Perhaps you inherited some jewelry pieces you don’t necessarily love or perhaps you want to change your jewelry collection. Regardless of your reasons, it’s important to know how to sell gold jewelry if you want to get a fair price. When planning to sell their jewelry pieces, most people act on impulse, which leads them to receive a lower amount than they would normally get. And because we want to help you get the most of your solid gold pieces, it’s time to learn how to evaluate them. Read further to find out how to sell gold jewelry in a safe & efficient way.

How to sell gold jewelry without gemstones

We are going to take a moment here and differentiate between simple gold pieces and the ones that feature gemstones. You should also know that, with gold, you have the option to melt it down and transform it into new jewelry pieces. However, if you are sure that you want to sell, there are some rules that you need to follow.

No. 1 – Know your karats

The first step in learning how to sell gold jewelry is paying attention to the karats. As you know, solid gold jewelry can be of many types if we are talking about the gold purity. There is 24k gold (100% pure gold), which is almost never found in jewelry, 22k, 18k, 14k, and 10k gold. A 22k gold jewelry piece, which contains a lot of gold, will be more expensive than a 10k piece. To find out the gold percentage in your jewelry, all you have to do is take a good look at it. Usually, the karat type will be stamped on the piece.

No. 2 – Check the gold prices

Once you know the karat type for your jewelry, do your research about gold prices. Each karat type will sell for a different price. There is a little bit of math involved here, but it will be worth it. Usually, you will find out the price for pure gold (24k). But if you want to know how to sell gold jewelry, you can’t avoid the math. For example, if you are planning to sell an 18k piece, which contains 75% pure gold, you have to weigh it firstly. From that weight, you have to subtract the weight of non-gold material in your piece and multiply the result with the price of one gram of 24k gold. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. If your piece is 18k gold and has a weight of 300 grams, then you actually have 225 grams of pure gold. That is the amount you will multiply with the price of one gram of gold.

No. 3 – Don’t expect to receive the market price for your gold

It’s a good idea to know how much your piece is worth, but you shouldn’t expect to receive its full value. When you understand how to sell gold jewelry, you know that you have only a handful of options. In case you don’t sell it to a work colleague or a friend, then you will sell it to a gold dealer of, if you meet the minimum threshold, to a gold refinery. But, most probably, it will be a gold dealer. You should do a market research if you want to understand how to sell gold jewelry and receive a good price. Ask more dealers how much they would offer, but don’t expect to receive more than 80% of the value of your piece.

For example, today, the price of gold per gram is $39.14. Coming back to our previous example, your 18k gold 300 grams piece is worth $8,806.5. This means that you shouldn’t sell it for less than $5,280 (60% of its value). However, if you do your gold dealer research properly, you can expect to receive up to $7,045 for it.

How to sell gold jewelry with gemstones

When gemstones are involved, things get more complicated when learning how to sell gold jewelry. You can either take the stones out and have them appraised by a professional, or you can look for your jewelry’s certificate.  This way you will find out the weight of the gemstones and be able to calculate how much pure gold you have in the piece. Then, you can add to that sum the price of the gemstones, according to their carat and clarity.

However, if you are not a professional, it can be quite hard to evaluate your gemstones. If you really want to understand how to sell gold jewelry, then we recommend you take your gemstone pieces to the jeweler. They will appraise the clarity, cut and color and let you know how much you should expect to receive.

If you want to find out more about jewelry, check out our other articles as well. To see Ana Luisa’s unique solid gold jewelry collections, visit our online jewelry shop.


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Ruxandra
Ruxandra is a fashion blogger who teaches fashion stumped twenty to thirty somethings how to shop their jewelry boxes for polished new ensembles. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Fashionista, Nylon, and Refinery29.