Thursday, June 9, 2011

How much is my scrap gold really worth?

Here are 3 easy steps to calculate how much your my gold scrap gold is really worth?


1. Get an accurate weight of your scrap gold using a gram scale.
 
2. Divide the price of gold dollar amount by 31.1035 grams and round off to the nearest cent. For example, if on a given day the current price of gold is $1500 per troy ounce, then the price per gram equals 1500 divided by
31.1035, or $48.226083 Rounded off to the nearest cent, you get $48.23.


3. Multiply as follows to calculate the value of scrap gold sorted by karats:
For 10 karat (10K) gold, multiply the day's price of gold per gram (the number you got in Step 2) by .4167.
For 14 karat (14K) gold, multiply the gold price per gram by .5833.
For 18 karat (18K) gold, multiply the current price of gold per gram by .75
For 24 karat (24K) gold, simply use the price of gold per gram.
Note: If you have a different karat weight, simply divide the karat by 24 to get the decimal to use.


Example:
 
1. I want to sale my 14k gold chain, it weighs 22.4 g (I had the weight from an appraisal I got 12 years ago)
 
2. Today's Gold Price: $1537.75 (per troy ounce) divided by 31.1035 equals: $49.44 per gram of pure 24k gold
 
3. $49.44 per gram x .5833 for 14k = $28.84 x 22.4g (gold weight) = $646.01

If you sale your gold at a pawn shop you will probably get 50% of what is worth, a jewelry store may give you more, but only a refinery or a metals broker will give you 85-90% of what the real value of the gold is. No one will give you 100% the value of scrap gold because it has to be refined again before it can be used or sold off.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Getting started with silver jewelry repairs

Dear Jeweler,
I am a collector of vintage jewelry and sterling jewelry and wanted to get started in repairing. I was hoping that you could make some reccomendations on some resources or books that I could use to help me get started.


Hi David,
Revere has published a few books and step by step videos about getting started with basic jewelry repairs.
This and more books and videos are also available trough finding suppliers like http://www.riogrande.com/ and http://www.findingking.com/
If you have a jewelry supplier, a college or trade school in your area, this are all good sources.
Good luck and have fun with it!
Later,
The Jeweler