Lab Grown Diamond Deals

FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR JEWELRY WILL SELL FOR

HOW TO FIGURE OUT THE SELLING PRICE OF YOUR SCRAP GOLD AND JEWELRY

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How To Figure Out What Your Jewelry Is Worth Selling

Want to sell your gold and jewelry?

Want to know how much you’d get?

You can pretty much calculate how much it would sell for, by figuring out exactly what you have, and how much you have.

What you’ll need is this:

Use the jeweler’s loupe and look at the stamps inside the shanks and clasps and tabs. Divide them all up into separate piles; i.e. 18k, 14k, 10k, Silver, Platinum, Other (Titanium, Steel, Tungsten). Don’t include wrist watches, unless they’re solid gold, no one wants them. And the OTHER pile, discard; you can’t sell those items.

Loupe Your Jewelry For The Karat Stamp

If you don’t know what the stamp is (see my gold stamp post here), or if it doesn’t have one, you’ll have to use the acid tester to determine if it’s gold, plated, filled, fake

Look for signs of the gold rubbing off, fading, chipping, tarnishing… Like the items below:

Examples Of Fake Gold

Once you have separated your goods, it’s time to weigh them.

Separate Your Jewelry Into Metal Types

Put the digital scale on DWT (pennyweight)…

Digital Scale Pennyweight Gold DWT

This is what jewelers use to determine your scrap metal value. I say scrap, because that’s what you’ll get. Your gold is used, worn, and full of impurities (which makes it weak and brittle). It will have to be sent to a refinery to clean and purify before it can be used again (which takes a big chunk out of the value).

Weight each pile, and write the weights down.

Weight Your Jewelry On A Digital Scale

Once you have all of that, head on over to Kitco (not affiliated). Kitco is one of the leading authorities on the live gold market in the world. That’s where you’ll find updated gold prices, and what your jewelry is worth.

Change the OUNCES to DWT at the top of their website, then input your weights to reflect the value next to it.

As shown in my example below:

Gold Calculator On Selling Your Jewelry

Don’t get excited yet…

That value you see ($4,209.90) IS NOT WHAT YOU’D GET! That’s the gold market value for purified gold, given to jewelers that have a gold selling account (meaning, they own a jewelry store and have an membership to sell).

But there’s more…

You have to remember, that the goods you’re selling is NOT SOLID GOLD. Pure gold is 24k; 100%. The items most people have are either 10k, or 14k. Meaning those are only partially gold, mixed with alloys to make the gold stronger and more durable. To clean gold, it will have to be melted down, separated from the alloys, then purified.

Look at the 14k gold below:

Only 58 Percent Of 14k Is Gold

Only about 58% of your goods is gold. Used gold. The rest (the alloys) are not worth anything. So all of a sudden your huge value starts to drop.

Now you can divide out your dollar amount into 58%, deduct the jeweler’s overhead, shipping fees, refinery costs, purifying… And you start to see the real picture of what your items are worth.

A simpler way, is to just use Kitco’s gold calculator and input 74% into the PRICE ADJUSTMENTS widget. That gets you real darn close to what you can sell your jewelry for:

Figure Out What A Jeweler Will Pay For Your Gold

So you see, my 14k gold, which originally was valued at $2,612.65, drops down to $688.53. Big difference, eh?

And selling all 3 of my piles (14k gold, silver, platinum), would bring me about $1,113.83. That’s what I would get, going into a jewelry store, and selling my items… ALMOST!

Some jeweler’s don’t need the gold, or silver, and some don’t have the cash on hand. Meaning, they may offer way less depending on their demand.

More things to keep in mind:

  • These prices are for the METAL only. Jewelers don’t pay anything for gemstones or small diamonds.

Jeweler’s will pay more for bigger diamonds, or wedding sets. They may be able to salvage the stones, or even resell them as estate, or pre-owned pieces. That’s something you’d have to see a jeweler for. Generally, the value you’d get is about 20% of the retail value of the item (depending on the condition, and if the stones are decent quality and not damaged). So a $3,500 engagement ring might get you around $700.

That’s the gist of it…

Now you can figure out what a jeweler would pay you too.

Cheers! :)

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