Consumer Guide · Selling Gold · South Africa
How gold buyers underpay you, tactic by tactic.
Nobody in this trade steals your gold. They buy it, legally, at a number built on what you do not know. Here are the six mechanisms that do the quiet work, and the one-line defence against each. Bring this list to any buyer, including us.
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Tactic 01
The blind number
You are quoted one figure with no working: no gold price, no purity, no rate. It sounds authoritative, and it is unanswerable, because there is nothing to check.
The defence: Ask one question: "what is that per gram, against which gold price, at what percentage?" An honest buyer answers in ten seconds. A lowballer changes the subject.
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Tactic 02
The karat downgrade
Your 18 ct piece is called 14 ct, or your 9 ct is "probably 8". Without an instrument in the room, it is your stamp against their opinion, and the opinion pays less.
The defence: Insist on seeing the reading. An XRF analyser reads gold content in seconds without damaging the piece. If there is no instrument, or you are not shown the screen, walk.
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Tactic 03
The invisible scale
The piece is weighed behind the counter, or on a scale you cannot read, and the number that comes back is lighter than your kitchen scale said at home.
The defence: Weigh everything at home first and write it down. A calibrated trade scale will land within a whisker of a decent kitchen scale. A big gap is not an accident.
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Tactic 04
"Melt value only" on set jewellery
A ring holding a diamond is priced as if the diamond were glass: you are paid for the metal and the stone rides along free, to be unset and sold after you leave.
The defence: Never sell a set piece to a buyer who cannot price the stone. Ask what the diamond is worth separately. If the answer is "nothing" or "we do not deal in stones", you are donating it.
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Tactic 05
The urgency close
"The gold price is dropping this afternoon", "this offer is for now only". Pressure is doing the work the price cannot.
The defence: The gold price is public and moves in fractions of a percent a day. Any offer that dies when you step outside was not a real offer. Take the written figure and compare.
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Tactic 06
The shrinking second visit
A strong phone estimate gets you in the door; at the desk the karat is "lower than described", the weight "includes the clasp", and the number shrinks.
The defence: Get the assumptions in writing with the estimate: karat, weight, rate. Then the desk figure can only move for reasons you can see and check.
The two-minute defence, all six at once
Weigh your gold at home and write the number down. Note the karat stamp. Run the payout calculator so you know the metal value before anyone speaks. Then sell only where the rate is stated, the karat is proven by instrument in front of you, the scale is visible, the stones are priced separately, and the figure comes in writing with no clock on it. That is the whole game. Every tactic above dies on arrival when you walk in holding your own number.
The published rate
Our answer to all six: publish the rate.
your payout = grams× karat purity× live fine-gold price× 0.90
| Karat | Purity | We pay per gram |
|---|---|---|
| 24 ct | 99.9% | R1 971,70 |
| 22 ct | 91.7% | R1 809,27 |
| 18 ct | 75.0% | R1 480,25 |
| 14 ct | 58.3% | R1 151,24 |
| 9 ct | 37.5% | R740,13 |
Worked at a reference fine-gold price of R2 192,97 per gram of pure 24 ct gold, checked 25 July 2026. The live figure loads on this page and refreshes daily from the market feed.
- Scrap, broken and unmarked gold. The live gold price less 10%. That is the published floor, and it is the same for everyone.
- Krugerrands, bullion, designer and finished pieces. The 10% floor is for gold that gets melted. Much of what we buy never sees the melt: coins, signed and designer work, and finished jewellery with life left in it are valued case by case on their own merits, usually above the scrap floor. Ask for a quote; there is no obligation either way.
- Diamonds and gemstones set in the piece. Valued separately against the Rapaport sheet and paid on top of the metal. Most gold buyers hand your stones back or ignore them. We are a diamond house, so we can price them and buy them.
Check us before you arrive. Weigh the piece at home and run the number yourself. A kitchen scale gets you the ballpark, not the last decimal, so on the desk our XRF analyser confirms the karat and our calibrated scale confirms the weight, in front of you. You get the figure in writing before anything is agreed. We buy outright: this is a sale, not a loan.
It is safe to bring it in
Carrying gold to an unfamiliar address is the real hesitation, so here is the honest answer. The Paragon is a secured diamond-industry building: armed security, access control at entry, and secure underground parking, so you walk from your car to the desk without stepping onto the street. The South African offices of GIA and EGL operate under the same roof. Viewings are private and by appointment, one client at a time. See how visiting works.
Where your gold actually goes
It does not disappear into someone else’s melting pot. Gold refineries operate in this same building, and that is where your metal is melted and refined; it then comes back upstairs to the SADPMR-inspected workshop where our own jewellery is made. Stones we buy are re-set into new pieces, not discarded. Reclaimed gold carries a fraction of the footprint of newly mined gold, so buying it back keeps metal that already exists in circulation instead of sitting in a drawer.
WhatsApp a photo and the weight Submit it for a written valuation → Book a Bedfordview viewing →
Asked by people who have been quoted low
How much do gold buyers usually pay in South Africa?
It varies wildly, and that variance is the whole problem: the same chain can fetch figures 30 or 40 percent apart on the same street, because most buyers quote blind and price to what you will accept. The honest benchmark is arithmetic: the live gold price, times your karat’s purity, times the weight.
Prodiam publishes its rate against that benchmark, the metal value less 10% on gold that will be melted, so you can check the figure before you leave the house.
How do I know if a gold buyer is legitimate?
Five checks: a published or explainable rate against the live gold price; the karat proven by instrument in front of you, not guessed; a visible calibrated scale; stones valued separately rather than ignored; and settlement by traceable bank transfer with FICA paperwork rather than envelope cash. Any one missing is a caution. The premises tell you plenty too: a secured trade building with controlled access is a different proposition from a temporary stand.
Should I get more than one quote for my gold?
Yes, always, and make them written. A serious buyer is happy to be compared because the working stands on its own. Bring any written quote to us and we will price the identical weight and karat against the live rate, show the arithmetic, and if the other figure is genuinely better we will say so. Comparison only threatens buyers who priced you blind.
What should my gold be worth before any buyer’s margin?
The metal value: the day’s fine-gold price per gram, times purity (37.5% for 9 ct, 75% for 18 ct), times grams. Run it on our calculator in two minutes. Every rand below that number is someone’s margin; the only question is whether the margin is published, ours is 10% on melt gold, or hidden inside a blind quote.