GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The ads are everywhere. Jewelers and pawn shops are looking to buy your gold, and promising to pay top dollar.

And why not? Gold prices are at a 25-year high. An ounce of pure gold is trading for more than $900.

"Your gold's worth more. You're going to get more dollar-amount," said John Head of J.A. Jewelers in Greenville.

But as News 4's Tim Waller learned first-hand, different stores offer different amounts for the same piece of gold jewelry.

Head loaned Waller an antique gold bracelet, valued at around $220. This was on a day that an ounce of pure gold was trading for $888.

The following day when gold jumped to $911 per ounce, Lou Lopes of Paradise Jewelers on Woodruff Road offered $285 for the same bracelet.

"This obviously has more weight than most," said Lopes. "Most bracelets like this are not that heavy."

But the next day, when gold jumped to $926 per ounce, Ashley Clark of Gold Collections in Simpsonville offered only $150 for the bracelet, the lowest quote so far.

"We offer the customer a price," Clark said. "And (customers) will go to other people who also buy gold, and sometimes they come back to us and sometimes they don't."

Waller also took the bracelet to Greenville-area pawn shops, and received a wide range of offers.

Luthi's Pawn offered $320 for the bracelet, which was the highest offer of all. First Cash Pawn, across from the News 4 studios, offered $220, while another First Cash Pawn store offered $200. Cash America Pawn offered $245, while Dollar Man Pawn offered $280.

So how much was the bracelet really worth?

"Joe Smith down the road may give $5 a gram. And you might have someone else giving $6 a gram or $8 a gram," said John Head.

Head said customers who hope to sell their jewelry are often confused about its gold content.

"I've just seen $900 an ounce and thought, well, I've got an ounce of high school rings, that's going to be $900. That's not it," he said.

Still, Curtis Sparks of Greenville was pleased with the offer he received from Paradise Jewelers for his gold figaro neck-chain.

"It was worth about $315," Sparks said.

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