How to sell gold jewelry, and how to tell a fair offer from a bad one

What the checker does

Buyers quote in four different ways, and the mismatch is where money disappears: one gives a total for the pile, one a price per gram, one per pennyweight, one per troy ounce of pure gold. The checker converts any of them into the same two numbers: the offer as a percentage of melt value, and the offer per gram of your metal. Melt value is weight × gold fraction × spot, the same formula as the scrap calculator, with the spot price fetched today and shown under the result.

Read the percentage, not the dollars. $600 sounds like a lot for a few rings until you see it is 45% of melt. The verdict lines are deliberately blunt: above about 90% is refiner level and rarely beaten; 80 to 90% is a good scrap offer; 65 to 80% is an ordinary counter offer that a second quote usually improves; under 65% is pawn territory. Above 100% means the buyer wants the piece, not the metal, which is its own signal.

Step 1: sort and weigh before anyone quotes you

Sort by karat

Read every stamp with a loupe and put 10k, 14k and 18k in separate piles; the stamp decoder covers 417, 585, 750 and the letters that mean plated or filled. Anything marked GF, GP, HGE, RGP or 1/20 goes in a fourth pile that is not scrap gold and should not be weighed with it. A buyer who tips the whole bag onto one scale and quotes for the lot is pricing everything at the lowest karat.

Weigh at home

A pocket scale reading to 0.1 g costs less than one gram of 10k. Weigh each karat pile and write the grams down. Deduct nothing yet; the buyer will deduct stones, steel springs and watch movements, and you want to see them do it in front of you rather than arrive with a number already shaved.

Test what is unmarked

Unstamped pieces still sell, but on the buyer's test, not your word. The home tests that mean something are density and acid; a magnet only rules out steel. If a piece fails, sell it separately or not at all, and never let a failed piece sit in the same pile as your stamped gold.

Step 2: know the melt value to the dollar

Melt value is a public number and there is no reason to walk in without it. Per gram today: 10k $59.10, 14k $82.92, 18k $106.30, 22k $129.83. Multiply by your grams per pile and add the piles; that total is the ceiling of any offer, and the refiner's cut comes off it, not off some other number. Ask any buyer two questions before they touch the scale: what spot price are you using, and what percentage of melt do you pay for 14k. A buyer who answers both plainly is usually fair; one who says "it depends" or quotes per pennyweight without converting is negotiating against a customer who does not know the math.

Spot $4,408.50 per troy ounce, September 4, 2026. The percentages are illustrations of how the same lot changes hands at different buyers, not a claim about any one of them.

Step 3: choose the kind of buyer

Mail-in refiner or online buyer

Highest payouts because there is no shop rent and no middle layer; the trade-off is a week without your gold and the need to read the terms. Buyers' own guides put their offers between 75% and 90% of melt for jewelry, and some advertise more for bullion. Look for four things in writing: a price per gram by karat, insured shipping both ways, a stated period to accept or decline, and free return if you decline. A buyer that sends a check the moment the kit arrives, before you accept, is the one to avoid.

Local jeweler

Same-day cash and a scale you can watch. The same buyers' guides put jewelry stores around 40% to 60% of melt on scrap, higher when a piece is resellable as is. Independent jewelers that do their own repairs often pay more than chain stores, because they can reuse the metal.

Pawn shop

Instant, no questions about paperwork beyond ID, and the lowest share: the shop is pricing in the chance it cannot resell. Useful when you need money today, expensive otherwise. The offer checker makes the cost visible: the difference between 45% and 85% on a $1,077.96 chain is $431.18.

Marketplace or consignment

For branded, antique or well-made pieces, selling the object rather than the metal can return multiples of melt; a designer chain or a signed vintage ring is worth more whole. It takes weeks, fees of 10% to 20% are common, and you carry the shipping and fraud risk. Get a scrap quote first so you know the floor.

Step 4: the visit or the kit

Bring your list of grams by karat. Let the buyer weigh in front of you and compare with your numbers; a scale that reads in pennyweights is fine as long as you divide by 1.555. Watch the karat test: an acid or an electronic tester on each pile, not a glance. Ask for the offer per pile and in writing, then step outside and run it through the checker. Two quotes are the minimum for anything over a few hundred dollars; three if a piece might sell whole.

For a mail-in kit: photograph every piece next to a ruler and your scale reading before it goes in the envelope, keep the tracking number, and note the deadline to decline. If the offer comes back lower than the quote per gram they published, say so; most will correct it rather than pay return shipping.

Stones, clasps and the things buyers deduct

Diamonds under about a quarter carat are usually worth more left in a resellable ring than pried out; larger stones should be removed and sold or kept separately, because a scrap buyer pays for the gold only and will remove them anyway. Steel springs in clasps, watch movements, enamel, pearls and glass are deducted from the weight, sometimes generously. Ask to see the deduction. Gold-filled and plated pieces have no scrap value beyond a few cents; the honest answer from a buyer is to hand them back, and a buyer who quotes for them as gold is quoting for something else in your pile.

Paperwork, holds and taxes

ID and a record

Most US states regulate precious-metal buyers as secondhand dealers: the buyer must record your government ID, describe the items and keep the record for police inspection, and in many states must hold the items for a set number of days before melting or reselling. That is why a shop asks for your license and why a mail-in buyer's payment can lag the assay. Refusing to show ID means the sale cannot legally happen; a buyer who does not ask is one to wonder about.

Taxes

Gold jewelry is a collectible for US federal tax purposes. If you sell for more than your basis, the gain is taxable, and the IRS caps the long-term rate on collectibles at 28%. Basis is what you paid; for inherited jewelry it is generally the value at the date of death, which for older pieces often means little or no gain when sold as scrap. A loss on personal-use jewelry is not deductible. Buyers rarely issue tax forms for jewelry, but the obligation is yours regardless, so keep the receipt with the grams, karat and price.

When not to sell as scrap

Sell whole, or wait, when the piece is signed by a known maker, is older than about 1950 and hand-finished, has a stone over half a carat, or when the sentimental value is real and the money is not urgent. Sell as scrap when the piece is broken beyond economic repair, is a single earring, is a plain band or chain from a mass producer, or when it has been in a drawer for a decade. And check the price trend only for context: timing the gold market with a few rings is not a strategy, but knowing today's number is.

Questions people ask