So in this blog, we’re addressing the process that gold buyers use to find out the value of your gold jewelry.
Types of Gold Jewellery You Can Sell
Before you jump into the various factors that go into deciding the value of your gold jewelry, let’s understand the difference between two types of gold jewelry commonly found:
Gold-filled:
Gold-filled pieces are made by bonding a layer of karat gold to a base metal. It’s valued at less than 14 karats.
Gold-plated:
Gold-plated pieces are also made by bonding karat gold to a base metal, but this time the karat content is less than 2% making it worth less than 10 times the value of its base piece.
Rose gold:
To get its rose color, rose gold is mixed with copper and silver.
You can never find pure gold used in jewelry because the gold metal used alone is very soft and isn’t malleable to make jewelry designs. So you’ll often find jewelry mixed with other metals.
Jewelry made entirely from gold will always be worth more money. If you have any pieces made only from gold, then expect them to be worth the most money depending on their overall size and weight.
So now that we know the different types of jewelry, let’s find out exactly how gold buyers assess the value of your precious metal.
3 Prime Factors That Gold Buyers Use to Assess Your Jewellery
1. Gold Purity
When it comes to gold, you need to look at the purity of the metal.
Gold is measured in carats, which is simply a measure of how much pure gold you have in your piece. The higher the carat rating, the purer the gold. Pure gold is 24K and is 99.99% pure. And 22K gold is 91.66% pure and 18K is 75% pure. And this reduces as the karat goes down.
Usually, we can find jewelry purity in Australia between 9K (37.5% purity) to 22K.
While pure gold has a karat rating of 24 karats, most jewelry is made with an alloy that contains other metals like copper and silver. The more copper or silver in your piece, the less pure (and less valuable) it is.
Most scrap gold buyers will weigh your precious metal and then test it for purity using a process called ‘acid testing’. This is a quick and easy way to determine how pure the gold in any piece of scrap jewelry really is and this is usually done on a small scale.
2. The Current Value of Gold
Precious metals, such as gold, fluctuate in price.
The current value of gold is just that – the value at that moment in time. It may rise or fall in the days to come. If there’s a lot of economic uncertainty and people are looking to invest their money in safe places, the demand for gold will increase, pushing up its value. On the other hand, if people aren’t as worried about the economy and want to cash out their investments instead of more precious metals, prices will go down.
The price of gold is measured in troy ounces, which are equivalent to 31.1 grams.
To find out an estimated rate for your gold jewelry, you can divide the karat number of your piece by 24 and multiply it by the cost of gold per gram. And when you multiply it by the weight of your gold, you get the estimated rate.
So, let’s say, for instance, the current spot rate of gold in troy ounces is $2000.
Since 1 troy ounce = 31.1 grams, the current rate of gold for 1 gram is $2000/31.1 = $64.3.
And let’s say that your gold is 22 karat.
So, (22/24)*$64.3 = $58.94
This is the cost of your gold in 1 gm.
Let’s say that you have 4 grams of gold. So, your current jewelry price is $58.94*4 = $235.76.
Since you wouldn’t know the exact weight of gold and its purity, you can go to a gold buyers to get an estimated quote based on the current spot price. Gold buyers will often give you a free quote for the value of your items.
3. The Labour Cost for Extraction
There’s one factor that every gold buyer considers and something that not many know — the labor cost.
After selling the gold to the gold buyer, they need to use tools and equipment to extract the gold from the other metals present. And this has a significant cost which is also considered in the price you get.
Small gold jewelry with less karat will require more work to extract gold. And this is why gold buyers can offer a lower quote for such pieces by factoring in the labor costs. If you’re selling gold-plated jewelry, then you’ll get only very less value since the gold percentage is very low.
If you want to get a fair price for your gold jewelry, reach out to the best gold buyers in Brisbane for a free quote.