Step 1 — Know your number before anyone speaks

Weigh each piece, note its karat stamp, and run it through this site's melt value calculator with today's spot price. That number is the metal's wholesale worth. Everything a buyer says afterward is a percentage of it: competitive scrap offers usually land at 70–90% of melt (refining, testing and their margin come out), while anything under ~60% needs an explanation you probably will not enjoy.

Step 2 — Choose the buyer by what you are selling

Local jewelers often pay best for wearable jewelry they can resell above melt — a branded or beautiful piece can beat melt value entirely. Coin dealers are the right door for coins and bars, where condition and mint marks add collector premiums no scale can see. Pawn shops pay for speed and convenience, usually at the low end. Mail-in buyers advertise aggressively; use only those with insured shipping both ways, a published payout table, and a no-obligation return — and photograph and weigh everything before it leaves your hands.

Step 3 — Ask the three questions

“What spot price are you using today?” (It should match the public number within a few dollars.) “What percentage of melt do you pay for this karat?” (A straight answer is a good sign.) “Can you weigh and test it in front of me?” (Fair dealers do both on the counter.) Evasions on any of the three are your cue to thank them and leave — gold keeps; you can sell tomorrow.

Red flags

Offers quoted only as a single lump sum for a mixed pile (sorting by karat almost always pays more). “Today only” pressure. Scales you cannot see, or weights quoted in unnamed “units” (pennyweight games are an old trick — 1 dwt is 1.555 g, and a price “per pennyweight” sounds bigger than per gram). Fees that appear after the headline offer. And hotel-ballroom “gold buying events,” whose business model is the lowball.

Before you sell at all

Check whether the piece is worth more as jewelry: designer stamps (Tiffany, Cartier), antique workmanship, and quality gemstones all carry value the melt scale cannot measure — an appraisal costs little against that difference. Inherited pieces deserve a week of thought; melt value will be there next week too, and gold sold in a hurry is the most common financial regret jewelers hear about.