What will a buyer actually pay for scrap gold?
Scrap gold — broken chains, odd earrings, inherited pieces you will never wear — is bought for its metal, not its beauty. The price you are offered is always the same three-step calculation: the melt value of the pure gold inside (weight × purity × today's gold price), multiplied by the percentage that buyer pays. This calculator shows all three steps openly and charts the split, then prices your gold at eight payout levels, so you can judge any real offer against the whole market instead of taking the first number across a counter.
The payout percentage is the negotiation
Two buyers can weigh your gold identically and offer wildly different amounts, because the percentage is their business model: it covers refining the alloy back to pure gold, price risk while they hold it, and profit. Typical ranges: pawn shops around 50–70% of melt, high-street gold buyers 70–85%, specialist refiners and competitive mail-in services 85–95% on a good day. The percentage — not the headline gold price — is the lever you can move, simply by collecting two or three quotes. Before selling, weigh the items at home, check the karat hallmark on each piece (750 = 18k, 585 = 14k, 417 = 10k), remove gemstones' weight mentally if you can, and never let items out of your sight during weighing.
Alternatives to scrap
Scrap pricing assumes the piece is worth only its metal. Hallmarked antique jewellery, branded pieces and anything with quality gemstones can be worth more sold as jewellery — through a jeweller, auction or reputable second-hand buyer — than melted. The melt value from this tool (also in the Gold Calculator) is the floor: if a "scrap" offer is your best option, it should still respect the floor at a fair percentage.
Worked example
20 grams of 14k gold contains 11.67 g of pure gold; at $130/g that melts to $1,516.67, and at an 80% payout you receive $1,213.33 — the buyer keeps $303.33 for refining and margin.
How to use this calculator
- Weigh the scrap and enter the weight with its unit.
- Select the karat from the hallmark on the piece.
- Set today's pure-gold price per gram.
- Set the payout percentage you have been offered (or try 80% as a benchmark).
- Compare the estimate against the eight payout levels in the table before accepting any offer.
Red flags at the counter
Be cautious if a buyer will not tell you the weight they recorded, weighs in pennyweight but quotes as if grams (20 dwt = 31.1 g — the units differ by half), tests stones as if they were gold weight, or pressures you to decide before you can get a second quote. A fair buyer expects you to know the melt value; this page exists so that you do.