What to Expect When Selling Your Old Jewelry
Another way to make some cash is to sell your jewelry for its scrap value. This means you’re selling it only for value of its materials. It will be disassembled and melted down into a bullion. This is the easiest way to sell your jewelry. To do this you have to go to a gold buying store with your jewelry or mail them off. They will usually make you an offer immediately. Here is a quick rundown of what returns you might see depending on the market from Bob Frick at Kiplinger:
When you sell gold coins or bars, you should expect to receive at least 90% to 95% of the current market value. But with gold jewelry, you’re likely to get only 70% to 80% of the melt value. The difference reflects the dealer’s profit, plus the cost of melting and refining your gold and turning it into new gold jewelry or bullion.
You should know what kind of scrap value you’re working with before you do this. You should bring your gold and silver items to a local metal buyer for appraisal first and it up to you decide to sell it there or not suggested Steve Gillman at The Penny Hoarder. If they make you an offer you still have the option to shop around for the best deal.
The American Gem Society offers some simple steps if you want to determine the scarp value on your own:
- Look up today’s spot value in the newspaper or internet. This will be quoted in $ per ounce.
- Determine the item’s weight . Pennyweights (dwt) and grams are both used in the trade. Re-figure spot gold per dwt or per gram.
- 20 dwt = 31 grams = 1 troy ounce
- Figure the purity of the item. Fourteen-karat (14K) gold is .585 pure gold. 18K = .750 or 75% So, if you have 10dwt of 14K gold at $435 per ounce:
- 10dwt X . 585 X $21.75 = $127.23
- Now for the variable part. The buyer will pay only a percentage this figure, because of the refining costs and overhead associated with gathering up enough gold to sell to the refinery. They are also speculating on the future gold value, which may be less than it is today. Expect to be offered less than 50%.
You can check the gold price at goldprice.org . To get estimate of how much bullion is in your gold or silver jewelry check out Bullion Spot Price Calculator. Deborah Jacobs at Forbs say selling individual diamonds gets trickier:
…selling your diamond can be a major headache. Unlike gold, which has a quantifiable melt value, resale prices for diamonds have no one objective measure, making it easy for inexperienced sellers to become confused and overwhelmed
It is not advised to sell a loose diamond without knowing more about it. The fast and easy method is not always the best. It is best to get a few appraisals. Try selling your jewelry in an actual jewelry and not scrap.
If you have any questions, please feel free to visit our store Lincroft Village Jewelers at 657 Newman Springs Road in Lincroft, NJ 07738 or call us at 732-842-7001.