Quick answer
Multiply the weight of the piece in grams by the karat purity, then by the current spot price per gram, then by the payout percentage the buyer offers.
Karat sets the pure gold content: 14K is 58.3 percent gold, 18K is 75 percent, 22K is 91.67 percent, and 24K is 99.9 percent. Payout ranges commonly seen across United States buyers run 30 to 60 percent of melt at pawn shops, 50 to 75 percent at independent jewelers, 60 to 80 percent at cash-for-gold shops, and 85 to 95 percent when you sell directly to a refiner with the minimum lot they require.
Reading the karat purity table
Every offer on a piece of gold jewelry starts with the same fixed number: how much pure gold is actually inside the alloy. Karat marks answer that question. In the United States the Federal Trade Commission Guides for the Jewelry Industry (16 CFR Part 23) allow marketers to describe an item by its karat only when the fineness matches within tight tolerances, and the international ISO 9202 standard fixes the same decimal values. That means the multipliers below are the same at every buyer in the country. Only the payout percentage changes.
| Karat stamp | Millesimal fineness | Pure gold decimal | Pure gold grams per 10 g of jewelry | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10K | 416 | 0.4167 | 4.17 g | US legal minimum to be sold as “gold”; durable everyday chains and rings. |
| 12K | 500 | 0.5000 | 5.00 g | Older US costume-grade pieces; uncommon on new items. |
| 14K | 583 | 0.5833 | 5.83 g | Most common US karat for engagement rings, chains, bracelets. |
| 18K | 750 | 0.7500 | 7.50 g | Common in European and higher-end US jewelry. |
| 21K | 875 | 0.8750 | 8.75 g | Common in Middle Eastern gold jewelry. |
| 22K | 916 | 0.9167 | 9.17 g | Common in Indian and South Asian gold jewelry; some coins. |
| 24K | 999 | 0.9990 | 9.99 g | Pure gold; investment bars and coins, rare in wearable pieces. |
Two practical notes on the stamps themselves. First, US jewelry is usually marked with a “K” (14K, 18K) while European pieces often carry only the fineness number (585, 750). Both refer to the same thing. Second, an unstamped piece is not automatically fake, but the buyer will treat it as unknown karat until an acid, electronic, or X-ray fluorescence (XRF) test confirms the content. If you are unsure how buyers actually check purity, the Goldiew guide on how pawn shops test and value gold walks through each method.
The melt value formula in three steps
Every gold buyer in the country uses the same arithmetic to get from your piece to a melt value. The math is short, and running it before you walk in is the single largest source of leverage you have at the counter.
- Step 1: fine-gold weight. Multiply the weight of the piece in grams by the pure gold decimal from the karat table above. A 12-gram 14K chain contains 12 × 0.5833 = 7.0 grams of pure gold. If your scale is in pennyweights (dwt) or troy ounces, convert first: 1 dwt = 1.5552 g, and 1 troy ounce = 31.1035 g.
- Step 2: spot price per gram. Take the current spot price of gold per troy ounce and divide by 31.1035. If spot is $2,400 per troy ounce, that is $77.16 per gram of pure gold. Spot is published in real time by the London Bullion Market Association and mirrored on major finance sites.
- Step 3: melt value. Multiply fine-gold weight by spot per gram. In the example above, 7.0 g × $77.16 = $540.12. That number is the melt floor of the piece. Every dollar below it is buyer margin. Every dollar above it is a price no buyer of scrap gold will offer.
The formula never changes. The only inputs that move day to day are the weight (measured), the karat (fixed by the hallmark or test), and the spot price (public). Everything after Step 3 is the payout percentage the buyer chooses to offer, and that is the part that varies by channel.
What buyers actually pay: payout bands by channel
Payout percentages are not regulated in the US, and no single number is “the right one.” Different resale channels have different cost structures, resale strategies, and lot-size requirements, so the same 20-gram 14K bracelet routinely draws offers 30 percentage points apart depending on where you take it. The bands below reflect ranges commonly observed by consumer-affairs reporting (Better Business Bureau, FINRA investor alerts on precious metals fraud, state attorneys general consumer guides). Treat them as a starting point, not a promise.
| Buyer channel | Typical payout (percent of melt) | Why the range sits there |
|---|---|---|
| General pawn shop (outright sale) | 30 to 60 percent | Widest discount; shop absorbs testing cost, cash-flow risk, and the eventual resale margin. |
| General pawn shop (loan against the piece) | 25 to 60 percent as principal | Loan number sits below resale value so the shop is covered if you forfeit; monthly interest and storage fees stack on top under state pawnbroker statutes. |
| Independent jeweler (estate or scrap buy-back) | 50 to 75 percent | Selective; pays more for pieces that can be resold as-is (hallmarked, current styles, quality craftsmanship). |
| Dedicated cash-for-gold / scrap gold shop | 60 to 80 percent | Higher volume, tighter margin, resells directly to a refiner with contracted rates. |
| Online mail-in buyer | 55 to 75 percent | Cost of shipping insurance and return-shipping obligation baked into the discount; requires a defined offer-refusal window. |
| Refiner (direct, minimum lot required) | 85 to 95 percent | Bypasses the middlemen entirely; typically requires several ounces of pure-gold content and a business relationship or verified individual account. |
Two rules of thumb hold across every channel. Larger lots get better percentages because per-piece testing cost is amortized over more grams. And higher karats often get slightly better percentages than 10K because they contain more recoverable gold per gram, which lowers the refiner’s cost per fine ounce.
