At Ottawa Gold, we offer the most cash for gold and silver. We do business in good faith and present our prices as honestly and transparently as possible. With prices as high as they are today, there has never been a better time to sell with confidence!

Our Price Guarantee: We are so confident in our prices and our service, that if you get a higher offer for your jewelry, we will beat that price by 20% of the difference!

Our business model allows us to beat any local competitor’s offers, if they exist. Should we find any legitimate local buyer actually offering higher prices, we will adjust our prices to either meet or beat those prices going forward. So be careful – many gold buyers use high prices to lure customers in, but in reality charge fees and commissions or underpay on the karat in order to make a profit. Be sure to always read their fine print! If you do find a price higher than ours, bring in the estimate and we will not only match the price but beat we will beat it! We have yet to find someone arrive with a higher quote received elsewhere but, for peace of mind and to ensure you always get the best price for your items, shop around and be sure to visit us last.

How we set our prices:

Our prices are set daily and reflect the current market rate of gold. For coin purchases, we pay up to 98% of the spot rate. For jewellery purchases, we pay between 70 and 80% of the market rate in order to account for refining costs. The table below shows today’s prices per karat. There are no fees, charges or commissions on top of this! All of our appraisals are free and we do not charge for stone removal. If you do decide to sell, we will write you a check on the spot that can be cashed right away!

Prices Updated: 2013-05-22, 11:21:19 AM

Gold Buying Prices by Karat

Gold Coin and Bar Buying Prices

Silver Coin, Bars, and Jewellery Buying Prices

Platinum Buying Prices

* In office payouts.

How we set our prices

Our gold and silver prices are set daily and reflect the current market rate of gold and silver. We pay up to 96% of this rate for pure coins and bars. In our business across the country we have found that professional gold buyers typically pay in the 70%-80% of the gold market price for gold jewellery. We do our research to find the highest price in the city and beat, or match, that price. We began paying 70% of the melt value of gold, and we recently raised our payouts again to 70%-75% of the gold market price. Our business model allows us to offer the highest prices in Ottawa both upfront and hassle free.

The table on the left shows today’s prices by karat. These payouts are calculated by taking the market price of gold, typically listed in ounces, and dividing by 31.1 (note: there are 31.1 grams in a Troy ounce). We calculate 70%-75% of this rate based on the prices offered by other buyers in the region. This will give us the price for 24K gold jewellery. Gold is measured on a scale of 24 (similar to the hours in the day) so to calculate the price for a particular karat we multiply the 24K price by the item’s karat (ex. 14K) and then divide by 24 (ex. The 14K price is 14/24ths of the 24K price).

What you see if what we pay! There are no fees or charges – all appraisals are free and there is no cost for stone removal. If you do decide to sell, we will write you a check on the spot that can be cashed right away!

Why not 100% of gold market price for jewellery?

There are 3 main reasons why we, and other buyers, cannot offer 100% of gold market value for jewellery.

1. Risk

   Dealing with jewellery versus trusted coins and bars comes with inherent risk and margins for error in both their design and evaluation. We understand that some jewelry presented and measured as 10K, 18K, etc may truly be 9.5K, 17K, etc. Our measurement techniques are very accurate but understand that some jewelers (on purpose or not) have made errors in the purity of their items. Unstamped items compound this margin for error. If the true measurement is close to the stamped karat, we give you the benefit of the doubt and offer 10K prices for items that are truly 9.5K. Other buyers (particularly mail-in buyers) do not do this. Through our analysis we have found that stamped items, when refined, result in errors of 2%-7%. These small bonuses mean that we that are actually paying more than our posted prices for your true gold weight. We have yet to find an item stamped at a particular karat that measures at a higher purity so have never paid less than the true karat.

   Another secondary risk for us is the exposure to the gold market price. It takes about two weeks to turn around our refining process and prices in gold can fluctuate 1%-2% in that time. This risk is built into our pricing.

2. Refining

   The cost of refining items is built into our pricing – a cost not necessary for pure coins and bars. You will find refining costs built into other buyers’ pricing as well. As we refine the items ourselves, our refining costs are close to half of those required of other local buyers. Even a buyer that looks to resell purchased items will only resell extremely nice pieces and the bulk of their inventory is refined in a similar manner. Should we find a nice piece in your load that will be worth more than gold or silver value, we will let you know and not purchase the piece if you wish.

