[Rick Casselberry]

Rick Casselberry

we have sometimes in the past accepted stuff ( jewelry, etc. ) as partial payments toward deposits, rent, debt
i am considering being more up front about it.
without going to jeweler school, any ideas about identifing real gold, silver, diamonds and determining value?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous

When You’re advertising your real estate include in the ad that you’ll take “things” in trade – ask what have you got.

Rick Cogswell did that and ended up with a 1967 car, $4000 in cash, and a box of lucky charms + a note on the house he sold

I don’t have a clue how to verify the value of precious metals.

[Greg Christiansen]

Greg Christiansen

For metals, http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html
There are other metals here too, silver, platinum and palladium. I’d say get as much of that stuff as you can over diamonds (really not rare at all, have very little value and only professionals can verify their authenticity). All of these “Cash 4 Gold!” places have popped up overnight with the all time high price. If you consider the spot value (typically what wholesales buy for–the going rate for the metal), that is a pretty good deal. Usually you will sell to an “end user” for over spot ($3-4 for silver and $40-80 for gold). Based on how these metals have skyrocketed, I would prefer them instead of cash for some transactions. There are a lot of buyers for precious metals right now, which explains the booming market.