Quick Answer
Know your melt floor, get three quotes, then negotiate
Calculate your gold’s melt value before speaking to any buyer: weight in grams divided by 31.1, multiplied by today’s spot price, multiplied by purity. Collect at least three competing offers from different buyer types (coin dealer, online buyer, refiner). Show the offers to your best prospect and ask them to beat it. Avoid pawn shops, cash-for-gold kiosks, and any buyer who quotes a flat dollar-per-gram without referencing today’s spot price.
Most sellers of gold leave money on the table not because they chose the wrong buyer, but because they walked into a conversation without knowing their floor. Once you know what your gold is worth at melt, you can turn every buyer interaction into a negotiation instead of a guessing game. This guide gives you the full method: calculate your floor, collect competing offers, negotiate, and avoid the traps that quietly cut payouts by 20 to 40 percent.
Why most sellers get less than they should
The gold market is transparent at the wholesale level. Spot price is published second by second on the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) fix, on Kitco, and on Bloomberg. The problem is that most retail sellers never look at that number before accepting an offer. A buyer who offers $38 per gram when 14-karat gold’s melt value is $52 per gram is offering 73 cents on the dollar. Sellers who do not know their floor cannot recognize that gap.
The second issue is seller behavior. Many people walk into a single shop, accept the first offer, and leave. Gold dealers know this. A single-quote transaction gives a buyer no incentive to compete, and competition is the entire mechanism that drives offers up.
The method here addresses both problems directly.
Step 1: Calculate your melt floor before any buyer conversation
Your melt floor is the minimum theoretical value of your gold based on its weight and purity. Buyers pay below melt (they need a margin to profit), but your floor tells you how wide that discount is and whether an offer is fair or predatory.
The formula uses three inputs: weight in troy ounces, the current spot price, and the purity percentage of your gold.
Convert grams to troy ounces. One troy ounce equals 31.1034768 grams. If your piece weighs 15 grams on a kitchen scale, divide by 31.1 to get 0.482 troy ounces.
Find today’s spot price. Check the live spot price on Kitco or the LBMA website at the moment you calculate. Spot moves throughout the trading day. Use the bid price, which is what buyers pay for physical gold, not the ask.
Apply the purity multiplier. Karat ratings translate directly to purity percentages. The table below shows the conversion for the most common karat ratings found in US jewelry.
| Karat marking | Purity % | Multiplier | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24k | 99.9% | 0.999 | Bullion and fine jewelry |
| 22k | 91.7% | 0.917 | American Gold Eagle coins |
| 18k | 75.0% | 0.750 | Fine European and designer jewelry |
| 14k | 58.3% | 0.583 | Most common in US jewelry |
| 10k | 41.7% | 0.417 | Minimum legal karat in the US |
Source: FTC Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries, which sets the legal karat disclosure standard in the United States.
The full formula: Melt value = (weight in grams ÷ 31.1) × spot price × purity multiplier.
Example: a 14k gold bracelet weighing 20 grams, with spot at $3,200 per troy ounce.
(20 ÷ 31.1) × 3,200 × 0.583 = 0.643 × 3,200 × 0.583 = approximately $1,200 melt value.
Any offer below $900 for that bracelet (75 percent of melt) warrants a serious look at other buyers. Any offer below $600 (50 percent of melt) is a low-ball from a buyer counting on your lack of information.
Step 2: Identify what you have (not just the weight)
Melt value is not the only number that matters. Certain pieces command a premium above melt. Identifying those before you sell changes the channel you should use and the price you should accept.
Recognized bullion coins. American Gold Eagles, American Gold Buffalos, Canadian Maple Leafs, South African Krugerrands, and British Britannias trade close to spot at almost any coin dealer. Their purity is government-certified, they need no assay, and there is a liquid secondary market for them. Do not let a bullion dealer treat a recognized coin like scrap gold.
Name-brand bullion bars. Bars from PAMP Suisse, Valcambi, and Argor-Heraeus with intact assay cards carry a small premium because they are easy to verify and resell. A damaged or out-of-assay-card bar loses that premium.
Designer or estate jewelry. A Cartier bracelet or a Tiffany ring may be worth several multiples of its melt value to a collector or secondary luxury market buyer. An estate jewelry specialist or an auction house focused on fine jewelry will get you more than a refiner who will melt it regardless.
Numismatic coins. Rare dates, low-mintage coins, and coins in high condition grades have collector value on top of metal content. The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) population reports show how scarce a given coin is. A coin dealer who buys bullion may lowball a numismatic piece if they are not the right specialist.
For detailed guidance on selling recognized bullion, see our guide to selling gold bullion.
