When it comes to selling gold online you have a lot of choices. There are hundreds of already established companies vying for your business – not to mention all the new ones that continue to pop up in this growing field. This of course makes it difficult to make any kind of decision on the matter. It is hard to figure out which companies are legitimate and which are just trying to scam you. Your only real option to get the most cash for your gold is to research all the different gold buying companies individually. To be honest that takes time – quite a lot of it.
My partner and I have created this site because we know how difficult it can be to find a legitimate buyer who will actually pay you what your gold is worth. We deal with these people every day in our business, so we know how the industry works. We want you to be informed on the best ways to locate a reputable gold dealer/refiner, either online or in your area, that won’t try to rip you off.
Though we normally deal in large quantities and contact the companies directly to handle our bulk needs, we decided to approach this process like most individuals would. We went to each companies website, filled out the contact form, and requested a gold kit from them. The following is our review of five of the top gold refiners:
Empire Gold Buyers
Cash Payout: Customer Service: Turn Around Time: Shipping Insurance: Overall: 
Empire Gold Buyers has been in business for over 13 years and has one of the better reputations in gold buying field. They are BBB accredited with an A+ rating and no complaints. We actually hadn’t used this company until recently and I can tell you we were pleasantly surprised.
First of all I need to mention their payout. They pay 96% of the current spot price of gold for most transactions but their pay scale goes up to 98.5% for larger volume customers. They have a chart right on the website that shows exactly how much they pay based on the karats of the gold. These prices just blow away most of the other gold refiners out there and is one of the reasons we highly recommend them.
One of the other reasons is that their customer service is great. We called them up using the number from their site and were able to get through fairly quickly and speak directly to a native English speaking customer service agent who was able to answer the couple questions we had.
The final reason that you should go with Empire Gold Buyers is that they have Federal Express overnight shipping with insurance available up to $25,000. That was the real selling point for us since most other refiners make you pay your own or only cover between $100 to $1,500.
Midwest Refineries
Cash Payout: Customer Service: Turn Around Time: Shipping Insurance: Overall: 
Midwest Refineries has been around for generations and is a well respected company. They have an A rating with the BBB which is still excellent. They would be number one on this list but their turnaround is a little slower than some other refiners at around a week to get your payout. Also you have to pay for your own shipping/insurance.
But they do have some great payouts. At 95% they pay about the most you are going to get from a gold refiner. If you don’t need your money right this second and can wait (up to the 10-14 days it has taken for a few of ours) then you should defiantly try them. They pay right up there with Empire Gold Buyers.
Gold Fellow
Cash Payout: Customer Service: Turn Around Time: Shipping Insurance: Overall: 
GoldFellow is a very new name to most seeing as they were established in 2007. But being new isn’t all that bad (it just means that it is harder to tell if the company is legitimate or not) and so we gave them an equal chance. What we found was quite interesting.
Much like Empire Gold Buyers, their prices are transparent on their site. But they pay between 56% and 77% depending on how much gold you have to sell. Supposedly they pay more than most other gold refiners on amounts under one ounce but we can’t comment since we had more than that to sell. The only complaints we have with Gold Fellow is that they gave us the run around when we had a shipping problem. But the issue was resolved and overall we had a good experience with them.
Cash 4 Gold
Cash Payout: Customer Service: Turn Around Time: Shipping Insurance: Overall: 
I think just about everyone has heard of Cash4Gold now with their aggressive advertising campaign. They have been around since 2001 and have been mentioned quite a bit in the media. There’s a good bit of bad press about them (Google cash4gold scam) and we’ve heard some disconcerting things from readers but we wanted to give them a fair shot just like all the others. To be honest they weren’t nearly as bad as most people make them out to be.
We first decided to call them and see what their customer service was like while requesting a gold kit. We got through to a representative fairly quickly and she was very courteous and helpful. Besides not having their buying prices listed on their site, another thing that bugged us about Cash4Gold was that they only offer $100 in shipping insurance which is on the lowest end of the scale. Also their first offer for our gold was pretty damn low. But after another quick call to their customer service line they ended up doubling their offer to about 20% less than what the top refiners paid. Which is obviously not good but it’s higher than many other seedy cash for gold companies.
One of the good things though about Cash 4 Gold was their turn around time. Our transaction from start to finish only took four days which is pretty great.
A word of warning – don’t use the direct deposit or “FastCash” option or you waive your right to reject their offer. All in all, the experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but I would go with Cash 4 Gold only if I needed the money right now and couldn’t wait. Even then I would probably consider going to a pawnshop or jeweler first as you can usually get your cash the same day. A gold refiner like Empire Gold Buyers is a much better option if you can wait a little while longer to get your check.
Cash For Gold USA
Cash Payout: Customer Service: Turn Around Time: Shipping Insurance: Overall: 
As a company that has only been around for 5 years, Cash For Gold USA is another relatively new gold buyer that claims to have higher payouts than anyone else. They are owned by CJ Environmental who also runs Cash For Silver USA. They buy all kinds of precious metals including gold and silver as the name would suggest.
Because they offer free FedEx shipping and packages insured up to $1000, they clearly have one of the better gold mailing kits available. Their turnaround time is also not too bad at around 4-6 days before you get your check.
They do tell you how much they pay on their site but only for amounts over 10 troy ounces – a huge amount of gold which would be worth much more than what their insurance would cover. So really you have no idea how much they pay until you mail in your gold. But from our tests in the full review of Cash For Gold USA they pay anywhere from 25-40% less than what our top refiner Empire Gold Buyers does for shipments under an ounce.
Conclusion
Overall we ended up trying out a lot of different companies but felt that these top five were the only ones that were worth mentioning in this post. But we do have many more reviews available on the site. And as always we still encourage you to do your own research before you go through with any transaction. If any of you have any real personal experiences with the above companies feel free to share.
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