Diamond Diva Online

A St. Patrick's Day Joke!

This is from our good friend Richard Shults at Len Larson...

An Irishman by the name of O'Mally proposed to his girl on St. Patrick's Day. He gave her a ring with a synthetic diamond. The excited young lass showed it to her father, a jeweler. He took one look at it and saw it wasn't real.

The young lass, on learning it wasn't real, returned to her future husband and protested vehemently about his cheapness.

"It was in honor of St. Patrick's Day," he smiled. "I gave you a Sham Rock."

Happy St. Patirick's Day!
Patti

A couple of 5 carat diamonds

Gold may be over $1,000.00 an oz right now but big diamonds are even hotter! I added a couple of newbies to the website, so be sure and click over on DIAMONDS FOR SALE!

Our hours are Monday thru Friday 10am to 5pm and
Saturday 10 to 3pm!

Divas know diamonds...and divas know deals!

The Story of Your Life

Do you have a really good story to tell that's "Charming".

I love my charm bracelet. With every jingle and jangle it reminds me of special moments in my life. Most of my charms are from the plays I worked on at Tupelo Community Theater. Directing, backstage and onstage, every one is a memory of good times (and hard work!). Actually, it was my life from 1979 to 1988! I tell people I moved to Tupelo in 1978 and right into the Tupelo Community Theater! And of course, it has cats, too.

If you have a good story about charms, check this out. Numerous winners and runners up have been selected from thousands of entires in the "Story of Your Life" contest sponsored by Rembrandt Charms. You may have seen their ads in Family Circle, Martha Stewart Living and Southern Living magazines.

To enter, just go to their website
http://www.rembrandtcharms.com/contests/YourLife. It's easy and you could be the next winner.

And while you're there check out the huge selection of charms! On April 1st, Rembrandt will introduce over 400 new and redesigned charms. So come back often for updates.

You can check prices in 10 or 14 karat gold, (yellow or white) gold filled, and sterling silver, right from your computer. Write the item number down and give us a call (877) 844-2427. If you need next day, 2nd day instead of ground service, just let us know!

Hmmm, you know, I need to get myself a charm to celebrate Way-Fil's 60th anniversary.....

Patti

The Scrap Gold Drive...continued

Today, I promised to tell you how you can send in your gold, silver or platinum scrap and get a check for charity.

Start by going through your jewelry box. Old rings, broken chains and clasps, even the old metal watch bands (not the new ones) are  what we're looking for. To take it further, some old gold filled costume jewelry can be added.

Bring it by Way-Fil Jewelry (1125 West Main in Tupelo, Mississippi). We'll weigh it, bag it up and give you a receipt. Tell us what charity you want the check to be made out to and we'll see that they get it. We'll get a receipt from the refinery that will state what the actual karat weight and value (see yesterday's blog) is and how much your scrap was worth.

We'll send you a copy of the receipt for next year's tax deductions and everyone wins!

(Remember, I'm trying to help build a NO-KILL animal shelter here in Tupelo, in case you don't have a preference for where the funds are sent.)

For those who are a bit skeptical, you can do this yourself. Go to: http://www.garfieldrefining.com/private/p-resource.htm
and click on free transaction kit for all the details to do it yourself.
You'll need to send it UPS 2nd day insured.

What a gold rush this is!!!
Patti

The Scrap Metal Drive Part III

Looks like we're creating some excitement here! So gather up that scrap and let's get it going! I promised to keep blogging on this subject for a while since there appears to be a lot of interest in it.

Today's topic is...why don't I buy the gold outright from someone coming into my store? If we did, it might encourage people to sell things that didn't belong to them. Some people might view Grandma's ring as "theirs" since they are supposed to inherit it anyway. But Grandma might not see it that way! I don't want to take a chance on stolen jewelry.

The other factor is what I discussed yesterday, actual karat value. If you bring me a chain stamped 14 karat, I checked it with our machine and with the "acid" test, it still won't tell me that it really is only 5 karat not 14. I pay you and then I lose money when I sell it to Garfield. That's also one of the reasons that stores who are actually in the business of buying scrap gold usually don't offer as much...to protect themselves.

And that leads back to, if you need to sell it for cash, there are several places in town that are set up to do that if you are willing to accept what they offer. And I must add that they do offer "Top Dollar" as best they can, but if you want to help any of the local charities (and don't forget, I'm working towards a new "NO KILL" animal shelter, if you need a charity to donate to...) we'll be happy to help.

In my naive way of thinking, I figured that honest people won't bring me stolen stuff to sell for charity!   

