Scrap jewelry that contains precious metals or stones can hold its value for as long as it exists. The only other type of jewelry that holds significant value would be historically relevant jewelry, such as old Roman bracelets or maybe necklaces worn by former Egyptian pharaohs. Even in the case of rare and historical artifacts, a significant amount of that value is due to the current market value of the precious metals and stones that they might contain.
Most people likely are going to have much more contemporary jewelry that is made from gold, silver, or maybe platinum. A ring or a brooch might contain diamonds or other precious stones that also hold a lot of value. Such items are referred to as scrap jewelry because they are no longer valued as actual jewelry. Instead, its value lay in the types of precious metals and any stones that it might contain.
How to Sell Scrap Jewelry
Many people choose to buy necklaces, rings, and other types of jewelry that are made from gold or silver because those metals generally hold value over time. If they run low on money, they a can sell scrap jewelry to make up on the shortfall in cash, which will go a long in times of need. You can find a willing buyer who will assess the value of the gold, silver, or whatever other precious metals your jewelry might contain. Virtually all reasonably sized communities have locations that buy scrap jewelry, including most pawn shops and gold and silver buyers who specialize in buying scrap jewelry.
How to Value Your Scrap Jewelry
The value of your scrap jewelry depends on the type of precious metal that it contains and its weight. We will focus on gold jewelry to simplify the explanation. Gold jewelry generally contains 10-karat, 14-karat, or 18-karat gold. Pure gold is 24 karats, but that generally is too soft to create jewelry. The lower the number value of the karat, the less pure the gold is within the scrap jewelry.
Generally, 10-karat gold is worth about 40 percent of the current price for 24-karat gold bullion, while 14-karat gold is worth nearly 60 percent of that price. Jewelry that contains 18-karat gold is worth 75 percent of the price of pure gold bullion. So you would need to learn the current price of gold and determine the per-gram value. Then you would need to determine the weight of your scrap jewelry and the quality of gold that it contains. If you have 10 grams of 18-karat gold, that would be worth about 75 percent of the value of 10 grams of gold bullion.
A buyer would pay slightly less than the raw value of the gold, silver, or other precious metals and stones because they have marketing and operational costs to cover. Still, you could count on obtaining most of that value.
