📊 Scrap Gold Calculator

Scrap gold is worth its pure-gold content at the spot price, minus the buyer’s margin. A 12.5-gram 14K chain holds 12.5 x 14/24 = 7.29 grams of pure gold, or 0.2344 troy ounces. At $2,650 spot the melt value is $621.25, and at an 85 percent payout you receive $528.06. This calculator runs that chain for any weight, karat, and spot.

Nobody pays full melt value at retail: refining, assay risk, and profit take 5 to 30 percent. Knowing the melt value before you walk in turns the negotiation from “take my word” into arithmetic. Get three quotes; the spread will shock you.

How to Use This Calculator

Weigh the gold, pick the karat stamped on it, enter the current spot price per troy ounce, and set the buyer’s payout percent. The calculator returns pure content, melt value, and your payout.

The Scrap Gold Formula

Gold is weighed in troy ounces (31.1035 grams), not regular ounces; using avoirdupois ounces overstates value by 10 percent. Jewelers often weigh in pennyweights: 20 dwt = 1 troy ounce. Karat is purity in 24ths: 14K is 14/24 = 58.3 percent pure gold, the rest alloy.

Unmarked gold needs acid or XRF testing; do not guess karat on unmarked pieces. Filled, plated, and vermeil items contain almost no gold value regardless of the stamp. When in doubt, a jeweler’s acid test costs little and settles it.

Worked Example

12.5 grams, 14K, $2,650 spot, 85 percent payout. Pure = 12.5 x 14/24 = 7.2917g. Troy oz = 7.2917 / 31.1035 = 0.2344. Melt = 0.2344 x $2,650 = $621.25. Payout = $621.25 x 0.85 = $528.06. The buyer keeps $93.19 for refining and margin.

Offer comparison: Buyer A offers 85 percent ($528.07), Buyer B offers a flat $560, Buyer C offers 92 percent ($571.56). Buyer C wins despite sounding similar to A: 7 points of payout is $43.49 here. Always convert flat offers to payout percent for comparison: $560 / $621.26 = 90.1 percent. For silver items, our scrap silver calculator runs the parallel math.

Getting the Best Price

Weigh at home first on a gram scale so you can check the buyer’s scale. Watch for the classic tricks: weighing in avoirdupois ounces, “buying” stones at zero value then keeping them, and sorting 18K into the 14K pile. A reputable buyer tests in front of you and explains every deduction. Spot price moves daily; selling into a spike is timing the market, but checking the price that morning is just diligence.

Reading Gold Hallmarks

The number after the slash or the millesimal (585, 750) is the European convention: parts per thousand, matching fineness directly. US pieces show karats; older pieces may show neither, needing acid tests. Warning signs: “14K GP” means gold-plated, “1/20 14K” means gold-filled (5 percent gold by weight, still low value), and missing marks on a “gold” chain mean test before trusting. When the stamp and the acid disagree, believe the acid.

When Not to Scrap

Melt value is the floor, not the ceiling. Designer pieces, antique jewelry, and branded watches often beat melt by multiples: a Cartier piece scrapped for $800 might sell for $3,000 as jewelry. Check sold listings on eBay for comparable pieces before any refiner sees them. The rule: scrap the broken, the plain, and the unfashionable; sell the signed, the antique, and the beautiful as what they are.

Dental gold is the odd corner: high purity, no craftsmanship premium, ideal for scrapping. Class rings and old chains are the classic scrap candidates. And inherited pieces deserve a pause: melt is irreversible, and family pieces carry value no calculator measures. Sort the lot into scrap, sell-as-jewelry, and keep piles before getting a single quote. The sorting is where the money is.

Gold Testing Methods

Acid tests are the standard: a scratch on the stone gets nitric acid matched to the karat, and the reaction reveals the truth. Electronic testers measure conductivity, faster but fooled by heavy plating. XRF guns give precise composition in seconds and are what serious buyers use. Fire assay is the definitive lab method, overkill for jewelry lots. Know which test your buyer uses; it tells you their seriousness.

Home tests have limits: the magnet test only catches iron cores, the ceramic scratch test is crude, and density tests need precision scales. For anything valuable, pay a jeweler for an XRF reading before selling: $25 of testing can be worth hundreds in correct karat classification. Information is the seller’s only edge; buy it cheap.

Estimates for planning only, not financial advice.