More tomorrow on how you do it yourself!

The Scrap Metal Drive!!!

First be sure and read my blog from yesterday so you'll know what's going on today!

I just checked and gold is at $988.50, Platinum is $2,182.00 and Silver just broke at $20.00 per ounce. Let's discuss what makes up a ounce. In the precious metal world we don't use a bathroom scale. It's done in Troy ounces. Named after Troyes France, it was established as the standard unit from which other weights are derived in 1758. A Troy ounce is equal to 31.103 476 8 grams or 20 pennyweights (DWT). A pound is 12 Troy ounces. So you have to use a special scale to weigh precious metals not the bathroom or post office scale.

Now let's say that right now you have a bag of scrap gold weighs out to be 32 pennyweight (DWT) with the plastic bag. Let's say that it is stamped 14 karat gold. (By the way, it doesn't matter if it is yellow or white gold.) Pure gold is 24 karat. So your necklace is 14 parts of pure gold to 10 parts of alloys. The scrap dealer only wants the pure part and will assay it when it arrives to determine the gold content.

I'm inserting a refining report for gold at $924.00 so you can see what happens.
The metal breakdown showed that even though the gold was stamped 14 karat it only assayed out to 12.9 karat which they paid $21.48 per dwt or $671.34 (yes it is rounded up)

There was also some silver and low grade silver as well in this shipment.

Now the obvious question is...if it was stamped 14 karat how did it end up being 12.9 karat? The Federal Stamping Law allows for a variance of 1/2 karat in the fineness of the karat gold in articles that have no solder. Soldered pieces may have a variance of 1 karat.

(You can double click on the image to enlarge it.)

Do you remember yesterday's blog where I mentioned that I agreed to send in the chain and bracelet for a young man...for his college tuition? The chain and bracelet were both stamped 14 karat and weighed 51 dwt. His report and check just came in. Here is his report.                  

The chain and bracelet weight was correct but look at the karat assay. Instead of 14 karat as stamped, it turned out to be 4.7 karat with copper.

I'm using this example to show how you can't always trust the stamping. My only suggestion is when buying 14 karat gold jewelry that if the price seems to be to good to be true...beware.

Tomorrow, I'll go over why we don't buy gold "off the street".

I'll also explain how you can donate your old gold, silver or platinum to benefit local charities!

Patti

Way-Fil Jewelry's "Scrap Metal Drive"

I came across this website from the Nebraska Studies Organization...

"Recent historical studies indicate that the scrap drives were more important as morale boosters than in providing essential products for the war effort. But, the general public did get caught up in the patriotic enthusiasm."

With gas prices soaring, candidates roaring and a nation torn between war and health care, I wondered what I could do to help boost the public morale and maybe create a little excitement along the way. Well, duh...it was staring me in the face every day! The creeping of gold prices to $1,000.00 per ounce. At Way-Fil we are already letting out clients bring in scrap gold to trade for our goods and services. We simply bagged and tagged their items and sent to our refinery who would send us back a check. Our clients got new jewelry or repairs and we have money coming in. Everyone wins!

Last week a young man came in with his father to see if we could help him. Somehow the lad missed a class he had to have to graduate from ICC and he would have to attend for another semester. He didn't have the money to pay for the semester. His grandfather gave him a heavy gold chain and bracelet to sell for the cause. Since it was for school, (I'm such a soft touch!) I agreed to send his gold along with our client's even though we don't make anything or get anything in return. We'll know next week how much he got. He needed about $700.00. (And maybe he remember us when it's time to get an engagement ring!)

Now, everyone who knows me has heard my mantra about "To whom much is given, much is expected." I have been given the gift of a second life. My "Pet" project (if you'll pardon the pun!) is to build a no-kill animal shelter here in Tupelo.  But HOW?

I woke up this morning and realized I had, at my own fingertips, the perfect way to help not just the shelter, but a lot of non profit groups with this simple idea:

Check your jewelry box for pieces of broken chains, old ring mountings and yes, even gold or silver teeth! Look for old metal watch bands, too. We can send silver, gold filled or gold or platinum to the refinery.

When you come in, we'll check to see what metal the items are and weigh them in front of you. All this information goes on your receipt along with the name of the organization you want your proceeds to go to. When the check comes in, we'll make a copy of the the "return" and you can use it for a tax deduction (if your group qualifies). Hey you can even donate to your favorite political candidate this way, too!

I am sooooo excited about this idea. I'm going to work on it a little more and get all my facts checked to make sure that Tupelo can raise the roof on fund raising!!!

We'll talk tomorrow!
Patti