When you’re selling old jewelry (also known as scrap gold), you enter into a complicated mathematics equation. Most people outside of the industry of buying or selling gold think that the gold price per gram of their old jewelry is the amount of cash they are going to receive. It isn’t that easy.

Gold Price per Gram

Gold is sold by the troy ounce and jewelry is sold by the gram. Then there is the additional complication of jewelry being 24K, 18K, 14K or 10K gold. Gold plate is worth nothing so that isn’t sold for cash. Once you get through all of the math, you will know what your scrap jewelry is worth. But wait, gold buyers don’t pay that price. They will be reselling it, so they need to pay less than the going rate. Diamond Gold Rings by Le Vian Of course, if you don’t know this, you are very disappointed when you are offered a cash amount that is far below what you were expecting. Suddenly that big fat, 10k gold chain isn’t worth $3,000 like you thought. In fact, it isn’t worth anywhere near that. So, to get an idea of what your jewelry is worth, here are some steps:

• Set a scale to the grams setting and weigh your jewelry (without the gemstones).
• Check the price of gold today.
• Divide the price of gold by 31.1 to get the price per gram number.
• Divide the price of gram number by 24 to get the price per karat number.
• Multiply the price per karat by the number of karats of your jewelry (18k, 14k, etc) for the price per gram of your jewelry.
• Multiply the price per gram of your jewelry by the number of grams that it weighs.

Naga Station Bracelet by John Hardy Now you have what it is worth. While the buyer will be paying less than that, it gives you an idea of what your jewelry is worth based on the gold price per gram.