How jewelers play the gold game

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Finding the best price for your gold requires persistence, and patience.

News 4's Investigative Team went undercover to show you how the "gold game" is played in some area jewelers.

One local jeweler summed it up, "If I throw you a price, I won't be able to buy it. Because I'd give you a good price, and the next guy gives you a dollar more and you'll sell it from under me. So I got to be stupid to give you a price. You got to admit that yourself. I'd have to be stupid."

Perhaps he's right, but as a seller, it'd be stupid not to shop your gold around.

As News 4 told you Monday, the price for some 14 karat gold rings changed everywhere we went. Some jewelers want the stones, others don't. Others scrap the gold, some resell it.

The lowest cash offer, $168 dollars, came from Marcus Jewelry on Niagara Falls Boulevard.

Reeds Jenss on Maple Road was a little higher.

They offered $194.40 for the gold without the stones. A tiny watch repair store on Main and Transit actually came in higher, "You're looking at about $220 dollars" they told us.

You'll recall M and M on Main Street in Williamsville hinted that he might give us $300, claiming he can give customers a little more because of the store's low overhead compared to other places.

"Everywhere you go they got the help. They got the f--king egos. I ain't got no ego. I just got dollars and cents on my mind," said a jeweler at M and M.

Peter Manka, Sr. of Ben Garelick Jewelers in Williamsville agreed to talk to News 4 about our gold price findings. There the gold is scrapped rather than resold.

Manka says once the gold is sent out, it could take ten days or more for the precious metal to be refined, and longer if the stones have to be removed.

Manka said, "I really don't know what I'm going to get paid until it's time to be assayed."
"You take a risk. You're working maybe basically on a 20-25 percent profit. If gold goes down you make less. If it goes up you make a little more."

There's one more location we shopped the rings during our undercover investigation.

You may have seen a newspaper ad last week proclaiming to pay top dollar for gold at the Marriott Hotel on Millersport Highway. We couldn't resist seeing if that claim was true.

"I would pay 300 dollars for those," they told us, "If you would like to sell them, we would pay $300. If you want to check around, check around and let us know."

Even after we told Peter Manka Sr. at Ben Garelick what we were offered at the Marriott, his best offer was $269.37. Manka told us he wasn't interested in the stones.

Manka said, "Probably when they offered you more because they were interested in the diamonds. You're going to get more money than scrapping it. What I do is simply scrap it. I don't try to resell it."

So if you're not in a hurry take the time to learn about the gold pieces you're trying to sell and watch the price of gold then shop around until you get a price that fits your wallet.