What is scrap gold actually worth?

Its melt value is weight × karat fineness × the spot gold price, and that is a ceiling rather than a price. What you are offered is a share of melt: usually 80–90% from a refiner or mail-in buyer, less from a jeweller, and considerably less from a pawn counter.

Does the karat stamp tell me everything I need?

It tells you the fineness, which is most of it. Unstamped pieces, foreign marks and plated items are worth testing before selling — plating is measured in microns and is worth essentially nothing by weight, however convincing it looks.

Is anything I enter stored or sent anywhere?

No. The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is saved, sent to us or written to a cookie, so closing the tab clears it and reopening the page will not remember what you entered.

Calculator

Scrap gold calculator

Melt value is arithmetic and it is a ceiling. Nobody is paid melt for scrap, so this shows both the ceiling and the range you will be offered beneath it.

The gold price shown was recorded when this page was published. Figures calculated from it appear once the live price loads, so nothing here is worked out from a number the market may have left behind.

Your gold

Weigh the metal only

Karat

The stamp is usually inside a ring band or on a clasp. Unstamped or foreign-marked pieces are worth testing before you sell — what 14k gold is worth covers the European numbers.

Weight

grams

Stones, clasps and any non-gold parts are deducted. A refiner pays for metal content, not for the piece.

Melt value — the ceiling

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10 g of 14k gold

Melt value

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Refiner or mail-in buyer80–90% of melt

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Local jeweler60–75% of melt

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Pawn shop40–60% of melt

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Per 10 g of 14k gold. Melt is a ceiling, not a price — it is the metal content before any buyer’s margin, refining loss or handling. We do not collect scrap buy-back prices from anyone; these ranges are typical of the US market and are guidance, not quotes. Get more than one offer.

Why melt is not the offer

European 14k is often stamped 585 rather than 14K. Both mean the same thing, and a piece stamped 583 is the same grade under an older tolerance.

Melt is what the metal in the piece is worth at spot. A buyer has to refine it, carry the price risk while they do, and make a living, so every one of them pays a share of melt. The share is the number worth shopping — the spread between a refiner and a pawn counter on the same chain is routinely wider than the entire premium difference this site tracks between bullion dealers.

How this is calculated

Grams ÷ 31.1035 × .5833 × live gold spot. Karat is a fraction of 24, so 14k is 14 parts gold to 10 parts other metal.

Nothing is rounded until it is displayed, and no figure appears at all while spot is unavailable or the feed is delayed.

Common questions

What is scrap gold actually worth?: Its melt value is weight × karat fineness × the spot gold price, and that is a ceiling rather than a price. What you are offered is a share of melt: usually 80–90% from a refiner or mail-in buyer, less from a jeweller, and considerably less from a pawn counter.
Does the karat stamp tell me everything I need?: It tells you the fineness, which is most of it. Unstamped pieces, foreign marks and plated items are worth testing before selling — plating is measured in microns and is worth essentially nothing by weight, however convincing it looks.
Is anything I enter stored or sent anywhere?: No. The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is saved, sent to us or written to a cookie, so closing the tab clears it and reopening the page will not remember what you entered.

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