Sell jewelry with a clear idea of what each piece is worth

This page walks through a jewelry sale from start to finish: sorting what you own, what an offer is actually made of, the paperwork worth finding, what happens at the buyer’s counter, and how to decide. If you want to compare the kinds of places that buy jewelry first, the guide to jewelry buyers covers who they are and how to check one.

Best Place To Sell Jewelry is an independent referral service, not a buyer, pawnshop or dealer. When you call or send the form, we pass your request to an independent buyer in New York, who makes any offer. Asking is free and you never have to sell.

Sort what you have into five groups

Spread everything out on a towel in good light and sort it. You do not need to be an expert; you only need to read the marks and be honest about what you are unsure of.

The five groups, and how each is usually valued

Group	How to recognize it	What a buyer values
Gold	A karat stamp: 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K, or 14 Kt.	The gold weight times its karat share
Silver	Sterling, Ster., 925, or a fineness such as 750 silver	The silver weight times its fineness
Platinum	A mark naming platinum, inside the band or on the clasp	The metal weight; ask how it was identified
Stones and signed pieces	Diamonds, colored stones, maker’s names, period pieces	The stone, the maker, the design and condition
Costume and plated	No mark, or a plated mark such as R.G.P.	Little or nothing as metal

Pieces can belong to two groups. A diamond ring is gold plus a stone. A signed bracelet is gold plus a name. Keep those together but note both parts.

Gold

US jewelry guides from the Federal Trade Commission (16 CFR Part 23) say the word “gold” on its own means 24 karat, and that gold alloy should carry its karat before the word, as in “14 Kt. gold”. The gold share is the karat divided by 24: 10K is 41.7% gold, 14K is 58.3%, 18K is 75% and 22K is 91.7%. The page on how to sell gold jewelry explains weighing and the melt formula in full.

Silver

In the US, “sterling”, “ster.” or “925” means at least 92.5% silver, and “coin silver” means at least 90%, under the same FTC guides. Silver plate is a thin layer of silver over another metal and is not sterling; federal law says silver-plated articles shall not be stamped “sterling” or “coin”. Silver is worth far less per gram than gold, so a heavy silver piece may be worth less than a light gold one.

Platinum

Platinum is valued by its metal, like gold. If a ring band is marked as platinum, keep it apart from gold and white gold, which can look alike but are different metals with different prices.

Stones and signed pieces

Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pearls, and any piece with a maker’s name, may be worth more than their metal. They need a closer look. Read the guides on diamond jewelry, designer jewelry, estate and antique jewelry and pearls before you sell any of them for metal alone.

Costume and plated

Pieces with no mark, or marked as plated, are usually costume jewelry. Some vintage costume pieces may interest collectors, but they are not fine jewelry and are not valued by metal weight.

What an offer is made of

A jewelry offer is not a single mysterious number. It is built from parts you can ask about.

• Metal weight. The weight of gold, silver or platinum, in grams, pennyweight or troy ounces. One troy ounce is 31.10348 grams (NIST SP 811), heavier than a kitchen ounce.
• Fineness. The share of pure metal: karat divided by 24 for gold, parts per thousand for silver.
• The metal price. The day’s spot price per troy ounce, which moves through every trading day.
• The buyer’s margin. A buyer pays to refine metal and needs a margin, so an offer is usually below the pure metal value, called melt value.
• Stones. Valued on their own, ignored, or deducted from the metal weight, depending on their size and quality.
• Brand and design. A signed or collectible piece can be resold as jewelry, which may be worth more than melt.
• Condition. Damage, repairs, missing stones and worn engravings all matter for pieces sold as jewelry; they matter little for pieces sold as metal.

The arithmetic for metal is: melt value = weight in troy ounces x fineness x spot price per troy ounce. For 10 troy ounces of sterling (0.925) at a spot price of X dollars, the pure silver is worth 9.25 x X dollars. This site never prints live prices because they change daily, so look up the spot price on the day you sell.

Why an offer is lower than the receipt

A store’s retail price includes its costs, its staff and its margin. A buyer pays what a piece is worth to them to resell or to melt. That is why an offer for a piece is lower than what was paid for it new, and why a receipt is more useful as a record of what the piece is than as a guide to what it will sell for.

An insurance appraisal is not an offer either. It is written for insurance, not as a price anyone has offered. Jewelers Mutual, a jewelry insurer, suggests having a piece appraised before you sell and using the appraisal as a guideline. That is sound advice, as long as you treat the appraisal as a description of the piece and not as the price you will be paid.

Find the paperwork

Paperwork does not change what a piece is, but it helps a buyer confirm it quickly and can support a better offer for stones and signed pieces.

• Store receipts, which name the metal, the stones and sometimes the maker
• Grading reports for diamonds from GIA or another laboratory, such as IGI
• Appraisals for insurance or for an estate
• The original boxes, pouches, certificates and cards for designer pieces
• Any notes on where an inherited piece came from

GIA offers a Report Check on its website, where a report number can be looked up. If your diamond has a report, bring the original.

At the buyer’s counter

What happens next depends on the buyer, but expect any reputable buyer to examine the pieces, weigh the metal on an approved scale, and give you a written figure you can take or leave. In New York City, a licensed buyer must also do several things the law requires:

• Show a posted Secondhand Dealer General licence from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and print its number on receipts
• Weigh precious metal on a State-approved scale and tell you the troy weight
• Ask for your ID and record its type and number; you sign in front of the dealer, and a photocopy is not enough
• Record each item, its metal and stones and any identifying marks, with your name, address and the date and time

Buyers in New York City cannot buy from a minor and cannot resell used jewelry within 15 days of buying it. More on these rules is on the selling jewelry in NYC page.

Sell jewelry for cash or for credit?

A store may offer a trade-in or credit toward a new purchase instead of money. That can be fine if you were going to buy anyway, but it is a different thing from a sale for money. If you want money, ask plainly whether the offer is cash or store credit before you hand anything over.

Deciding

Lay the offers side by side. For metal, compare the weight and fineness each buyer used and the price per unit. For stones and signed pieces, compare the figures for each piece. You can accept one part of an offer and keep the rest: there is no rule that a mix of jewelry has to be sold together. The step-by-step guide to selling jewelry has a checklist for the day itself.

Taxes

Some larger sales of certain bullion coins and bars may be reported by the dealer to the IRS on Form 1099-B; most small sales of jewelry are not. A profit on a sale can still be taxable. The IRS says net capital gains from selling collectibles, such as coins or art, are taxed at a maximum federal rate of 28% (IRS Topic No. 409). Whether that applies to a jewelry sale, and what you owe, is a question for a tax professional.

Questions people ask