What To Sell For Cash · The Honest Ranking · South Africa
What can you sell to make money? Start with the smallest thing you own.
Most lists answer this question with side hustles and second-hand couches. Here is the honest version: rank what you own by value per gram and effort per rand, and the winner in almost every South African home is the gold nobody wears. It has a public price, it fits in a pocket, and the whole sale takes an afternoon.
The ranking: value for effort, honestly
| # | What | Where to sell it | How fast | Why it ranks here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unworn gold jewellery | Prodiam, Bedfordview or by courier | Same day to 72 hours | The highest value per gram of anything in an ordinary home, and the price is public arithmetic: the live gold price, times purity, times weight, less our published 10%. |
| 2 | Jewellery with diamonds or gemstones | Prodiam, the stones are paid on top | Same day to 72 hours | Two assets in one item. Most gold buyers pay you for the metal and ignore the stones; a diamond house prices both. |
| 3 | Inherited and estate pieces | Prodiam, free written valuation | At your pace | Often worth more than the family expects, and worth valuing before anything is melted, split or given away. |
| 4 | Electronics, furniture, clothes | Marketplace, Gumtree, consignment | Days to weeks | Real money but low value density: more photographing, listing, haggling and no-shows per rand than anything above. We do not buy these, sell them peer-to-peer. |
We are a diamond and gold house, so we buy items 1 to 4 and we do not buy item 5, which is exactly why this list can afford to be honest about it.
Why gold beats everything else in the drawer
A couch is worth what a stranger on Marketplace feels like paying after two no-shows. Gold is worth arithmetic: the live gold price, times the purity of your karat, times the weight on the scale. Nothing else you own has a price you can check on your kitchen scale before you leave the house. At a recent rate, an 8 gram 9 ct chain works out around R5 921 and a 5 gram 18 ct wedding band around R7 401, approximate on the day, because the gold price moves daily. Run your own numbers on the payout calculator first, then see exactly how the sale works.
The part most sellers miss: the stones
If a piece holds a diamond or a gemstone, it is two assets, and most gold buyers only pay you for one of them. We are a diamond house: the stone is valued against the Rapaport sheet and paid on top of the metal, and stones we buy are re-cut or re-set into new pieces, not discarded. If your drawer holds an old engagement ring, that is usually the single most valuable thing on this whole list, read how jewellery with stones is valued.
Signed, designer and finished pieces: worth more whole
The published less-10% rate is the floor for gold jewellery. A signed or wearable piece can be worth considerably more whole than as metal, so those are quoted case by case, usually above the published floor. Send a photo, ask for a quote, and decide with the number in hand. No fee, no obligation.
The published rate
We pay the live gold price, less 10%. Published, not negotiated.
your payout = grams× karat purity× live fine-gold price× 0.90
- Gold jewellery. The live gold price less 10%. That is the published floor, and it is the same for everyone.
- Signed, designer and finished pieces. A signed or wearable piece is usually worth more intact than it is as metal, so it is valued case by case on its own merits and generally beats the published 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. Your metal is reclaimed and comes back as new jewellery, made at our SADPMR-inspected workshop. 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 →
Selling things for money: the questions people actually ask
What can I sell to make money quickly in South Africa?
Start with the highest value per gram, not the biggest object. In most homes that is old gold jewellery: worn chains, single earrings, rings nobody wears. Gold has a public price per gram, so an 8 gram 9 ct chain is worth real four-figure money at today’s rate, and the whole sale fits in an afternoon.
Jewellery holding diamonds or gemstones is worth more again, because the stones are paid for separately. After that come gold jewellery and gold coins, then everything else, electronics, furniture, clothes, which sells, but slowly and with far more effort per rand.
How much is old gold jewellery actually worth?
Its metal value is arithmetic, not opinion: the live gold price per gram, times the purity of your karat (9 ct is 37.5%, 18 ct is 75%), times the weight. We pay that figure less a published 10% on gold that will be melted, and we show the working.
As a feel for scale at a recent rate: an 8 gram 9 ct chain comes out around R5 921, and a 5 gram 18 ct band around R7 401, approximate, because the gold price moves daily. Run your own numbers in our calculator before you speak to anyone, including us.
What about signed and designer pieces?
Signed and designer work, and finished jewellery with life left in it, are valued case by case on their own merits, and that is usually above the melt floor, a coin carries a premium over its gold content, and a wearable piece can be resold whole. Send a photo and ask for a quote; it costs nothing and there is no obligation either way.
Where is it safe to sell valuables for cash in Johannesburg?
Choose the venue by its security, not its convenience. Prodiam sits in The Paragon in Bedfordview, a secured diamond-industry building with armed security, access control and underground parking, and the South African offices of GIA and EGL operate under the same roof. You park beneath the building and walk straight to the desk.
Everything is tested and weighed in front of you, the figure is given in writing, and settlement is by FICA-compliant bank transfer, not envelope cash.
Do I get a better price selling privately than to a dealer?
For furniture, electronics and clothing, usually yes, if you have the patience for listings and no-shows. For gold, rarely: a private buyer has no way to verify karat, so they discount for the uncertainty, while a dealer with an XRF analyser can pay on the true purity. For diamonds it is the same story, private buyers cannot verify a stone, so honest private offers are scarce.
The practical split: peer-to-peer for household goods, a transparent dealer for gold, stones and coins.