Read Kris M’s journey while working for Karats to Riches:

I am a Gold Rep with Karats to Riches starting with the company in April of 2011.  I became interested in this opportunity after hosting a gold party at my home.  At that time I was employed full time but knew the company was not in good shape.  Fearing a lay off I knew I needed a plan B.  A friend and I started this endeavor together; researching many companies before determining Karats to Riches was the best fit for both of us.

This has been a great opportunity and allowed me to build a savings account as the fear of being let go from my full time job became reality. I have met many interesting people through this business as well.  My favorite part of the job still is to tell the customer how much I can buy their gold for and watch their reaction.  I have seen tears, laughter and shock.  One particular woman brought every piece of jewelry she owned to her daughter’s party.  After testing the pieces I found that only a few pieces were gold, but because of the high gold prices I was still able to offer her several hundred dollars.  Tears started to flow, she went on to explain the financial situation she was in and how much this money would help, the whole time holding my hand.

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is regarding stones and other jewels.  Often, our guests will have gold in which they would like to sell, but it is part of a ring that has a large valuable stone, such as a diamond or an emerald.  Many times people will avoid bringing in pieces like that because there is a lack of understanding as to how that would be handled.  This is unnecessary, as we have a process for handling precious stones, which I’ll describe below.

We understand that many stones have great sentimental or tangible value.  Unfortunately, we are not gemologists or other experts in precious stones, and we do not purchase these stones.  There are options though for those that have jewelry that includes stones.

Have the stone removed by our Party Reps

All of our Party Reps come equipped with appropriate tools to remove gems and other stones from the jewelry if requested.  If the gem is valuable to you and you do not wish to sell with your gold, just let us know and we will remove the stone carefully and respectfully, and return it to you.

Give up the stone or choose to not sell the item

In some cases the stones may be so small, or so tightly integrated within a piece of jewelry that it will be too time consuming for our Reps to remove.  In this case, the Rep will let you know and give you the option of selling the gold jewelry without the stone, or to keep the item.  If we purchase the item with the stone the Rep will work with the guest to estimate the appropriate weight of the stone, as that must be removed from the overall weight of the piece as we are not able to pay for that weight.  In most cases the weight of the stones will be so minimal that we may choose not to deduct any weight off the piece, and in this case the guest will receive the value of those stones in gold weight.

In any case, the key to remember here is bring all your unwanted gold, silver and platinum, even if it includes stones you wish to keep.  Our talented and experienced Reps will discuss your options from those listed above and it will be your choice what you wish to do with the piece.  We never pressure anyone to sell any piece, so you will not feel uncomfortable in any way if you decide not to sell it, so you might as well bring it to see what we would pay!

We hope this helps and if you have any further questions please email us!