One evening, my wife got out her jewelry box and removed all the baubles she no longer wanted — single earrings, some broken chains, dented wrist bands, a couple of old watches that didn’t work, and miscellaneous.

With gold at $869 an ounce, maybe they’d fetch a good price from someone who buys jewelry for the gold content alone. She said a friend sold several pieces of her old jewelry and walked away with more than $700.

She asked me to find a place that buys gold and take them in.

I took them to Main Street Coin Co. in downtown Visalia, where the store motto is “Honesty is Everything.”

Very comforting.

The lady in front of me had just brought in a gold wrist band and one earring. She walked out with $315.

Wow!

Store owner Bruce Miller said he’s been getting a lot of jewelry sellers these days.

“We’ve had six people waiting in line before,” Miller said.

It can take several minutes per piece to be sure it’s really gold (or sterling silver), so he advises people to be patient. It’s fascinating to watch. First, Miller uses a magnet. If it sticks, it’s not gold. Rejected.

Using a magnifying glass, he examines the piece for the jeweler’s stamp stating the gold content. Most gold jewelry is 10K (41.7% gold) or 14K (58.5%). Some is 18K (75%), or higher. K stands for carat.

Then the true test: He’ll place a drop of a chemical on the piece and get out his magnifier. If it seems to test OK, it’s a keeper and he’ll buy it.

When he has enough scrap gold saved up, he’ll sell it to a wholesaler who melts it into pure gold.

Gold got as high as $1,002 an ounce in March. The price has dropped, but people keep coming in.

“It’s the American way,” Miller joked. “Buy high and sell low.”

If the jewelry is attractive but has very little gold in it, Miller will advise the customer to try selling it as jewelry, not scrap, to get a higher price.

By the way, those late night TV ads and Internet sites that offer to buy jewelry for the gold should be avoided. They pay too little per pennyweight, Miller said.

After calculating the amount of gold in the jewelry, Main Street Coin will pay 55% of the day’s spot price. That may seem like a heavy discount, Miller said, but there’s time, overhead and market risk to factor in. The price of gold could tumble by the time he sells it to the wholesaler.

Much of the jewelry I brought in this morning looked like gold but really wasn’t. But some was the real thing.

I walked out with $434.

It’s not my money, of course, it’s my wife’s. Maybe she’ll take us out to dinner.