I'm not sure I completely agree with Ranger on his last point. For one, it is pretty tough to FIND a claim from written directions, even with GPS coordinates. Once you get into the gulches and draws, you may not get a good enough signal to truly know your position. Remember, the claim system was set up over 150 years ago. While technology has helped tremendously in the past decade or so, not everyone is fully up to speed.
If we decided to sell our claim, we have enough pics and local folks who know the claim to get a prospective buyer on it. GrammaTwoKitty was on our claim twice, and I would bet that she would have a hard time finding it next fall, if she decided to come back. The area is desert, with few trees and few landmarks. She could likely find the turn-in off the road pretty easily, but knowing whether or not she was on the claim would be less likely. Ours is 40 acres. We have worked it for 8 years. A prospective buyer would gain that hard won knowledge if he met us there. Without that knowledge, a buyer may spend several years learning. Most claims (at least in our area) sell for a couple thousand or so. There's not enough money to attract real scammers. If a seller wouldn't meet me on a claim I was looking to purchase, I would be very wary. We had walked our claim a couple of times before we bought it, but the seller was a friend of ours. When his health started failing, a phone call to us lead to a mailed check. There have been several claims sold in our area recently, for health reasons. With the gold prices down a bit, there is less interest than a few years ago. But they all sold pretty quickly.
If you get serious, look into each state's Office of Geologic Development. They have publications listing all of the gold producing areas and their output. The first rule of gold prospecting is "Look where Gold has been found before!". Our area of New Mexico was the number one producer in the state. And we are on the best "side" of the production.
Bama
