Gold Refining Service Serving MA and RI

Selling your gold can be a trying event. Mostly because now there are now so fly by night "cash for gold guys", who really will not help you understand the true value of you merchandise before you sell, so how do you calculate the value of scrap gold?

The spot gold price is really a poor indicator of the value of gold. Look around and you can see that gold sells for much more than the spot price of gold (which is only the paper price of gold on the market and is not really gold).

Scrap gold is really any gold that is not wanted or which can be turned into cash or profit and can include the following:

Gold jewelry

Gold chains

Gold fillings (dental)

Nuggets

Bars

In fact, anything that is made of gold or has gold or silver in it can be considered scrap gold.

Before you sell scrap gold you should know exactly how much actual gold you have and how much it is worth. Then you can ensure that you are getting the right price for your gold.

There is a secret formula which scrap gold dealers use when calculating the value of scrap gold, which is shown below.

These are a the steps you would take.

Separate the gold you have into their various karat fineness. Some will be 10 karat, some 14 karat, 18 karat, 22 karat or 24 karat, the purest. You might need to examine detailed numbers stamped on the gold or if there are none then have the gold examined or tested by a reputable dealer. You should keep in mind that some testing may involve the loss of some gold so this is only recommended where you have a decent amount. If it is just a ring or small chain it may not be worthwhile having it tested. It is possible that some gold is simply gold plated and therefore would hardly be worth selling as scrap gold.

10KT = 10/24 = .4167% gold

14KT = 14/24 = .5833% gold

18KT = 18/24 = .750% gold

Here are some more examples of calculating the price of scrap gold using the buyer's formula.

If you had 5.0 grams of 14KT scrap and gold was $1500 per ounce, then 1500 divided by 31.1555 equals $48.14 multiplied by .5833 (14KT) equals 28.08 per gram. $28.08 multiplied by 5.0 grams equals $140.40

If you practice it a few times you can get quite good at it.

Most people use grams for these calculations but many scrap gold buyers use pennyweight (DWT) instead of grams. There are 20 pennyweights in a Troy ounce. In this case you can substitute 20 for 31.1 to calculate pennyweight in our formula. You can also multiply a pennyweight by 1.555 to get an equivalent gram weight or divide a gram weight by the same 1.555 to get pennyweight.

Scrap gold dealers generally will not give you top value for gold. However in these uncertain times many people are looking for gold themselves so are likely to pay for gold. If you are selling scrap gold you might be better off selling privately through a company such as Williams Gem and Casting, by eBay auction, or to a refinery such as Glines and Rhodes, the oldest refinery on the East Coast. How you sell your gold depends on the amount you have to sell.

In all cases, however, calculating the scrap value of gold or any precious metal for that matter, is an important step when it comes to selling scrap gold.

Trying to sell complete and resellable pieces?

In today's economy almost no pieces are resold. Customers who still have money to buy expensive jewelry don't typically buy used yellow gold jewelry with color gem stones or brownish diamonds. If they know it is used they will not buy it. Light weight white gold jewelry with micro white diamonds are much more sellable but purchased cheap by dealers. Silver jewelry such as Pandora or David Yurman and Tiffany are also resellable but on venues such as eBay. A retailer without a license to sell these lines can get fined for doing so. In addition, there is a lot of fake high-end silver jewelry, containing little or no valuable metals.

Scrap gold is sold by weight, not by piece or style. It is important to remember when selling gold jewelry that retailers are provided with finished, new, trendy gold jewelry for as little as a 10% premium over the value of the gold/materials. As a consumer, on the other hand, you paid on average a 200%-500% premium markup on the materials. It is not the scrap dealer or your gold broker's fault if you overpaid for your jewelry so please be aware of this when selling your gold. This is an issue that frequently confuses and frustrates sellers who believe their jewelry is worth more than the actual precious metals value.