Understand Before You Sell: Determining the True Value of Your Gold
Posted by Nicholas Bufano on Mon, Sep 20, 2010 @ 01:03 PM
In light of a tough economy, some people have turned to selling their possessions, specifically their scrap gold, for some extra cash.
When you consider selling your personal gold jewelry, it’s important for you to know that sentiment, history and style do not influence what the item is worth to the gold buyer.
Buyers of gold are solely concerned with how much gold an item contains, which will be melted down, refined and resold to be made into another gold item. Many scrap gold items sold on the market are not pure gold (24 karat), but are in fact a certain percentage of pure gold.
So, before selling items that may have sentimental value to you, it is important to take the time to understand what your item is worth, and what type of return you could potentially see before actually making the sale.
Key factors to consider:
1. Purity
The purity of all gold jewelry is measured in karat. Twenty-four-karat gold, or fine gold, is considered pure gold. Pure gold is not commonly used in the marketplace because of its softness and high price, and is usually alloyed with other metals such as silver, palladium, copper or nickel to help make it more durable, and also to alter its color. If you have an item that is made of white gold, the gold was likely mixed with silver to achieve the white color; if your item is pink, the gold was likely mixed with copper.
To determine the percentage of gold in your item, locate the karat stamping. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission mandates that all gold items that are 10 karat or greater must be stamped with either “K” or “Kt.” The stamping on your item will identify the amount of gold contained in your item. The most common stampings, in addition to 24K, are:
- 22K (91.66% gold)
- 18K (75.00% gold)
- 14K (58.33% gold)
- 10K (41.66% gold)
Twelve-karat gold is exactly 50 percent gold.
2. Weight
When you submit an item for sale, the offer price will be based on its percentage of pure gold, its weight and the current gold price (The London Fix). The most commonly used units to measure gold are the troy ounce (abbreviated “ozt”), the pennyweight (abbreviated “dwt”) and the gram (abbreviated “g”).
You will want to weigh your gold items based on how the buyer prices gold to help determine what type of offer you can expect. If you do not have access to a scale that measures in troy ounces or pennyweight, you can weigh your gold in grams, and use these convenient online calculators to convert grams into the appropriate weight:
Tying it all together
Once you understand the percentage of gold contained in your items, and know the weight using the appropriate unit, use the buyer’s scrap gold price calculator to estimate the offer you will receive. Keep in mind that your actual offer may vary from the estimate, but this should give you a solid baseline for making a decision to sell.
Using this information, you can determine if your gold items are worth the offers you receive, and make an educated decision on whether or not to sell. At today’s historically high gold price, those offers just may outweigh the sentimental value of your possession.
Have you sold any scrap gold lately? Tell us about your experience, and share any tips for others who might be considering selling.
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