Step 3: Match your gold to the right buyer channel
Different channels serve different types of gold. The table below compares the five most common options a US seller will encounter.
| Buyer type | Best for | Typical payout vs melt | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coin or bullion dealer | Recognized coins and name-brand bars | Closer to spot (spreads vary) | Same day |
| Online mail-in buyer | Scrap jewelry, lower-value pieces | Competitive on scrap, lower overhead | 3 to 7 business days |
| Refinery direct | Large quantities of scrap (100+ grams) | High on scrap, low or no premium on coins | Varies, often 7 to 14 days |
| Estate or fine jewelry buyer | Designer pieces, intact sets | Can exceed melt significantly on premium pieces | Varies, may require appraisal |
| Pawn shop | Speed when cash is needed today | Often 40 to 60 percent of melt (industry-reported range) | Immediate |
Payout percentages for scrap categories are industry-reported estimates based on publicly available dealer comparisons; actual offers vary by location, volume, and market conditions. For detailed guidance on mail-in buyers, see our sell-gold-online guide.
Step 4: Collect at least three competing offers
This step is where most sellers shortchange themselves. A single offer is not a market. Three offers from different buyer types creates actual competition.
Why three? Two offers gives you a high and a low with no tiebreaker. Three offers lets you see a pattern: are they clustered near the same number (suggesting a fair market) or is one outlier much lower (suggesting the low bidder is counting on your ignorance)?
Which three to target. Do not get three quotes from three pawn shops in the same town. Get one from a coin dealer, one from an online mail-in buyer (they will send a prepaid shipping kit and make an offer after weighing and assaying), and one from either a refinery direct or a second coin dealer in a different city. The channels compete on different margin structures, which creates a wider spread of offers to compare.
Do not reveal your other offers during the quote process. Ask each buyer for their best offer on the pieces you describe. At that stage, saying “I have an offer from X” before you get their number may cause them to anchor to that number rather than give you their independent best price.
Record the offers in writing. Get each offer on paper or email before you accept anything. Some verbal offers shrink when you come back an hour later to finalize.
If you would rather not chase three buyers yourself, you can post one free request on the Goldiew marketplace and reach up to 15 verified buyers at once. Offers are sealed, meaning each buyer submits their best price without seeing what competitors offered, which is exactly the competitive dynamic this step is designed to create.
Step 5: Negotiate with the best buyer
Once you have your three offers, return to the highest bidder and show them the second-highest. Ask if they can improve their offer. Most dealers will tell you they cannot move, but the information still matters: if their offer is already substantially above the runner-up, you know the market has spoken and you are near the ceiling. If the two top offers are close, the top bidder has a reason to move a small amount to close the deal.
Volume helps. If you are selling multiple pieces, a dealer who prices each piece individually may give a better aggregate number for the full lot. Fewer transactions means lower per-unit handling cost for the buyer, and some of that savings flows back to you.
Timing matters in a rising market. Spot price changes throughout the trading day and across weeks. If you have flexibility, selling when spot has risen meaningfully (rather than on a down day after a drop) improves your floor automatically. Do not try to time the market for long periods, but if you are flexible by a day or two, a quick look at a two-week spot chart can show whether you are selling near a recent low.
Know when to walk. If the best offer after negotiation is below 70 percent of melt value for jewelry or below 95 percent of spot for recognized bullion coins, there is likely a better buyer you have not found yet. The FTC’s consumer guidance on selling gold recommends getting multiple offers before accepting any, a principle that holds regardless of what any single buyer says about urgency.
Five traps that cut your payout
The method above works. These are the most common ways sellers bypass it and leave money behind.
Trap 1: Accepting a flat per-gram rate without checking spot. Some buyers quote a flat dollar-per-gram regardless of the live spot price. If they said $35 per gram six months ago and spot has risen 20 percent since, you are now getting a 20 percent discount you cannot see. Always check today’s spot before any conversation and calculate your melt floor fresh each time.
Trap 2: Paying for an “assay” and then accepting less. Some buyers offer to test your gold for a fee, deduct the assay cost from the offer, and then quote a number below melt. A reputable buyer absorbs testing costs in their spread. If a buyer charges you to evaluate your gold before making an offer, get the offer from someone else first.
Trap 3: Selling to a cash-for-gold kiosk in a mall or airport. These operations have high foot traffic, high overhead, and a customer base that generally does not know their melt floor. That combination produces low offers. They are not scams in the legal sense, but they operate on margins that assume sellers have not done the calculation in this guide.
Trap 4: Feeling pressured to decide immediately. “I can only hold this offer for an hour” is a sales tactic, not a market fact. Gold is a liquid commodity. Any buyer who will not let you take 24 hours to think is using urgency to prevent you from getting a competing quote. The BBB’s consumer resources on filing complaints against gold buyers document a recurring pattern of high-pressure tactics in the cash-for-gold category.
Trap 5: Confusing karat for weight. A piece marked “14K GF” is gold-filled, not solid gold. “GF” means a layer of gold bonded over a base metal. The gold content is a fraction of what the karat marking alone implies. “GP” means gold-plated, with even less gold content. “HGE” means heavy gold electroplate. None of these have significant scrap value. A legitimate buyer will identify the marking for you, but knowing it beforehand prevents surprise.
