Where to Sell Gold for the Best Price

Prepare your gold before you ask for a quote

The best offers go to sellers who know their melt value before walking in. Sort the pieces by karat, weigh each group in grams, and you can check any offer in a minute.

1. Sort by stamp: 10K or 417, 14K or 585, 18K or 750, 22K or 916, and 24K or 999. Put unstamped items in a separate pile for testing.
2. Set aside anything marked GF, GP, HGE, RGP or with a fraction such as 1/20 12K. These are gold-filled or plated, with only a thin layer of gold.
3. Weigh each karat group on a gram scale. Kitchen scales usually read avoirdupois ounces of 28.35 grams, not troy ounces of 31.10 grams, and treating that reading as troy ounces overstates what you have by almost 10%.
4. Remove or note stones. Buyers deduct the weight of stones, and most pay nothing for small diamonds or colored stones in scrap.
5. Calculate melt value for each group: grams × purity × the price per gram of pure gold.
6. Separate bullion coins and bars. They are priced from spot and should never be weighed in with scrap.
7. Bring government-issued ID. Most licensed buyers are required to record it.

Gold-filled and plated pieces

A “1/20 12K GF” stamp means one-twentieth of the item’s weight is a 12-karat gold layer. On a 20-gram gold-filled bracelet, that is one gram of 12K alloy, or half a gram of pure gold. Plated items carry even less, often too little to refine. Buyers pay for these, if at all, at a small fraction of solid gold rates.

Dental gold and unmarked pieces

Dental crowns and bridges are made from alloys that vary widely and often contain palladium or platinum alongside gold, so no karat figure applies. Buyers test them and pay on the measured content. The same goes for unstamped jewelry: expect a test before any offer, and ask for the test result in writing so you can compare it with a second buyer’s reading.

Chains, clasps and solder

A 14K chain may have a steel spring inside its clasp, and repairs are often made with lower-karat solder. Hollow chains and rope chains weigh far less than they look. Expect a buyer to deduct for clasps or test the solder points, and weigh chains without their pendants.

What a buyer should pay: a worked example

Payouts are quoted as a percentage of melt value, so the melt figure is the anchor for every negotiation. The table uses an example price of $3,000 per ounce, which is $96.45 per gram of pure gold.

On this small lot the difference between an 80% and a 90% buyer is $112.85. On a larger estate lot the same ten points can be worth thousands.

Why a shop’s price per gram can mislead

Signs that say “we pay $X per gram” usually mean per gram of a particular karat, often 14K, not per gram of pure gold. Some buyers quote per pennyweight instead, a unit of 1.555 grams. Convert every offer to a percentage of melt value before comparing; the gold price per pennyweight page handles that unit.

Selling coins and bars near spot

Bullion is a different trade from scrap. A 1 oz coin or bar in good condition is valued from spot, and the buyer’s bid typically sits a small percentage below it. During periods of heavy retail demand some buyers bid close to spot, or occasionally above it, for popular coins they can resell quickly. Damaged, cleaned or scratched coins may be bought at melt instead. Recognized products are listed on the gold and silver coins page with their metal content.

Karat by karat

If most of your gold is one karat, the karat page shows the current melt value per gram. The 14K gold price page covers the most common karat in American jewelry.

Questions to ask every gold buyer

A reputable buyer answers these without hesitation. A buyer who won’t is telling you something.

• What percentage of melt value do you pay for this karat, and what gold price are you using right now?
• How do you test? Acid testing on a touchstone leaves a small mark; X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers are non-destructive.
• Will you weigh the items in front of me on a legal-for-trade scale, in grams?
• Are there fees for testing, refining, shipping or processing that come off the offer?
• How and when do you pay: cash, check or bank transfer?
• For mail-in services, how long do you hold my items before melting if I decline the offer, and who pays return shipping?

Mail-in offers

Mail-in buying can work, but you give up control of your gold before seeing an offer. Photograph each item on a scale before shipping, insure the package for its full melt value, and keep the tracking number. Know the decline window and the return terms in writing.

Pawn shops and cash-for-gold counters

Pawn shops lend against gold as well as buy it, and they need margin for the risk of holding items, so their purchase offers tend to be lower. A pawn loan is a separate transaction: you get part of the value as a loan and can redeem the item by repaying it with interest. If your goal is to sell outright, compare the pawn shop’s purchase offer with at least one refiner or dealer.

State and local rules for secondhand buyers

Many states and cities license precious-metal buyers and require them to record the seller’s ID and a description of each item, report purchases to local police, and hold items for a set period before melting them. That is why some shops take a thumbprint or photograph items, and why a buyer may not melt your jewelry for several days.

Records to keep after you sell

The sale is not quite the end of it. Good records make the tax side simple and protect you if a question comes up later.

What to keep

Keep the buyer’s receipt showing the date, the weight and karat of each group, the gold price used and the amount paid. Keep the original purchase invoice, too, since your gain is measured from what you paid, including premiums. For inherited gold, the starting value is generally the fair market value on the date of death, so a published gold price for that date is worth recording.

Form 1099-B in general terms

Dealers must file Form 1099-B with the IRS for certain bullion sales, depending on the product and the quantity sold in a transaction. Many sales, including most jewelry sold as scrap, do not trigger a form. Whether a form is filed or not, a gain on gold held as an investment is taxable, and long-term gains are taxed as collectibles at up to 28%. The tax page covers state rules as well.

Before your next sale

The scrap gold calculator works out melt value and payouts for mixed karats at once.

Offers are always tied to today’s gold price, so a quote from yesterday afternoon may not stand this morning. Ask how long an offer is good for before you leave to compare.