If you have any scrap gold, you can sell it, but for how much? Gold prices tend to rise along with worries of war or inflation but before you bring gold jewelry, dental fillings, teeth, nuggets, and bars to a scrap gold dealer's counter (or send it off by mail) you should know exactly what it's worth. Most scrap gold dealers keep the calculation a secret. Here is their formula.
Step 1
Separate your scrap gold into their various karat fineness (i.e. 10k, 14k or 18k). You may need a magnifying glass to see the number inscribed on the piece. If not, you may need to have the gold tested by a reputable dealer. There's also the possibility that some of the gold is actually just gold-plated, which a dealer would determine with certainty by using a chemical test. If you're uncertain, read up on How to Tell if Gold Is Real.
- If you have any gold coins, they may have a numismatic (coin) value above their metal value, based on age, rarity, and condition. Take it to a coin dealer; you may be able to get more money that way.
- Other sources for small amounts of scrap gold include: old cell phones, computer motherboards and other scrap electronic circuit boards.
Step 2
Determine the gram weight of each group by using a gram scale. If you can only weigh by the ounce, convert to grams by multiplying by 28.35 (e.g. 2 oz. = 2 x 28.35 = 56.7 grams).
Step 3
Determine today's price of gold. You can find this on the Internet, or in your local newspaper. Fine gold as of this writing is about $900.00 per troy ounce. (A troy ounce equals 31.1 grams. This never changes.) The price of gold fluctuates according to supply and demand.
Step 4
Divide today's gold price by 31.1 to get today's gold price per gram.
Step 5
Multiply by the fineness of the gold. For each group of gold, divide the karat by 24, then multiply that number by today's gold price per gram. For example, if you have 10KT gold and the current price of gold is $28.94 per gram ($900.00 / 31.1), then the price of your scrap gold is $28.94 x .4167 = $12.06 per gram.
- 10KT = 10/24 = .4167
- 14KT = 14/24 = .5833
- 18KT = 18/24 = .750
Step 6
Multiply the price per gram by the weight in grams. If you have 10 grams of 10KT gold and you calculated the price at $12.06 per gram, then your scrap gold is worth 10 x $12.06 = $120.59.
Examples
- If you have 5.0 grams of 14KT scrap and gold is $900.00 today, then $900.00 divided by 31.1 equals $28.9389 multiplied by .5833 (14KT) equals $16.88 per gram. $16.88 multiplied by 5.0 grams equals $84.40.
- Now let's say you have 15.3 grams of 10KT gold scrap. $900 divided by 31.1 equals $28.9389 multiplied by .4167 (10KT) equals $12.06 per gram. $12.06 multiplied by 15.3 grams equals $184.52.
Tips
- Scrap gold dealers will likely buy the gold from you at about 10 to 20 percent less than what it's actually worth since they must process it and still turn a profit from reselling it.
- 1000 grams or more might be bought for 10% - 20% under but those are going to be carefully negotiated deals. They usually occur between buyers and people who buy from buyers. Individuals usually have less than 50 grams. Almost never more than 100 grams.
- A very easy formula is: Market Price Per Ounce times .4 times karat content divided by 24. Then divide by 31.1 for grams or by 20 for pennyweights. The resulting price is about a 50% split after refining expense and loss. Bargain upward from there. The more desirable your material and the greater the quantity the better you can bargain the price up. Up to 20 grams try for another 10% - 15%. For 20 - 50 grams try for another 20%. If you have 50 grams or more try for another 25%.
- Example: You have 17 grams of 14K gold and the price of gold is 900 per oz.: 900x.4x14/24=210, 210/31.1=6.75 (per gram), 6.75x17=114.75. From here ask for $150 and be willing to take $135 or ask for $135 and stand firm.
- $135 increases the gram price to $7.94 and changes the after expenses split from %50/%50 to 59%/41% ($135/$94.50) in your favor making your share 44% larger than the buyer's.
- After you sell the buyer still has all the risk of a falling market. In the example above that means if the price of gold drops by 20% after you sell, the buyer's share will drop to $48.60 or 21%. That is a 49% decrease in the buyers share. The seller loses nothing because he already got his money.
- You can always try to bargain for more money but the buyer gets stuck with all the risk. You will alienate any buyer if you ask him to give so much that he risks making zero or less.
- I don't think 10 to 20% percent is realistic unless you are talking about a huge amount of gold. I think most people are going to want to give something closer to 50 to 60 percent of the full scrap value. Refining alone usually cost about 8 percent after all is said and done. This is why its best to be armed with the value of your scrap before you try to sell it.
- If you suspect there are any other precious metals mixed with the gold (such as platinum and palladium in gold fillings), it would be wise to calculate their value as well and sell accordingly.
- Most people use grams for these calculation but some gold buyers use pennyweight (DWT) instead of grams. There are 20 pennyweights in a troy ounce. You can substitute 20 for 31.1 to calculate pennyweight in our formula. You can also multiply a pennyweight by 1.555 to get an equivalent gram weight or divide a gram weight by the same 1.555 to get pennyweight.
- Use an online tool which will do this calculation for you, just enter the weight and purity (karat) of the gold.
