How To Sell Scrap Gold

Even though the economy seems like it might be on the rebound lately, the price of gold is still as high as ever. At over $1500 an ounce at the time of the writing of this article, it is still a great time to sell your old gold scrap for cash. This is one of the main reasons that selling scrap gold is still on the rise. If you want to sell gold without getting ripped off there a few things you need to do first. First of all you need to understand what qualifies as scrap gold, where and who to sell it to, and how much you should get for your gold.

What Is Scrap Gold?

Before you do anything, you need to know exactly what is scrap gold. Scrap is defined as “discarded waste material, especially metal suitable for reprocessing.” Which means basically any unwanted or leftover gold that can still be reused by smelting it down and reforging it. Some items that qualify as scrap gold:

  • Bent or broken gold jewelry
  • Bracelets or chains that are unable to be untangled
  • Casting gold and grain
  • Gold cluster rings
  • Metal alloys containing gold
  • Gold dental crowns and bridgework
  • Gold dust and sweeps
  • Damaged gold earrings
  • Gold flake
  • Gold pins/brooches
  • Gold screen and mesh
  • Gold sheet
  • Gold plating
  • Gold shot
  • Gold sizing stock
  • Gold solder
  • Gold sponge
  • Gold wire
  • Some electronic circuit boards
  • Gold plated CPUs and chips
  • Cell phone SIM cards
  • Damaged Gold coins
  • Goldsmith’s bench filings and sweeps
  • Any gold jewelery with missing stones
  • Polishing and buffing dust that contains gold particles
  • Gold catalyst from petroleum processors and the like

Figuring Out How Much Your Scrap Gold Is Worth

To figure out your scrap gold’s value you’ll need some basic math skills and a scale, preferable a jewelers scale but a standard kitchen scale will also work. Gold refiners and dealers conduct their gold transactions in pennyweights which means if you’re using a kitchen scale you will have to convert from ounces or grams. One ounce equals twenty pennyweights and one and a half grams equals one pennyweight. Once you figure out the weight of your gold scrap, you need to check the current spot price of gold which you can find on the chart on the right side of the page. The price is in ounces so divide that by 20 and you have your value in pennyweights. Also the price is for pure gold. Scrap gold is never 24 karats so you won’t get that price for it but it will give you a rough estimate to go by. Or if you want to be more accurate and you have a testing kit or you already know the karats of your scrap, use the chart here.

Selling Scrap Gold For Cash

Selling Scrap GoldSo now that you’ve gathered up your scrap gold and have figured out how much it is worth, you’re ready to pick out who you are going to sell to. For scrap gold there are really only two places you can sell to: gold refiners and gold dealers. Gold dealers are the middlemen that will buy your gold and sell it to the refiners. Often times they are not the best choice as many refiners will let you sell to them directly. If you do this you don’t have to pay the middleman fee and can get a better price for your gold.

Scrap gold refiners are those companies that you see in the commercials offering to buy your unwanted gold jewelry and scrap for cash. You can find refineries all over the place if you know what to look for. One of the easiest places to find gold refiners is online. We offer many reviews of cash for gold companies right here on the site.  You can also try your local yellow pages to see if there are any local gold refiners in your area. If you’re not happy with an offer you get from one of these online gold refiners you can always request that they send it all back and you can try another refiner.

The important thing to remember is to only deal with reputable and established companies. This becomes even more obvious with those companies that you must deal with by mail. Many reputable companies like Empire Gold Buyers will have a gold calculator on their websites so you will know in advance the amount that you are likely to receive and, more importantly, the best gold buying companies will offer a price guarantee. Following this advice can help you avoid falling for predatory companies and websites.

How To Sell Scrap GoldZachary Callahanunrated2011-09-22 10:57:07Even though the economy seems like it might be on the rebound lately, the price of gold is still as high as ever. At over $1500 an ounce at the time o…

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

L

I have about an ounce of 18K gold solder I’d like to sell. Your site states that solder is “scrap” gold just like broken jewelry, etc. Are there alloys in it that make it less valuable than other 18K materials? In other words, should I be able to expect the buyer/refiner to merely weigh it and give me an appropriate price for other 18K scrap?

Reply

Admin

Most refineries don’t care about the other alloys in whatever scrap they are melting down and if they do they don’t usually pay extra for it. So to answer your question, yes they should be able to just weigh it and give you their estimate.

Reply

Abigail Amponsah

I HAVE REAL GOLD TO SELL HERE IN GHANA BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO GO ABOUT THINGS SINCE BAD PEOPLE HAVE MADE SOME US LOOK BAD IN THE SIGHT OF PEOPLE. WELL THERE IS A REAL GOLD HERE FOR SALE, PLEASE ADVISE ME ON WHAT TO DO. THANK YOU

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Mark

Send it to me and I will take it from there!

Reply

rick

have and can get 2000 lbs of cleaned motherboards my company recycles old computers wanting to sell to a gold buyer who will stick with me and give fair price for the motherboards and other greenboard

Reply

Kristel

Rick, leave your contact information and we’ll buy it from you. If you’ll be able to continually supply us with motherboards – even better. However all this only applies if you’ll be shipping from the EU.

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