You might have old jewelry or gold watches that no longer work but still have value because they contain gold. Gold never loses its value and often appreciates due to the limited supply. Despite coming from the ground, the only way to get it is to mine it, refine it, and sell it as gold bullion. Gold bullion often is used to make jewelry because of its luster and corrosion-proof makeup.

When jewelry breaks and no longer is wearable, you can sell scrap jewelry to a local buyer. The buyer might be in a local pawn store or maybe a gold and silver coin buyer and seller. No matter what the buyer does to turn a profit, you should have several options for gold buyers in your general area.

How to Determine the Value of Scrap Jewelry

Scrap jewelry that contains gold is made from an alloy and has generally standardized amounts of yellow gold. The amount of yellow gold in jewelry determines its value when you sell it as scrap. According to the World Gold Council, the yellow gold content in 14k gold jewelry is 58.3 percent, 75 percent in 18k jewelry, and 91.7 percent in 22k jewelry. White gold also has value, and 9k jewelry is 37.5 percent white gold. The karats and the weight of your scrap jewelry determine its value, but you need to find a buyer.

Don’t Expect the Full Price for Gold Value

When you sell scrap jewelry, you aren’t going to get the gold bullion price for it. Instead, you can expect to get about 80 percent of the value of the yellow gold that the jewelry contains. That’s because the buyer has overhead costs that lower the amount it can pay for the scrap gold. Those costs include the location, property and business taxes, and any labor costs. The buyer also has to either refine the gold to extract it or send it to where it can be converted into gold bullion.

If the buyer paid you the market price for gold, the buyer would lose money and go out of business. Gold’s value fluctuates and might go up or down in the short term. Its long-term trend is upward, but that could take several years for a significant increase in value to occur. So you will have to deal with some market depreciation when you sell scrap gold. Even if you have one or more bars of gold bullion, a buyer still would have to pay less than the going rate due to overhead costs.