Sample resale payouts by karat and weight
The table below runs the full formula against a working assumption of $2,400 per troy ounce (roughly $77.16 per gram of pure gold). Substitute the spot on your day of sale; the multiplier method stays the same. Each cell is the middle of the payout band, not a guaranteed offer.
| Piece | Fine gold | Melt value | Pawn (45% mid) | Jeweler (62% mid) | Scrap buyer (70% mid) | Refiner (90% mid) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 g of 10K | 2.08 g | $161 | $72 | $100 | $113 | $145 |
| 5 g of 14K | 2.92 g | $225 | $101 | $140 | $158 | $203 |
| 10 g of 14K | 5.83 g | $450 | $203 | $279 | $315 | $405 |
| 20 g of 14K | 11.67 g | $900 | $405 | $558 | $630 | $810 |
| 10 g of 18K | 7.50 g | $579 | $260 | $359 | $405 | $521 |
| 20 g of 18K | 15.00 g | $1,157 | $521 | $717 | $810 | $1,042 |
| 10 g of 22K | 9.17 g | $707 | $318 | $438 | $495 | $637 |
| 10 g of 24K | 9.99 g | $771 | $347 | $478 | $540 | $694 |
Read this table with three cautions. First, the spot price moves every trading day: multiply your grams by the current price before any negotiation. Second, the payout percentages inside each channel move with lot size and karat mix, and the range on either side of the mid is real. Third, no channel offers 100 percent of melt because someone still has to test, insure, and pay the refiner. Check the scrap gold price today before you negotiate: it shows per-gram melt by karat against the live spot.
Why the same piece gets three different offers
Two buyers looking at the same 14K bracelet often produce quotes 30 percent apart. That gap is not haggling room in the classic sense: it comes from three real cost items each buyer has to cover from your discount.
Testing and handling. Every buyer has to confirm karat before making an offer. An electronic tester or XRF gun costs a few thousand dollars up front and each test consumes calibration time; acid tests are cheaper but slower and slightly destructive. A shop that tests one piece an hour will keep a wider margin than a scrap buyer that processes hundreds of grams a day.
Cash-flow and resale risk. A pawn shop that pays cash on the counter is holding the piece and the spot-price exposure until it resells or refines it. Spot can drop 3 percent in a week. The shop’s discount protects that inventory position. Refiners face the smallest exposure because they run melt cycles weekly and have contracted per-ounce rates.
Retail versus melt margin. An independent jeweler will pay above the scrap rate for a piece they can resell as jewelry (branded, hallmarked, current design) because their exit price is higher than melt. That is why an estate ring in good condition often draws a better offer at a jeweler than at a pawn shop, while a broken chain draws a better offer at a scrap buyer.
How to land at the top of the range
Three moves consistently push a payout percentage from the middle of the band toward the top, without any theatrics at the counter. Each tactic is expanded with channel-specific payout examples in the Get the Most Money for Gold Jewelry guide.
Weigh and test at home first. A jeweler’s precision scale (0.1 g resolution) costs under $30 at any office-supply store. Confirm the karat stamp with a magnifying loupe (real gold hallmarks are crisp; faded or blurry stamps often indicate a plated base metal). Knowing the grams and the karat before you leave home turns the offer from a mystery to a percentage you can benchmark on the spot.
Get three quotes on the same day. Spot moves. If you collect quotes across two weeks the numbers are not directly comparable. Three quotes inside one day, each with the same weight and the same karat, isolate the buyer’s payout percentage as the only variable. Bring the piece back to the highest bidder without any drama; most buyers will hold a quote for 24 to 72 hours in writing.
Separate scrap from resellable. A broken 10K chain and an intact hallmarked 18K designer ring should not be presented as one pile. Scrap belongs at a scrap buyer. Resellable pieces belong at an independent jeweler who can retail them. Mixing the two costs you the top of both ranges. The Goldiew guide on how to get maximum value when selling gold covers the sequencing in detail.
When your piece is worth more than melt
Some pieces of gold jewelry carry a resale value above the melt formula. Recognizing them before you take an offer prevents the most common consumer mistake: selling a designer or antique piece for scrap when a specialist would have paid a multiple.
Signed or branded pieces. Cartier, Tiffany, Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels, David Yurman, and comparable signed jewelry regularly resells at 40 to 200 percent of melt through auction houses and second-hand luxury dealers, because the brand and craftsmanship carry their own market. A discreet maker’s mark on the clasp or shank is worth checking before any scrap conversation.
Antique and period jewelry. Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco, and Retro-era pieces often carry a collector premium of two to five times melt for the design and history, even when the karat is modest (many antique pieces are 9K or 12K). Estate specialists and auction houses (Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Heritage Auctions) are the right first stop.
