Whether your treasure makes you rich depends on who you ask

The gold rush is on.

Selling unwanted gold has become part of popular culture since the late Ed McMahon pitched the buy-by-mail outfit Cash4Gold on television commercials. Now you don't need to mail away your gold to sell it. You can find a buyer almost anywhere you look: At coin shops, jewelry shops, pawn shops, special gold-buying chains, house parties, and even a place called Gold Buyers at the Mall (Lindale Mall).

With gold prices recently crashing the $1,400-an-ounce barrier, we checked some local buyers to see where the best prices were paid.

The difference in offers seems to validate the premise that nothing beats shopping around to get the best deal. especially when you're selling a commodity worth about $1,387 per ounce on Wednesday.

Three articles were submitted to each buyer. One was a white gold wedding band. Another was a diamond-studded gold award ring with a corporate logo. The third was an antique gold stop watch. None of the buyers were told we were conducting research for an article.

Here's what we found in a trip on Nov. 26 when everyone else was out Christmas shopping.

C.R. Collectibles, 529 Fifth Ave. SE: Offered $140 for the two gold rings and indicated no interest in the pocket watch, determining its case was made from gold plated metal rather than solid gold. The buyer weighed and tested all three articles, but didn't provide a written quotation.

The Gold Estate, 500 First Ave. SE, (also located at 860 22nd Ave., Coralville) offered $143.83 for the two rings. The Gold Estate declined the watch, also determining it was gold plate after a test. An added touch: The buyer provided a business card with the quotation with the date, and indicated how long the quote was good.

Marion Coin Shop, 720 10th St., Marion: Offered $180 for the two rings. The buyer wasn't able to find the pocket watch listed in the reference guide on hand. He said it might be worth $50 in mint condition, but said it appeared to be broken and was definitely made from gold plated metal. No written quote was provided.

Be's Coins, 85 N Center Point Road, Suite 20, Hiawatha: Quoted $256 items for the two rings and the pocket watch. Be's Coins consulted reference guides to determine the origin and value of the watch. They determined it to be a 1883 model with a gold plated case in good condition worth about $75. They said the watch would likely work properly with nothing more than a professional cleaning. No written quote was provided.

Cash4Gold, Pompano Beach., Fla.: $77.53 for the two rings. Cash4Gold provided a written appraisal: 2 10-carat gold rings with a DWT weight (penneyweight) of 10.26, at a unit price of $7 per penneyweight, for a total price of $71.77. It listed the four .09-carat diamonds separately at $1.44 each, for a total price of $5.76. The Cash4Gold quote was provided on Dec. 15, about 10 days after the packet was mailed.

(The pocket watch was not sent to Cash4Gold because the mailer the company provided would not have protected the glass face of the watch).

None of the local gold buyers placed a separate value on the diamonds.

The market price of pure gold has only a limited relationship to the prices paid for scrap gold, buyers explained. They generally resell their gold to other buyers, who also expect to make a profit on the deal.

Pure gold - 24-carat gold - is too soft to be used in jewelry. Our 10-karat gold rings were 41 percent pure gold, according to one buyer at The Gold Estate, and would have to be reprocessed in order to be made into new jewelry or something else.

Be's Coins even went a step further, telling us our white gold wedding band was 9.35-karat and the diamond-studded award ring was 10.45-karat gold.