So you’ve found a tangled drawer of old jewellery. Maybe it’s a chain with a broken clasp, a ring that doesn’t fit anymore, or earrings you’ve only ever worn as a single. You’re wondering what it’s actually worth before you take it anywhere. Good instinct. Knowing roughly what your gold should fetch means you won’t get caught out.
Here’s the thing: scrap gold pricing isn’t some mysterious process dealers keep locked away. It comes down to a handful of factors, and once you understand them, you’ll be able to make sense of any quote you’re given.
It Starts With Weight
Gold is priced by weight, almost always in grams. A dealer will pop your jewellery on a set of scales before anything else happens. This is the baseline number everything else gets built on.
If you’ve got a pile of items, don’t be surprised if they’re weighed together or in small batches rather than piece by piece. That’s normal. The total weight is what matters most at this stage, not the individual pieces.
Then Comes Purity
This is where things get a bit more interesting. Not all gold jewellery is the same purity, and that changes the value massively.
You’ll usually see gold marked as 9ct, 14ct, 18ct, or 24ct. The “ct” stands for carat, and it tells you how much pure gold is actually in the piece versus other metals mixed in for strength.
- 24ct is as pure as it gets, essentially 99.9% gold.
- 18ct is 75% gold, mixed with metals like copper or silver.
- 14ct is around 58.5% gold.
- 9ct is the most common in the UK for everyday jewellery, sitting at around 37.5% gold.
So two rings that weigh exactly the same could be worth very different amounts depending on their carat. A 9ct ring simply has less actual gold in it than an 18ct one, even if they look identical on a scale.
Most jewellery has a small hallmark stamped somewhere on it (inside a ring band, on a clasp, near a fastening) showing the carat. If you can’t find one, a reputable dealer will test the piece to work out its purity before giving you a price.
The Gold Price on the Day
Gold has a live market price, and it moves. Sometimes it barely shifts for weeks; other times it jumps around within days depending on what’s happening with the economy, inflation, or global demand.
Dealers base their offers on this current market rate, usually quoted per gram or per troy ounce. So the exact same necklace could fetch a slightly different price if you sell it on a Tuesday versus a Thursday, purely because the underlying gold price has moved.
This is why it’s worth checking the current price of gold per gram before you go and sell anything. It gives you a rough figure to measure any offer against, rather than just trusting whatever number you’re handed.
Weight x Purity x Price, Roughly Speaking
Put those three things together and you’ve got the basic formula:
Weight of the gold x the percentage of pure gold (based on carat) x the current market price per gram
That’s the foundation. A dealer takes your item’s weight, works out how much of that weight is actually gold based on the carat, then multiplies it against today’s gold price. From there, most dealers apply a margin, since they need to make a profit and cover the cost of refining, so you won’t get 100% of that raw calculation as your final offer.
What Doesn’t Really Affect Scrap Value
This trips a lot of people up. If you’re selling for scrap, meaning the item is being melted down and refined rather than resold as jewellery, things like these barely matter:
- The brand or designer name
- How intricate or beautiful the design is
- Whether it’s a special or sentimental piece
- Its condition (broken clasps, missing stones, scratches)
A snapped chain from a high street shop and a designer bracelet can be worth exactly the same for scrap, as long as they’ve got the same weight and carat. That’s because scrap value is about the gold content itself, not the craftsmanship or the story behind it.
If a piece has genuine antique, vintage, or designer value, it might actually be worth more sold as jewellery rather than scrap. It’s always worth asking a dealer whether your item is worth more intact before you agree to have it melted down.
Gemstones and Other Metals
If your jewellery has diamonds, other gemstones, or is mixed with a different metal, those parts won’t be included in the gold weight or valued the same way. A good dealer will remove stones before weighing, or account for them separately. Don’t expect a ring with a diamond in it to be priced purely based on total weight, since only the gold portion counts towards the scrap price.
A Quick Example
Say you’ve got a 9ct gold ring weighing 5 grams, and gold is currently trading at around £60 per gram for pure 24ct gold.
Since 9ct gold is roughly 37.5% pure, you’d work out:
5g x 37.5% = 1.875g of actual pure gold content
1.875g x £60 = around £112.50 as the raw gold value
From there, a dealer’s offer would typically sit a bit below that raw figure, since they need room for their margin. It won’t be exact to the penny, but this gives you a ballpark to compare against any quote you receive.
Why It Pays to Get More Than One Quote
Margins vary between dealers. Some offer a much fairer percentage of the raw gold value than others. Getting a couple of quotes before you commit means you can actually compare and make sure you’re getting a fair deal, rather than accepting the first number you’re given.
A trustworthy dealer will happily explain how they’ve reached their figure, show you the weight and carat they’ve worked from, and won’t rush you into a decision. If someone’s cagey about how they’ve calculated your offer, that’s worth paying attention to.
The Bottom Line
Scrap gold valuation really comes down to three things: how much it weighs, how pure it is, and what gold is trading at on the day. Everything else, like the brand, the design, or sentimental value, doesn’t factor into the scrap price itself.
Once you know the weight and carat of your piece, and you’ve checked the current gold price, you can work out a rough estimate yourself before you ever step into a shop. That way, whatever offer you get, you’ll know whether it’s fair.