When selling might not be the right move
There are situations where selling your gold for cash today costs you more than waiting or choosing a different path.
If the piece has significant sentimental or collector value. A ring from a relative who passed away may be worth far more to a family member or to an estate collector than to a refinery. The melt value is the floor, not the ceiling, for pieces with provenance or emotional significance.
If you are converting a gold IRA. Gold inside an IRS-compliant self-directed IRA is a separate category. Withdrawing gold from an IRA is a taxable distribution unless you do an in-kind rollover or convert within a qualified plan. The rules around IRA gold distributions are specific to IRS Publication 590-B and involve your custodian, not a local dealer. Do not sell IRA gold through the cash-for-gold market.
If spot is at a multi-year low. Gold prices move in multi-year cycles. Selling in the trough of a cycle when you have no pressing need for cash means accepting the floor of the range. If you have time and storage, waiting for a recovery may produce a materially better outcome. This is not investment advice; it is a statement about market cycles that the World Gold Council has documented across decades of price history.
Ready to list your gold or find verified buyers? See our sell gold directory for options matched to your gold type and location.
Apply this method in one step
The core rule of this guide is simple: never accept a single offer. The Goldiew marketplace applies that rule for you. Post one free request describing your gold and it reaches up to 15 verified buyers. Offers are sealed, so each buyer puts in their best price without seeing competitors. You then compare offers side by side, with each buyer’s rating and review count next to their price. It is free, no account is needed, and your contact details are shared only with the buyer you accept. You can also browse open requests to see how it works.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the spot price of gold right now?
Spot price is available in real time on Kitco (kitco.com) and on the London Bullion Market Association website (lbma.org.uk). Most financial news sites (Bloomberg, Reuters, MarketWatch) also quote live gold spot. Use the bid price for your melt calculation, since that is what buyers pay for gold. Avoid using a price from yesterday or the day before: spot can move several percent in a single session.
What percentage of spot price should I expect to receive for scrap gold jewelry?
Industry-reported ranges put most scrap jewelry offers between 70 and 90 percent of melt value at reputable coin and bullion dealers, and between 40 and 60 percent at pawn shops and kiosk cash-for-gold operations. Online mail-in refiners that compete for volume often land toward the higher end of the 70 to 90 percent range because their overhead is lower. These are ranges, not guarantees. Volume, condition, and local market conditions all affect the final number.
Is it safe to mail gold to an online buyer?
Established online buyers use USPS or UPS insured prepaid kits. The key check before you ship: confirm the declared insurance value of the kit covers the estimated value of what you are sending, get the confirmation number and tracking, and photograph every piece before sealing the package. Most reputable online buyers allow you to decline their offer and get your items returned at no cost. Confirm the return policy in writing before you ship. The FTC’s guidance on mail-in gold buyers is available at consumer.ftc.gov.
What is the difference between 14k and 18k gold in terms of value when selling?
Karat indicates the gold content by weight. 14k gold is 58.3 percent pure gold; 18k is 75 percent pure gold. On a per-gram basis, 18k gold has approximately 29 percent more gold content than the same weight of 14k gold. Both types sell at a discount to their respective melt values because buyers factor in their cost to refine, test, and resell. The premium or discount to melt is similar for both; the absolute dollar amount is higher for 18k simply because there is more gold in each gram.
Can I sell gold coins for more than their melt value?
Recognized bullion coins typically sell close to spot, which is above melt for the metal content alone because the coin itself carries a small premium for its recognized status and liquidity. Numismatic coins with collector value (rare dates, low mintage, high-grade condition) can sell for multiples of their melt value. If you believe a coin may have numismatic value, get an evaluation from a dealer who is a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) before selling it for scrap or bullion melt.
How do I identify the karat of my gold if there is no visible hallmark?
Look for the hallmark stamp on clasps, the inside of rings, or the bail of pendants. A jeweler’s loupe (10x magnification) makes faint stamps readable. If no stamp is visible, a reputable buyer will test the piece using acid testing or X-ray fluorescence (XRF), both of which are non-destructive methods. Do not pay for this testing: most legitimate buyers absorb the cost because it is part of their standard process. If a buyer quotes a price without testing, ask how they determined the purity before accepting.
What should I do if I think a gold buyer made me an unfair offer?
First, compare the offer against your calculated melt floor. If the discount is 30 percent or more below melt, get competing offers before accepting. If a buyer used high-pressure tactics, misrepresented the weight or purity, or failed to honor a promised price, you can file a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, with your state attorney general’s consumer protection office, and with the BBB. Keep written records of all offers and any communications with the buyer.
Sources
- FTC Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries (ftc.gov)
- FTC Consumer Guidance: Selling Your Gold (consumer.ftc.gov)
- FTC Report Fraud Portal (reportfraud.ftc.gov)
- London Bullion Market Association: Gold Price (lbma.org.uk)
- IRS Publication 590-B: Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (irs.gov)
- BBB Consumer Complaint Filing (bbb.org)
- Professional Numismatists Guild (pngdealers.org)