The money you get depends on gold's market price, the gold purity of your jewelry, and selling costs.
How much money do I get selling 14kt gold?
Here’s the gold purity by karat:
- 10 karat gold - 41.6% pure gold
- 14 karat gold - 58.3% pure gold
- 18 karat gold - 75.0% pure gold
Gold purity is the same whether it’s yellow, white, or rose gold.
For reference, platinum is typically 90% or 95% pure, while sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver.
How much can I sell my big diamond, sapphire, ruby or emerald for?
Large, high-quality diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds can be valuable. The amount you’ll receive depends on the demand for your stone’s size, shape, condition, and current popularity, minus a jeweler’s costs.
When purchasing gemstones, a jeweler often incurs several expenses, including:
- Carefully removing the stone from its setting by a jeweler.
- Having the stone tested, identified, graded, and valued by a gemologist.
- Recutting or polishing the stone. Most gemstones are scratched or nicked and need polishing or recutting. This reduces the gemstone’s weight, sometimes significantly, and can be costly.
- Creating a new piece of jewelry to showcase the gem (rarely are gemstones reset into the original piece).
- Reselling. It often takes time to resell, and if it doesn't sell, it's marked down, or sold at a large discount on the wholesale market.
These factors significantly impact an offer for your gemstone. Because diamonds and gemstones are readily available to jewelers through the wholesale market, your stone must be of considerable value to outweigh these costs. You may get more if you sell your diamond or gemstone online.
How much can I sell my small diamonds and semi-precious gemstones for?
Low value stones typically include:
- Small diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds
- Most other gemstones, including large sizes, like amethyst, blue topaz, garnet, and more
While jewelers occasionally reuse these stones, the costs described above often outweigh their value. As a result, most aren’t reused.
To recycle the gold, stones must be removed. If a jeweler isn't going to reuse them, they have to be broken out, one by one, adding to a jeweler’s costs.
Nonetheless, Fox Fine Jewelry offers the weight of low value stones as if they were gold. Note that the weight of very large, heavy, and low value gemstones are deducted.
Deductions for gemstones when selling jewelry
Some jewelry features large, heavy gemstones with low value - such as agate, quartz, onyx, lapis, and others. In most cases the costs to remove, identify, refurbish, and reset these gemstones exceeds their actual worth.
When this happens, the weight of these large, heavy, low-value gemstones is deducted from the total weight of the jewelry, since they don’t contribute to the value and increase processing costs.
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"Got me top dollar for a couple of rings that I didn’t think were worth much of anything.
Great store - I recommend this business to anyone who is in the market to either sell or buy gold and jewelry."
Why don’t I get the full gold price when selling jewelry?
Several factors reduce the amount you receive when selling gold jewelry:
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Purity of Gold
Virtually all gold jewelry is not pure gold. For example, 14kt gold is 58.3% pure gold, giving you a percentage of gold's current price.
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Fine Jewelry vs. Costume Jewelry
Jewelry is tested to verify the metal. Gemologists test stones to identify them. This process requires expertise, equipment, and time.
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Department of Justice Compliance
Gold buyers must follow the Department of Justice requirements. Each gold buy is submitted individually, with fees for software, updates, and staff training.
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Clasps and Base Metal Parts
Many clasps contain springs or other components made from non-gold metals. These parts are removed and don’t count toward your gold value.
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Diamond and Gemstone Removal
Stones must be removed by jewelers, even low value ones that won’t be reused. Nonetheless, for most low value stones, Fox Fine Jewelry pays their weight in gold.
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Processing the Gold
After stone removal, the gold is sorted by karat into large batches, melted, and formed into bars. Platinum, silver, and each gold karat are processed separately.
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Gold Refining
Melted bars are shipped to a refinery where the gold content is tested (assayed) for a fee. Refining fees charged include a flat fee per lot plus a percentage of the gold content.
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Jeweler’s Profit
Like any business, jewelers include a modest profit. But because gold buying is highly competitive, offers tend to be similar from one jeweler to another.
At Fox Fine Jewelry, many clients return to us after shopping around, finding our offer matched or exceeded other offers
Will a jeweler melt or resell jewelry I sell to them?
Most jewelry sold to jewelers is not resold. Instead, it’s purchased for its metal value, disassembled, and then recycled. However, there are exceptions.
Some jewelry may bring in more if it's in good or excellent condition and meets one of the following:
- It's a current, desirable style
- It's antique—typically from the 1920s or earlier
- It's mid-century to antique pieces from prestigious brands (like Tiffany or Cartier)
The best way to get a higher price is to sell directly to a private buyer, usually online. This takes more effort, may take time to sell, and requires proper safety precautions. Some styles are especially hard to sell. But it may be worth trying!