Always Antiques Offered Us £240 for Gold Worth £1,290 – Would You Have Known?

If you're a regular reader of our articles, you'll know that we stress the importance of being as fully informed as possible, BEFORE selling your gold.

Rightly or wrongly, it's your responsibility (as the seller) to ensure you're offered a fair price for your gold.

There are no laws or rules that govern what a buyer should or shouldn't offer, and you should recognise that many gold buyers will be looking to acquire your gold for the lowest price possible.

If you're offered just a tiny fraction of an item's true worth, how will you know you're being short-changed if you haven't done some (easy) homework prior to having your items appraised?

With the price of gold skyrocketing in recent months, antique and jewellery valuation events are more common than ever. Back in April, we wrote about a company called Vintage & Collectables Roadshow, which operates regular valuation days across the country. Today, we'll take a look at a similar operation, called Always Antiques.

Always Antiques : Since 1954

Always Antiques Internet visibility is fairly limited. Here's what we know.

• Always Antiques Ltd was incorporated in March 2021, although its literature implies it has been in business since 1954.
• The business is registered to an address in Birmingham, but it's unclear if customers can visit to trade.
• It appears they operate a retail outlet at Hemswell Antiques Centre where quality items are sold on.

Their website claims 'The best prices paid always for your gold' and lists upcoming dates where they're hosting their next round of valuation events.

Always Antiques Valuation Events

Always Antiques operates the tried & tested valuation buying event business model, used by many vintage and collectable buying event operators. They travel around the country, hiring village halls and rooms at hotels to set up an 'Antiques Roadshow' style valuation and buying event. You turn up on the appropriate date at the specified location with your box of bits & bobs, and an appraiser will offer you a sum of money to take them off your hands.

There are no high-pressure sales other than the knowledge that it's a one-day valuation event, so a reasonably swift decision is needed. And let's face it: if you've gone to the effort of boxing up quantities of vintage items and jewellery, with a cash offer on the table, how likely are you to turn it down and cart your items all the way home again?!

For many customers, a valuation day buying event can be an immensely convenient way of disposing of unwanted vintage items, whilst pocketing some quick cash. When selling vintage items, their value can be highly subjective and difficult for the average seller to judge whether the price is fair. An old postcard might be worth nothing to you or I, but to the right collector, it could be worth £20 or more. There's real skill in identifying and valuing such items, and then finding the right buyer.

However, with gold, it's a different story. Our favourite yellow metal is an internationally traded commodity, bought and sold on global trading platforms day and night. Therefore, the value of a gold chain, for example, can always be accurately calculated.

We tested Always Antiques today to see what sort of deal they'd offer us for some gold. We took an 18-carat gold Albert chain weighing 24.1g. We chose this particular chain to avoid any ambiguity on valuation.

• It's solid (not hollow)
• There are no non-gold parts present
• Every link is 18ct hallmarked, including the t-bar

In terms of valuation, it couldn't be simpler.

Based on the scrap gold prices we were paying today, Gold Traders would have offered £1,290.07 for this item. To summarise, we were paying £53.53 per gram, so 24.1 x 53.53 is £1,290.07. That's the amount that would have landed in the customer's account.

A member of Gold Traders staff took this chain to be appraised by Always Antiques. 

Astonishingly, the valuer offered just £240 for it. 

That's about 17% of what that item is genuinely worth.

Our secret shopper deliberately stated she didn't know if the chain was gold. This is the sort of interaction we have with our customers every day. What surprised us even more was the explanation of the value: that it was 9ct gold and 'hollow' - both statements totally untrue.

Note: In case any of the above gets challenged, we recorded the interaction!

How to avoid being shortchanged when selling your gold

Here are our essential tips you should aim to follow before selling your gold. Following these steps might seem a little daunting, but it's not as complicated as you might think. If by following these simple steps results in hundreds, if not thousands of pounds extra for your gold, it's got to be worth your time, right?

Sort your gold according to its purity

Most gold jewellery is hallmarked or stamped to indicate its purity. You'll need a magnifying glass for this step. Alternatively, many modern smartphone cameras now come with a close-up macro function that can help you search for the tiny marks. In the UK, the most common gold purity we have is 9 carat gold. Depending on the age of the item, a 9ct item might have a '375' stamp, indicating its fineness (37.5% gold). Other common purities include 14ct (585), 18ct (750), and 22ct (916). A great tool for identifying the purity of a piece of jewellery is our hallmark identification wizard. The higher the number, the more 'pure' your gold item is. 9 carat gold contains 37.5% gold by weight (mixed with 62.5% of other metals), whereas a 22ct item contains 91.6% gold by weight, mixed with just 8.4% of other metals.

Weigh your gold

Accuracy is key here. Precious metal valuers will weigh your gold in grams, down to 1/10th of a gram.

With gold prices so high, the true value of an 18ct item will increase by £5.86 for every 0.1g increment of weight.

Many digital kitchen scales only weigh in 1g increments, so you may have to accept that your estimated value might be out by around £30 to £60 or so.

Calculate the value of your gold

The table below gives you the live market rates for each gold purity, alongside the rates we're paying. As gold is an internationally traded commodity, the live price will change every minute or so during trading hours if you refresh the page.

For a full breakdown of our rates, please see our scrap gold price page. Note that our rates from gold coins, Sovereigns and gold bullion are higher.

To make calculating the value of your items a little easier, you can use our scrap gold calculator that works out the true 'melt' value of your gold. Just enter the weights of your items into the appropriate fields, and you'll be given a spot-on, accurate value of what your gold is worth today, alongside what we would pay you. 

Bear in mind you're unlikely to achieve the full 'melt' value for the majority of items valued. Of course, exceptions inevitably exist. Such items include rings containing individual diamonds over a third of a carat in size and items of prestige jewellery from notable brands like Fabergé and Cartier. In such cases, you're far better off gaining a professional valuation from a reputable auction house, such as our friends at RWB Auctions.

If in doubt, always seek a second opinion from a verifiable, trusted business.

Always Antiques Trustpilot Reviews

At the time of writing, Always Antiques doesn't have any verifiable reviews on Trustpilot or Google. We would therefore strongly encourage you to seek additional valuations from other sources before selling your items.

Profit Pocketing vs Customer Conning

Every business exists to make a profit, and we all have to accept that a commercial buyer will offer a sum below the market price to make their margin. But, at what point can it be suggested that a business has crossed the line from simply making a fair profit to blatantly ripping off an unsuspecting seller?