With the slumping economy, a lot of people are looking for ways to get some quick cash.

The experts at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute suggests two ways to do this -- selling old jewelry and going online to ask for money.

With the price of gold at about $900 an ounce, selling your gold jewelry is one way to get cash in your wallet.

"Gold is really cash today, and it's a substantial amount of cash," said jeweler Andrew Fabrikant. "But jewelry that has additional value to it other than just its gold weight will bring you more money. You can and should be able to get up to 90 percent of the jewelry that you're selling."

But be careful. Kelli Grant, writer with Smartmoney.com, says to steer clear of gold parties.

"It's something that's become very popular. Basically, it's like a Tupperware party. You invite all of your friends to the house and they bring their gold jewelry, and you have an outsider come in to weigh the gold jewelry, and give you cash on the spot.

"And really these are just bad deals because you don't have the opportunity to shop around and see if you get a better price for it," she said.

Web sites, such as Prosper.com, are another new way to go.

"You're asking other people just like you to invest in you and help you come up with that money, and you're going to pay a rate of about 6 percent on the loan -- much less than you pay with a credit card," said Grant. "And then these other consumers are getting a great rate on their cash. It takes about a week to set up an account and get some money."

Back to selling gold, if you're going to sell it yourself, make sure you shop around. I'd suggest at least two places.

You may remember earlier in the year, I shopped for some gold jewelry. I visited local pawn shops and jewelry stores, and we found quite a price spread.

I visited three jewelry stores and five pawn shops with a few gold items. The offers ranged from $50 to $120. So it really pays to shop around if you have a significant amount to sell.

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When selling gold, it pays to shop around