You’re watching TV and you see one of those commercials telling you that you can send in your old gold jewelry or gold coins for quick cash and you wonder how much is your gold actually worth. Well you have to know your gold value and have a clear idea of what you are selling before you can go to a buyer. I will tell you how a jeweler, scrap gold dealer, or gold refiner calculates your gold’s value.
Gold transactions are conducted in pennyweights, with 20 pennyweights, or DWT, equal to 1 troy ounce of gold. The chart on the right will tell you the current spot price of gold. The price changes constantly so when you actually go in and get an appraisal, it probably won’t be the exact value but it will give you a ballpark figure to work with. The gold price value is in troy ounces so you have to do some simple math to figure out how much the dealer will offer. Divide the price of gold that you just got by 20 and that will give you the value in pennyweights.
Next you will need to separate your gold into different piles by karats. So all the 24 karat gold in one pile and all the 18 karat in another and so on and so forth.
Now you will have to figure out how much your gold weighs. If you have a jewelers scale then it will be easy but most of us don’t have one of those laying around the house. You can use any scale that uses grams and convert it to pennyweights. 1.5 grams = 1 pennyweight and and 1 kitchen ounce = 18.23 pennyweights.
Then you will have to multiply each pile by one of the following values:
Karat | Percent
24 100%
22 91.7%
18 75%
14 58.3%
12 50%
8 33.3%
6 25%
1 4.2%
Expect that the jeweler or dealer will try to keep anywhere from 10-30% of the value for himself. The price will also depend on how much you are selling. Hopefully you will be able to negotiate the price in your favor with a strong knowledge of what the piece is actually worth. It will also make it easier to compare different appraisals.
Tips for Getting a Good Deal
- Ask if the refiner you are trying to sell to is a member of International Precious Metals Institute and if you’re dealing with a jeweler ask if they are a member of Jewelers of America or the American Gem Society, they are a reputable organizations.
- Pawnbrokers and other dealers that buy valuables like gold are required to get your photo id to report to the local district attorney or the state attorney general’s office. So if they don’t ask just walk away, you don’t want to deal with them.
- Don’t accept the first check from one of those online gold buyers that require you to send in your gold in an envelope – most of the time they will offer you much less than the gold is worth. That’s why you should always do your research and know the value of your gold before. That way if their offer is lower than what you know your gold is worth and they won’t increase their offer when you call them up, you can just request your gold back since you don’t have to accept their offer. Do be aware though that some gold refiner companies will have a time limit that after a certain date without contact from you, they will smelt down your gold anyway.
If you follow these tips and do your research on the gold value, you can sell old gold jewelry, scrap, and coins for a nice lump sum of cash. Just remember that not all gold refiners are upfront with how much they will offer you. Don’t fall for advertising claims like “20% more cash for your gold”. It’s usually 20% more from their first offer which is pathetically low to begin with.
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