Advice on Selling Gold and Jewelry From Robert Haack Diamonds
Over the past several months, we’ve seen an uptick in visitors to our site searching for information on selling gold in Milwaukee. One of our recent visitors to our previous posts on selling scrap gold in Milwaukee was Bret Eulberg, the owner of Robert Haack Diamonds located on the corner of 76th Street and Layton Avenue in Greenfield. Bret left a comment for our readers with some advice on gold sales in Milwaukee and his store information (note to business owners – we encourage this type of interaction with readers on our website!). We asked Bret a few questions that we thought might be helpful to area consumers interested in selling gold, diamonds, or jewelry in Milwaukee. Here’s the exchange:
What advice do you have for Milwaukee area consumers who are interested in selling their gold, diamonds, or antique jewelery?
First thing, and the most important, is never ever ship anything through
the mail. Would you send cash? How can you prove what you shipped, it
will be your word against the people you sent it to. Plus, when selling
gold local, it helps out Milwaukee and our state.
Second, I have stressed this on the news many times, is you MUST shop
around your jewelry. I tell that to my customers all the time. No one can
ever claim they pay the most, as that is a flat lie. You have no idea if
another jeweler will pay more until you shop around. I personally like
antique jewelry, and I will offer more because I have a market for it.
Third, never be pressured into selling your gold. If someone is
pressuring you, it could be because you have something of value, probably
more than what you are being offered. That is why you need to shop around.
I know at Robert Haack, we encourage our customers to shop it around. I
know many come back.
Do you have any interesting stories to share? (About customers who sold their gold, diamonds, or jewelry?)
I don’t want to write a novel. 
If I had one story to tell, I would
use the one my mother-in-law told me. She was getting her nails done and
the nail person was just shooting the breeze and mentioned that she finally
sold her old gold. My mother-in-law asked where. The nail person said she
went to Robert Haack. My mother-in-law asked was she satisfied, and she
said “goodness yes! I shopped around my jewelry around town, and the
highest offer was $50. Robert Haack paid $200″ Well, after my
mother-in-law knew it was a good story, she opened up and said that her
son-in-law is the new owner.
The other little side note I would tell is if I personally feel we underpaid for an item (I personally go through our buys) I will contact the customer to come in and get some more cash. Even though the customer agreed to the price initially, if we can pay more, we do. Sometimes it is a simple math error, but customers get very excited when we call – I think we did it five times in the past two years. Now, when we over pay, we do not contact the customer. 
If someone is considering selling their gold through a mail service,
what should they be aware of?
If your package is lost, you have to prove what you had in your package.
How can you? You can’t. It is like sending cash in the mail. Plus, the
place you are sending it to, what if the person opening up your package is
a thief?
Are there any household items that contain precious metal that consumers might overlook?
Nothing that would be worth taking to a jeweler. Some computer parts and
catalytic converters have some value.
We’ve seen a lot of advertisements about selling gold lately, and that
the price of gold has been going up. How has the diamond resale market
been?
The diamond market has taken a hit of late. Selling a diamond on the
retail end is difficult, that is why we also suggest shopping around before
you buy a diamond, as many jewelers will offer you great deals, including
Robert Haack, where we don’t want to lose your business, rather earn it!
What do you do with the gold, diamonds, and jewelry that you purchase?
We do refine quite a few pieces. But, we recently added a new room to our store, where you can purchase estate jewelry by the weight of the gold, as low as
$15 a gram. Many have real gems and diamonds. The more you buy, the lower
the price per gram gets. We encourage dealer and Ebay sellers to check
often, as we add about 100 pieces a week. I also wholesale out diamond
lots to dealers across the country. Lastly, we do have 2 master
goldsmiths, which we can use your old gold to make new pieces. In fact,
you can use your gold if you want us to make you a new piece of jewelry!
Do you have any other suggestions for our readers?
You will not get paid what you paid for your jewelry. Keep in mind, that
many jewelers have a 4 to 6 time mark up. So, if it cost the jeweler $100,
they could mark it $600. Obviously, if we can buy it for $100 new, used
would have to be lower to entice the next customer to buy, which is where
our gold by weight room is a super value.
Jewelers need to make a profit, it is up to you to find out who works on a
small mark-up and who does not.
Just so your readers understand where we get most of our customers – we
ask our customers how they heard of us:
About 1/3 is from advertising, billboards, or just driving by. We get
about 25% of our business from referrals from other jewelers, including
Kesslers, as we are known as being very fair. In fact, a customer today,
said a store in a strip mall in Madison, recommended us. I would say we
have been referred by at least 14 other jewelers. About 20% is customer
referrals. The rest is they know the Robert Haack name and they trust it.
Comments
3 Comments on Advice on Selling Gold and Jewelry From Robert Haack Diamonds
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Ben on
Wed, 30th Sep 2009 9:16 AM
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Jen on
Thu, 14th Oct 2010 2:38 PM
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Milwaukee Consumer on
Fri, 15th Oct 2010 4:43 AM
I would strongly suggest checking out the Silver and Gold Exchange before selling gold or silver to ANYONE. I did a great deal of research, online and offline, and learned a lot about this business. I checked pawn shops, jewelers, “gold parties”, hotel “buying events as well as the online buyers, including the “as seen on tv” guys. I found that the Silver and Gold Exchange paid more than anyone else I could find. I liked the fact that they post the prices they pay per gram (beware of the places that quote in pennyweight/DWT) on a live price chart at http://SilverAndGoldExchange.com I also checked out their Better Business Bureau report and found they have never had a single complaint as opposed to HUNDREDS of complaints some other companies have! I recommend them 100%
Today I shopped two places – Derzon on Hwy 100 and Robert Haack. The Robert Haack price was $18.00 more than Derzon. I thought the employees at both stores were efficient and the process was easy.
Jen,
Thanks for giving us an update on your comparison shopping! We hope you continue to do so. The more data we receive from shoppers like you, the better informed our readers will be.
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