The Gold Mine — Local services in Virginia Beach

I originally went into The Gold Mine to ask about a piece of gold jewelry I had. I really didn't know much about gold, prices or even how a pawn shop worked. Shirley was friendly and engaging and made me feel comfortable right off the bat. She told me how much the piece was worth in weight and even suggested I try to sell it for more as it was, that she would be there if I wanted to come back. I went back a couple of days later and had them size and straighten 2 rings I hadn't worn in years. The repairs were perfect and very reasonably priced. Recently, I needed to sell some jewelry, sentimental jewelry. I went to another, highly advertised, store and was completely unimpressed. The service was fine, the prices were ok....I just expected more from their advertising and website. I decided to leave there and go see Shirley again. Her honesty, respectful approach and understanding of more than just the jewelry, sets The Gold Mine experience apart. Shirley will tell you if you will get more somewhere else (ebay, etsy, an antique dealer). She is kind and tells you that she won't disrespect the emotions attached to a piece, if she can't give you a great price (wedding ring). She is knowledgeable, caring, fair and no nonsense. Pawn shops do not buy a piece for the piece itself, they mostly buy the piece for melt value. That is hard to hear sometimes, but, Shirley and her team are honest, up front and understanding. I will never take my business elsewhere. They also have beautiful jewelry, watches, pendants, etc, for sale in a clean, lovely, safe showroom....at really...

EDITED-REPLY

Be careful selling gold here, brought in a couple pieces with current market value of $420, and $195 is their offer, which I believe is about %45.

I can assure anyone reading this, there are places not far from here that offer closer to %90, in fact I believe I've had better offers from pawn shops.

Edit: I'm unsure what you're suggesting here, either I'm incapable of correctly working the simple math consisting of the current market value of 10k gold, 14k gold, multiplied by the weight of the material to the hundredths of a gram (even rounded down to tenths), excluding minor stones, or that I'm intentionally fabricating this scenario, to what end exactly? Is there some benefit to me that you or anyone else could name?

Nah, well I can't think of any, I cannot figure the math with any margin of error or reasonable stone exclusion which would make your offer anywhere close to %65, and %85 isn't even in the same universe.

I know I didn't make any mistakes with this, I did no guessing, I specifically checked for this very reason.

Maybe you made a mistake, maybe you were preying on someone in a bind and had no other viable option...

My husband bought my engagement ring from The Gold Mine in 1985. We also bought our wedding bands there. Fast forward to 2021. I’d always wanted to have my engagement diamond reset in some way that would be very meaningful to me. Over the years we had four dogs we adored go to the big dog house in the sky. All four were cremated. I learned when we cremated the last one that you can now have diamonds made out of your pets’ (or your loved ones’) ashes. Yes, that is a real thing! Who knew ?!? So I had diamonds made from these dogs who had defined our married lives for the new ring and I only trusted the people at the Gold Mine to do the ring. Mike and Kirsten provided great service and for a very reasonable price. They researched the best way to give me what I wanted and met my every expectation! I told them what sort of design I wanted and they made it happen. Mike’s workmanship is outstanding. The ring is everything i’d hoped for and more. The final product ...