Buying and Selling Gold Jewelry: A Quick Pricing Guide for the Retail Consumer

How Much Should You Pay for Gold Jewelry?

When it comes to buying and selling gold jewelry as a retail customer, knowing what to pay is crucial to ensuring you get a fair deal. Many in-person jewelers mark up their prices significantly, often leaving customers paying far more than they should. But how do you know what's fair? The following is meant to serve as a quick guide for you as a customer looking to buy gold jewelry, or if you're looking to sell an old piece you may have around. 

The Truth About Retail Markups

Many retail jewelers charge extremely high premiums on gold jewelry—sometimes as much as 100% or more above the actual gold value. Unfortunately, this is common, but that doesn’t mean you have to fall into that trap.

What You Should Pay as a Buyer

Now let's start from the buying side. As a general rule, you should never have to pay more than 50% above the gold value for a piece of jewelry, no matter what (except for maybe lighter pieces that are less than 10 grams). If you're paying more than 50%, you're likely overpaying. A premium of around 50% is acceptable for pieces in the 10-20 gram range. A premium of around 30% is quite reasonable for anything heavier and a good target to aim for when shopping. With some effort and a bit of searching, you might even be lucky enough to find a local jeweler who offers such fair pricing.

But what if you could get even better than that? Here at our store, we pride ourselves on offering gold jewelry at around 20% above the gold value. This way, you get beautiful, high-quality pieces without the heavy markup. Another excellent source of high karat gold jewelry is mene.com, who typically charge around the aforementioned 30% range.

Selling Gold Jewelry: What's Fair?

Whether you’re selling scrap gold or wearable jewelry, knowing what you should get for it is just as important.

Selling Scrap Gold

If you have broken or damaged pieces of jewelry that need to be melted down, you’re dealing with what’s known as scrap gold. For these, you should never settle for less than 80% of the gold value. Anything lower, and you’re likely getting shortchanged.

Selling Used Jewelry

For used but decent or wearable pieces, the price range widens a bit. Depending on factors like the weight, age, condition, and desirability of the design, you should expect to get anywhere from 90% to 110% of the gold value. For example:

• Popular designs such as Cubans, Francos, and Byzantines will generally fetch a higher premium. Also chains are the most desirable form of jewelry for gold dealers to buy, far more than bracelets or rings, particularly those in the 20-24" range. So for example, if you had a 24" Miami Cuban style chain in good condition that you wanted to sell, you shouldn't settle for less than 110% and might be able to get even more in this specific case. 

 

• Less common and unusual styles are generally less valuable, as well as pieces of uncommon length. If you have a chain that's wearable, but it's say 26" and a less common style, don't be shocked if you can't find any offers for more than 90%. Additionally, rings and bracelets will also be discounted a bit as well when trying to sell, perhaps even as low as 80%, due to the precise nature of ring sizes and bracelet lengths that make finding a buyer for a gold dealer much more difficult than for chains.  

 

So to some up, as buyer you should almost never need to pay more than 50% above the gold value in most cases. As a seller, you should never settle for less than 80% of the gold value, and can often get better offers for desirable pieces.

By understanding these benchmarks, you can confidently buy and sell gold jewelry, ensuring you get the most value for your money. And remember, whether you’re buying or selling, being informed is the best way to protect your investment.