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Earlier this week I wrote about some of the top online destinations for buying gold coins and wafers. But the precious metal’s recent highs may have you thinking more about selling than buying. If you are looking to cash out on some of your gold jewellery, you have a lot of options. You could visit a local pawnshop or go to a gold party and have an appraiser make you an offer.

Or you could respond to one of the many ads promoting quick cash for gold. Companies such as Cash4Gold, GoldKit and GoldPaq will accept your gold jewellery by mail. Send them that hideous brooch you inherited from your great-aunt in a postage-paid envelope and they’ll send you a cheque a few days later. If you don’t like the amount, you can return it and get your gold back at no charge.

But seller beware. Consumer Reports recently investigated the cash-for-gold business and found you’re likely to get a payment absurdly below gold’s spot value.

As reported in the magazine’s November issue, Consumer Reports sent identical 18-karat chains and pendants to three “mail-in” gold buyers between mid-May and early July of this year. They also took the gold to jewellery stores and pawn shops in Louisiana, New York, and Texas. The retail price of each trinket was $175 and had an estimated meltdown value of about $70. The cash-for-gold companies paid 11 to 29 percent of the day’s market price for gold while the pawn shops paid 35 to 70 percent. The mail-in businesses were timely at least – the cheques arrived a few days after they received the jewellery.

To get the best price for your gold, you need to be an informed seller. Consumer Reports suggests calculating the worth of your jewellery before trying to sell it. All you have to do is weigh the jewellery on a kitchen scale and use a precious metal online calculator to get the value based on the item’s weight, karats, and gold’s current price. The magazine recommends aiming for at least 50 per cent of your jewellery’s meltdown value.