Every once in a while, a news story will pop up about someone that has purchased fake jewelry from a store or from someone selling jewelry on the side of the street. It can be upsetting to spend a lot of money on jewelry that is fake, but there are some ways to spot the fake stuff from the real deal. If you want to make sure that you’re always getting the real thing, take a look at these essential tips.
- Know where you’re buying your jewelry from. If a guy pulls up next to you on a curb with a minivan, gets out, and starts asking you if you want to buy gold from the back of his van, there’s a good chance that the jewelry he is selling is fake. This may seem obvious to you, but so many people buy from makeshift jewelry stores thinking that they are getting a good deal. The only person in this transaction that’s getting a good deal is the person selling the fake gold – that person can get away with thousands of your dollars!
- Take a good look at what you’re buying. Most modern gold pieces have some kind of marking on them (18k, etc). If a piece that you are considering buying does not have a mark, it’s probably not real – there are exceptions to this rule, since estate jewelry could have had a mark that is now worn off.
- If the piece that you want to buy does have markings, but you still aren’t sure (great fakes can look like the real thing), check for signs that gold has started to fade in some areas. Real gold doesn’t fade and doesn’t become discolored. If the gold piece that you are looking at is starting to rub off in certain spots, it’s not real.
- Look at the fastening parts. Is the gold around the fastening part starting to wear off? Can you see green discoloration or other colors around the area where the gold fastens? Real gold pieces simply do not discolor, so even if the whole piece looks great but there’s some discoloration near the fastener, don’t buy it.
- Get your piece appraised. If you do buy gold from a reputable jeweler but you have your doubts, you can always bring it to an appraiser. Ask the appraiser to tell you whether or not the gold is real, and what the approximate cost of that gold piece is. If you can bring the item back to a jeweler for a refund, make sure to do so. You may also want to report that jewerly so that nobody else buys fake gold.
A Good Gold Investment
When you do buy a solid piece of real gold jewelry, you are making a great investment. No matter what the quality of the piece is, you can always trade in the pieces that you no longer like or wear for cash or for another piece. If you have some gold jewelry that you’d like to trade in Fort Collins, you can bring your pieces with you to NoCo Gold and Diamond for cash for gold. We will take a careful look at the items you bring in, weigh them, and determine the worth of the gold pieces that you have. Keep this in mind when you buy new gold in case you ever want to trade those items in for cash.
It can be tough to tell real gold items from fake gold, but if you spend enough time reading about the various ways to detect real from fake, you will soon see what’s real and what’s not, so that you can make an educated decision.
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