What you should actually expect to be offered
Typical payouts for scrap jewelry: pawn ~40–55% of melt, jewelers ~50–70%, coin dealers ~60–75%, specialist mail-in buyers ~70–80%. Resellable brand-name pieces can beat these. Get three quotes; compare each against melt.
Why nobody pays melt value
Melt value is the worth of the pure gold at today's spot price — the number refineries settle at, in bulk, after fees. Every buyer between you and a refinery has testing, refining, shipping and margin to cover, so every real offer is a percentage of melt, and the percentage is decided mostly by which buyer you choose, not by how well you negotiate. If a pawn shop offers 65% of melt, that's a strong pawn offer; if a mail-in buyer offers 55%, that's a weak one — without both numbers you can't tell those apart.
Before you sell
Weigh and sort items by karat at home — a kitchen scale in grams works for a first pass; a $15 jeweler's scale (0.01 g) is better. Karat stamps: 585 = 14K, 750 = 18K, 417 = 10K, 375 = 9K. Assume unstamped pieces are the lowest plausible karat until tested (acid kits under $20; gold is never magnetic). Get at least three quotes in dollars, in writing where possible. Never ship gold to a buyer who won't give a per-item figure and a free, insured return policy first.
Worked example
A 14K chain weighing 21.3 g: pure gold is 21.3 × 0.5833 = 12.42 g = 0.399 ozt. At $4,043.70/ozt the melt value is about $1,615. Expect roughly $650–890 at a pawn shop and $970–1,130 from a strong mail-in buyer — and use $1,615 as the yardstick in every conversation.
Frequently asked questions
How much is 14K gold worth per gram today?
At the current spot price, 14K gold (58.33% pure) is spot ÷ 31.1035 × 0.5833 per gram in melt value. Typical buyer offers run 40–80% of that depending on buyer type.
How much do pawn shops really pay for gold?
Usually 40–55% of melt for scrap jewelry. Pawn shops price for speed and redemption odds — fastest option, rarely the best-paying one.
Is an 'up to 95% of melt' advertisement real?
'Up to' almost always describes bullion, not jewelry. Strong buyers pay 70–80% of melt for scrap jewelry; get the dollar offer in writing before shipping anything.
What's the difference between a troy ounce and a regular ounce?
A troy ounce is 31.1035 g; a kitchen-scale ounce is 28.3495 g. Gold is always quoted in troy ounces — this calculator has a kitchen-ounce option so any scale works.
Gold prices by karat
10K gold price · 14K gold price · 18K gold price
Other metals
Silver calculator · Platinum calculator · Palladium calculator · Copper calculator · Nickel calculator · Brass calculator