and the companies on air were offering less than one quarter of the value.

Agreed on shopping around. Be sure to let the appraisers know you are shopping around, too, so that they know you are not some meth-head looking for quick cash for a fix. I used to buy gold and silver coins locally, and while I never ripped people off, I can say that unsophisticated sellers did not get top dollar Blue Book values for coin collections the way that knowledgeable sellers would. I would size the seller up, try to determine the amount they wanted, and if their selling price left enough of a margin for me to make a decent profit, I bought.

Of course, the flip side is that some sellers think their handful of Wheat cents from Aunt Millie is a priceless cache, and they get insulted when you tell them their family heirlooms are worth about two bucks on a generous day.

The price of gold has sky rocketed recently. As with many things, some feel this is a prime opportunity to "get one over" on public. Paying little for something worth a lot is wrong, but legal due to "pawn" shop rules.

Please let us know name of first shop so we don't make same mistake.

Sadly I can't remember the name, but there is a gold/silver/coin shop on Monroe Street past Franklin Park Mall on the right hand side (almost to Sylvania). Not sure how honest they are at buying goods, but I love going there to pick up random holes in my coin collection and they seem reasonable. Heck they sell some of their old silver coins pretty much at spot + a few bucks. Have picked up a gem or two for my collection and even resold some for a nice profit on ebay.

The place is Toledo Coin Exchange, and Clyde Englehardt is the owner. Good man and fair dealer, at least as far as coins go. He used to have a few regulars who would tip a cold beer after closing with him on certain nights.

Like any other person or business, it wasn't "wrong" of him to low-ball you I guess. If I seen you in a parking lot and offered you $100 for your car and you said yes, that doesn't make me a bad person.

Just a good reason to shop around.

True that. A good friend of mine owns a gun store and goes through the same song and dance every time someone tries to sell him a gun. The monetary difference between what a dealer pays for an item and what the dealer sells it for covers the overhead and the frustration factor - the dealer has to put up with the general public and their fanciful views about the worth of a beat to death heirloom.

The first store was Broer-Freeman on Central.

I hear you about people's overblown ideas of the value of their old possessions. A family member has to deal with lots of ladies who think their mother's old department-store formal gowns must be worth thousands of dollars just because they were expensive, back in the day.

Bumping this up because of other inquiries.

If I had more jewelry, I'd start with David Fairclough on Central (out west, near the Meijer's and Caribou Coffee). They gave me a LOT more than I was offered at the other jeweler.