Gold hits $900 an ounce in January

Gold hit $900 last week.  Pawn shops around the country are rejoicing as hundreds of people flood their stores to sell their gold.

How to Calculate the Value of Scrap Gold

If you have any scrap gold, you can sell it, but for how much? Gold prices tend to rise along with worries of war or inflation but before you bring sell gold jewelry, dental fillings, teeth, nuggets, and bars to a scrap gold dealer’s counter (or send it off by mail) you should know exactly what it’s worth. Most scrap gold dealers keep the calculation a secret. Here is their formula.

Steps

1. Separate your scrap gold into their various karat fineness (i.e. 10k, 14k or 18k). You may need a magnifying glass to see the number inscribed on the piece. If not, you may need to have the gold tested by a reputable dealer. There’s also the possibility that some of the gold is actually just gold-plated, which a dealer would determine with certainty by using a chemical test. If you’re uncertain, read up on How to Tell if Gold Is Real.

 

• If you have any gold coins, they may have a numismatic (coin) value above their metal value, based on age, rarity, and condition. Take it to a coin dealer; you may be able to get more money that way.

Determine the gram weight of each group by using a gram scale. If you can only weigh by the ounce, convert to grams by multiplying by 28.35 (e.g. 2 oz. = 2 x 28.35 = 56.7 grams).

Determine today’s price of gold. You can find this on the Internet, or in your local newspaper. Fine gold as of this writing is about $900.00 per troy ounce. (A troy ounce equals 31.1 grams. This never changes.) The price of gold fluctuates according to supply and demand.

Divide today’s gold price by 31.1 to get today’s gold price per gram.

Multiply by the fineness of the gold. For each group of gold, divide the karat by 24, then multiply that number by today’s gold price per gram. For example, if you have 10KT gold and the current price of gold is $28.94 per gram ($900.00 / 31.1), then the price of your scrap gold is $28.94 x .4167 = $12.06 per gram.

• 10KT = 10/24 = .4167
• 14KT = 14/24 = .5833
• 18KT = 18/24 = .750

Multiply the price per gram by the weight in grams. If you have 10 grams of 10KT gold and you calculated the price at $12.06 per gram, then your scrap gold is worth 10 x $12.06 = $120.59.

Examples

• If you have 5.0 grams of 14KT scrap and gold is $900.00 today, then $900.00 divided by 31.1 equals $28.9389 multiplied by .5833 (14KT) equals $16.88 per gram. $16.88 multiplied by 5.0 grams equals $84.40.
• Now let’s say you have 15.3 grams of 10KT gold scrap. $900 divided by 31.1 equals $28.9389 multiplied by .4167 (10KT) equals $12.06 per gram. $12.06 multiplied by 15.3 grams equals $184.52.

Tips

• Scrap gold dealers will likely buy the gold from you at about 10 to 20 percent less than what it’s actually worth since they must process it and still turn a profit from reselling it.
• If you suspect there are any other precious metals mixed with the gold (such as platinum and palladium in gold fillings), it would be wise to calculate their value as well and sell accordingly.
• Most people use grams for these calculation but some gold buyers use pennyweight (DWT) instead of grams. There are 20 pennyweights in a troy ounce. You can substitute 20 for 31.1 to calculate pennyweight in our formula. You can also multiply a pennyweight by 1.555 to get an equivalent gram weight or divide a gram weight by the same 1.555 to get pennyweight.

Pawn Shops report brisk business

People across the US are flocking to pawn shops, cleaning out their garages and closets in an effort to get some extra cash in their pockets. Read the full story here from USA TODAY.

Online pawn shops are also benfiting, giving people an easy way to sell unwanted jewelry without even leaving their homes. Selling jewelry is the most popular as theses items are typically small and can be shipped easily with some insurance from the post office.