3. Reality

   The reality is that Ottawa Gold is a business providing a professional service and there are costs associated with providing this service. These costs are built into our pricing. #1 marketing our service so that you know that it exists and will be able to take advantage of our great prices. If you didn’t hear about us, you would be stuck going somewhere else. #2 staffing a professional office so we are prepared to offer the service whenever you are prepared to unload your items. #3 profit for return on our investment in time and funds that are held until the end of the refining process.

   For these reasons, our payout of 70%-80% far exceeds industry standards. With the cost of refining these items and paying modest office and marketing expenses, our profit margin is small. Also, as a side note, the fees involved in refining items make refining inaccessible for people with only a handful of items. Only through dealing in large volumes does it become cost effective. Our prices are set so that we can offer you the highest amount for your gold and silver while still making a profit. We deal in large volumes, so you get the highest returns.

Up to 96% of gold market price for trusted coins and bars

As shown in the table on the left, we offer higher prices for 24K bars and coins than we do for 24K jewelry. Please note that we have not found any other gold buyer advertising this. This difference is due to the inherent risk and margins for error that exist when dealing with jewelry that do not exist when dealing with trusted bars and coins. When we identify a trusted bar or coin we will know the exact weight, purity and gold content. Our 24K (999) bar and coin rate is over 90% of gold value based on the daily rate. We run a tight ship but the cost of our office, marketing expenses as well as the cost of refining precious metals leaves only about 1-2% profit for trusted coins and bars. We pay over 95% for the one ounce Canadian maple leaf as we don’t incur costs for refining. It is a true pure coin and is the most desirable to hold for investors. Our prices are set so that we can offer you the highest amount for your gold and silver while still making money. We deal in large volumes, so you get the highest returns.

How we compare to the industry

Pawn shops, jewellers, mail-in websites and mall kiosks are not much in the way of competition. Our customers do their research and quickly learn that unless prices PER GRAM are posted on a professional website, you are likely to encounter a negotiation where the buyer will give you as little as they think you’ll take. If we find an offer that appears to be higher than ours, we test it out. Other offers we have tested were later found to be either fraudulent or presenting prices that get eaten up by fees of some kind, visible only in the small print (or no print). We have yet to find ourselves at the end of the process with more than what we offer upfront.

Know the players

1. Jewellers – typically charge fees for evaluations, stone removal, etc. Jewellers may offer to buy stones but may offer only several dollars. After fees and the meager addition of stones, offers are significantly less than advertised.
2. Mall kiosks – offer lower prices for the “convenience” of selling in malls.
3. Pawn shops – Make their business on offering the least amount they think you will take. Higher payout claims are designed to lure you in. You will be in for a negotiation and unless you know exactly the exact worth of your items before arriving, you will certainly be underpaid.
4. Mail-in websites – difficult to follow-up when you don’t get what was promised on their website.
5. Amateur buyers – meet you at a local coffee shop, are not bound to any offered prices, difficult to find after the transaction.
6. Professional buyers – higher prices in a professional setting.

That being said, we have found two professional buyers other than ourselves in Ottawa. Both appear to be very reputable and honest and do good work in the community. If you are going to sell your gold and silver, finding a professional is the way to go for security, honesty and higher prices. You should expect 70%-80% of gold value for your gold as the industry standard when dealing with professionals. Non-professionals will obviously be less (referenced as “Others” below). Our quick reference below shows what you can expect in Ottawa.

** sample taken November 8th, 9th and 10th and December 1st and 2nd 2010. Calculation done by taking the advertised Canadian market price per troy ounce of gold. There are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce so we can find out the Canadian market price per gram by dividing the Canadian market price by 31.1. The offer for 24K jewellery (per gram) was divided by the Canadian market price per gram and multiplied by 100% to show the payout percent of 67.5% in November and December 1st and 2nd, 2010 the offer was calculated at closer to 65%. You can use this process for comparing offers in the same way we have here.

Our Price Guarantee

1. Must be a written offer to purchase jewellery from a recognized gold buyer, from less than 7 days ago, to ensure gold spot prices are relatively constant.
2. The quote must be based on gold/silver value – and not the value of the stones. (This is because we do not purchase stones. We will however remove them and return them to you).
3. The offer is subject to our own testing and the manager’s discretion. If the other gold buyer made a mistake in identifying the karat of a piece, for example, we would not beat that price.