How to sell a gold ring?

[Adventine]

We've decided to sell my husband's wedding ring from his previous marriage. It's a plain 14k yellow gold band without any decoration or engravings.

What's the best way to sell this? In person at a local jeweler? Online (any reputable websites)?

We're not really interested in keeping it or passing it down to future heirs.

[Rob_bob]

A jeweler might resell it as a ring but might not pay you what it is actually worth?

Many coin dealers would probably buy it for it's melt value, there would be a bid/ask spread.

I would weigh it and figure out how much it is worth in gold value and see who gives you the best price.

[secondcor521]

A local pawn shop might give you the most value, since they can resell it as a ring.

The gold/silver/coin places will just weigh it and give you spot minus something.  They'll all probably be pretty close in price, and you might spend more in gas driving around than the difference.  You could call a few before going which would probably be a better way to do things.

I'd probably get a jeweler to weigh it for you, then call the gold/silver places, do the math, then see if a pawn shop will give you more.

Be prepared to be offered perhaps a fourth of what he paid for it (if he remembers).  I think we paid $300/$350 for mine and sold it for $75 or so.

[Knapptyme]

My wife inherited some rings from her uncle. I took them around to a few different jewelers to see how much they would pay for them (likely melting and/or repurposing). We got some money, but probably not worth their actual gold weight. But, really, things are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them.

Note: she also inherited some random gold Shakespeare coins from her dad. Resale value was supposedly around $2000, but I was glad to get $650.

[Metalcat]

Depends on how much hassle you want.

As others have said, it's best to find out the melt value of the gold to get a sense of what that's worth. Then if you care to, you can shop it around to jewelers or pawn shops and see if they'll offer you more than the melt value, which they might not, or they may, but only on consignment, in which case you have to wait for someone with your husband's size and taste who is willing to buy a used wedding ring despite the stigma. 

Jewelry is hard to sell. Thankfully gold rings are much higher percentage on resale than diamond rings, so that's a bonus. For most diamond rings you can only expect around 10-20%.

[sonofsven]

I got the name of a place in a nearby city from my friend who is a jeweler, this is where the jewelers and pawn shops in town sell their scrap gold (including rings) for the best price.
It was a nondescript but very secure building, one or two people would get buzzed in at a time. They had a daily spot price they paid for scrap gold and silver, they weigh it and cut you a check. They didn't advertise and there was no signage on the building.
I sold my wedding ring post divorce ;-)
I would try to find a place like that.

[yachi]

14K gold is the right alloy to use for jewelry as it holds up well to wear.  I had a coworker with a 24K insignia ring, and it wore out so much you could barely tell what it was supposed to be.  But 14K gold is really only 58% gold, with 42% alloy, so its value as gold is about half the weight of the ring.

[Adventine]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I chose the path of least hassle and sold it at a jeweler a short walk away from our house. Got a bit more than I expected. Now to invest the extra $ in stocks!