I HATE hollow gold pieces.  I hate telling customers that their favorite piece of jewelry is unrepairable (or could be repaired at a huge expense).  I especially hate it when they tell me that the piece is less than a year old.

Here’s the deal.  Companies make hollow pieces because it is a great way to get the same look as a big heavy gold piece without the huge price tag.   Customers buy hollow gold pieces because they see that a solid piece of similar size and style is 3 to 4 times as expensive as the hollow piece.  But, as with most things, you get what you pay for.  If you only wear the piece on special occasions, the hollow piece might work well for you.  If you wear the piece everyday, it is only a matter of time, usually a few short years sometimes even months, before your jewelry is totally destroyed.  Rings and bracelets take the most abuse and will wear out the fastest.  Necklaces tend to fair a bit better, but the hollow piece are just not meant to be durable.  The look big and flashy, but they don’t last.

If you are making a jewelry purchase look out for pieces that look heavy but feel light.  Ask the sales person if the piece is hollow.  If they don’t know, ask the manager.  If the piece you like is hollow, keep in mind that you are buying something that might not be meant for everyday wear.  If you already have hollow pieces, treat them with care.  Don’t wear them to the gym or while you are doing chores or to bed.  If you want to purchase an item which you plan to pass down to your children and will wear often, spend the extra money to buy a solid piece.

My personal opinion is that there is only one piece of hollow jewelry that is acceptable: the hollow earring.  When it comes to earrings the lighter weight is not just less expensive, it is often more comfortable.  Most gold hoops on the market are hollow, so you really don’t have much choice.  The trick is to never, ever, ever wear the earrings to bed.  99% of the customers who bring me their hollow earrings that have been dented admit that the damage occurred when they were sleeping.  Taking the earring off when you use the telephone is another way to extend its life.

This particular customer is pretty lucky.  We are going to slowly replace her hollow links with links made from solid wire.  It will extend the life of the necklace and restore the original look of the piece.

You can get current, and by that I mean up to the minute, gold prices at www.kitco.com. There is also an application that you can set up on your Google home page that will show you the current price anytime you access Google. The price will update every two to five minutes. It is best to check the price online through a site that will give you a current price, not just yesterday’s closing price. Gold can close one day at $900 and by noon the next day be at $870 or $960. That price is for pure or 24 karat gold per troy Ounce. A troy ounce is 10% heavier than a regular ounce. If you were to take a troy ounce of gold to the grocery store and put it on their butchers scale or to the post office and on a postage scale, it will weigh about 1.1 avoirdupois ounces. Once you start watching the gold price daily or hourly, you’ll see that it changes very, very quickly. It only takes a little time each day to watch for the price to increase, so that you get more for your gold.
Precious Metals will hold gold prices for you if you come in and get your gold sorted and weighed. Once we have a detailed record of what you have, if you watch the market and call when the price is what you want to sell at, we’ll hold that price for you for 48 hours. For example, you come in and have 10 pennyweights of 14K and gold is at $915. You keep your gold, and when the market reaches a number you like, let’s say $950, you call give us your name and amount of gold (10 dwt 14k) and we will pay you at $950 for the next 48 hours, even if gold drops to $850 in the next 10 hours. If you don’t come in within 48 hours, you lose the hold on the price. If you don’t call ahead, we only pay out at the current price. If for some reason you have more gold or less gold that when you came in before, and we have to do more sorting and testing, we pay at the current price. Keep in mind that a $10 jump in price will only amount to about an extra 17 cents for each pennyweight of 14K. So for that 10 pennyweights it is only an extra $1.70. But if you have 60 pennyweights or gold goes up by $100, those cents can start to add up.

Next in our Selling your gold series: Is now a good time? What if I don’t want to sell it, can you make something with my old gold?