Gemstone-set pieces. If your piece has diamonds, sapphires, rubies, or emeralds set into it, the stones may be worth more than the gold. A GIA-graded 1-carat diamond is worth several thousand dollars regardless of the karat of the ring it is set in. A jeweler will value the stones separately; a scrap buyer usually will not.
Pre-1933 US gold coins used as jewelry. Any coin dating from 1795 to 1933 was minted from 0.900 fine gold. Many carry numismatic value well above their gold content. Never scrap one without a coin dealer’s opinion; the Goldiew reference on coin value beyond melt covers the categories that matter.
Sell to more than one buyer at once
Instead of driving from shop to shop with the same piece, you can post one free request on Goldiew and get sealed offers from up to fifteen verified US gold buyers within a few days. The request describes your piece (photos, karat, weight); each buyer responds with a firm number; you compare, pick, ship, and get paid. It is free, and it turns the offer band from a mystery into a competitive quote sheet on one screen.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between melt value and resale value?
Melt value is the raw metal value: fine-gold weight multiplied by spot price per gram. Resale value is what a buyer actually pays you for the piece, and it is always some percentage of melt (30 to 95 percent depending on channel) unless the piece has designer, antique, or gemstone value that lifts it above melt. Every offer you get is expressed, implicitly, as a percentage of melt. Buyers weighing the purchase decision will find the historical return case laid out in Is Gold Jewelry a Good Investment.
How do I convert my scale weight to grams?
If your scale reads pennyweights, multiply by 1.5552 to get grams (1 dwt = 1.5552 g). If it reads troy ounces, multiply by 31.1035. Never use avoirdupois ounces (standard kitchen scale ounces): 1 avoirdupois ounce is 28.3495 g, which is 10 percent lighter than a troy ounce, and confusing the two is a common cause of “underpayment” complaints that were actually unit conversion errors.
Do I owe tax when I sell my gold jewelry?
Yes, generally. The Internal Revenue Service treats gold jewelry as a collectible; profit above your cost basis is a long-term capital gain if you held the piece more than a year, taxed at a maximum federal rate of 28 percent (see IRS Topic 409 and the definition of a collectible in Internal Revenue Code § 408(m)). If you inherited the piece, your basis is the fair market value on the date of death. If the sale is a loss, personal-use property losses are not deductible. Talk to a tax preparer for your specific numbers.
Will a pawn shop test my piece for free?
Yes. Testing is a standard part of the appraisal at any licensed pawn shop, jeweler, or cash-for-gold buyer, and it costs you nothing. An acid test is slightly destructive (a small scratch on an inconspicuous surface); an electronic or XRF test is non-destructive. If a buyer wants to charge you for a test, walk out.
Is gold-plated jewelry worth anything at resale?
Usually no. Gold-plated pieces have a base metal (brass, copper, silver) with a micron-thin gold layer. The gold content is a fraction of a gram even on a heavy piece, well below any refiner’s cost of recovery. Marked “GP,” “GEP,” “HGE,” “GF” (gold-filled), or “1/20 12K GF” pieces are not scrap-gold candidates. Gold-filled has more gold than plated but still less than 5 percent by weight and is typically handled by specialty refiners with a minimum-lot requirement.
How do buyers know what karat my piece really is?
Three tools are standard. An acid test uses graded nitric-acid solutions that react differently to 10K, 14K, 18K, and 22K on a scratched sample. An electronic tester runs a small current through the metal and reads back a karat. An XRF (X-ray fluorescence) gun is the non-destructive gold standard for larger lots and refiner intake. Reputable buyers use at least two of the three on a high-value piece before quoting a price.
Can I sell without an ID?
No. Every US state that licenses gold buyers requires a government-issued ID and a hold period (usually 10 to 30 days) before the piece can be resold or melted. This is a precious-metals-dealer statute, not a discretionary policy. Bring a driver’s license or passport; expect the shop to photograph it and record the sale in a state or municipal database that law enforcement can query for stolen property.
What is the fastest way to get a firm offer without leaving home?
Post one free request on the Goldiew seller platform. You describe the piece (karat stamp, weight in grams, clear photos), up to fifteen verified US buyers respond with sealed offers, and you choose the best one. Payment happens after the buyer receives and confirms the piece. It compresses two weeks of driving into two days of email.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission, Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries (16 CFR Part 23): karat marking rules and disclosure standards for US jewelry.
- International Organization for Standardization, ISO 9202: Jewellery, fineness of precious metal alloys: fixed decimal fineness values for gold karats worldwide.
- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, SI Brochure and US Code of Federal Regulations Title 15: troy ounce conversion (1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams).
- Internal Revenue Service, Topic No. 409 Capital Gains and Losses and IRC § 408(m): gold as a collectible for tax purposes.
- FINRA, Precious Metals Frauds Investor Alert: consumer-protection guidance on gold-selling scams and buyer red flags.
- Better Business Bureau, Cash for Gold Study: consumer reporting on payout percentage ranges by buyer channel.