Selling Gold Jewelry: Scrap It or Sell the Piece?

Before you hand a gold buyer anything, work out the melt value yourself. It takes five minutes and a kitchen scale. Melt value is the floor: a scrap buyer will always pay less than it, and some pieces are worth well above it sold as jewelry. Knowing which kind you have is the whole game.

Step 1: Make sure it’s solid gold

Scrap value only exists for solid gold. Look for a karat stamp (10K, 14K, 18K) or a fineness number (417, 585, 750). Marks like GF, 1/20 12K, GP, HGE, or RGP mean gold-filled or plated. Gold-filled pieces contain only a little gold, and many gold buyers won’t take them at all; plated pieces are worth essentially nothing as scrap. Our guides to testing gold at home and gold-filled vs plated vs solid cover how to tell.

Step 2: Work out the melt value

Weigh the piece in grams (a kitchen scale that reads to a tenth of a gram is fine). Then:

Melt value = weight in grams × purity × spot price per gram

Gold is priced per troy ounce, which is 31.1 grams, so divide the day’s spot price by 31.1 to get the price per gram. For example, if gold were $2,000 per troy ounce (about $64.30 a gram), a 6-gram 14K chain would contain about 6 × 0.583 × $64.30 = $225 of gold. Gold prices move every day, so use today’s spot price, not this example. Weigh pieces with gemstones or non-gold parts separately or expect the buyer to deduct for them.

Step 3: Know what scrap buyers really pay

Gold buyers resell to refiners and keep a margin, so they always pay less than melt value. How much less varies a lot, and the independent tests are not recent, but they’re telling:

• In 2009 tests, Consumer Reports found a mail-in gold buyer offering as little as 11% of the gold’s melt value.
• In 2014, Consumer Reports advised that you’ll rarely get more than 50% of melt value for jewelry.

Offers also differ a lot from one buyer to the next, which is why knowing your own melt value matters: it tells you whether an offer is reasonable or insulting.

Scrap it or sell the piece?

Sotheby’s notes that signed pieces from the big jewelry houses command the strongest premiums, while unsigned modern pieces tend to sell close to the value of their metal and stones. So the question isn’t just “is it gold?” but “would someone want to wear this?” If the answer is yes, check what comparable pieces actually sold for (the eBay Sold Items filter is the quickest place) and compare that to your melt value. Our pricing guide walks through it, and What’s It Worth gives a free estimate from a photo.

If you sell for scrap, do it well

• Sort by karat and weigh each group, so you can check the buyer’s math line by line.
• Get two or three quotes. Local jewelers, coin dealers, and refiners that buy from the public will often differ a lot.
• Be careful with mail-in buyers. The FTC has heard complaints about buyers melting items before the seller could accept or reject the offer. Find out what happens to your gold if you say no.
• Expect paperwork. Many states license gold buyers and require them to record your ID and hold items for a period before melting (Minnesota, for example, requires 14 days), so a reputable buyer will ask for identification.
• Watch for the swap. Keep the pieces in sight while they’re weighed and tested.

If you sell the piece, price it above the floor

For solid gold, never list below melt value; that’s money left on the table. Photograph the karat stamp and any maker’s mark close up, state the weight in grams, and describe the condition honestly. On StillSparkly, you list from photos for free and pay 8% when it sells. If you’re sorting a whole box from a relative, start with what to do with inherited jewelry.

A note on taxes

In the US, gains on gold are generally taxed as a collectible, with a maximum long-term rate of 28%. Whether you owe anything depends on what you paid (or, for inherited pieces, the value when you inherited them). Check with a tax professional for anything substantial.