Gold jewellery always has a hard price floor: its melt value, set by karat purity, weight, and the day's gold price. Designer pieces, antiques, and gemstones can be worth far more than the metal.
Typical used price range
$50 – $2,000+
Melt value = weight × purity × spot price. With gold near historic highs in 2026, even broken jewellery has meaningful scrap value.
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Look for stamps: 375 (9k), 585 (14k), 750 (18k), 916 (22k). Higher karat means more gold per gram.
Signed pieces (Cartier, Tiffany, antique makers) sell well above melt. Never scrap a signed piece without checking.
Diamonds and precious stones are valued separately — a scrap buyer pays nothing for them, a jeweller or private buyer will.
Gold prices have been near record levels through 2025–2026, making it one of the best periods in decades to sell unworn or broken gold jewellery.
Scrap buyers typically pay 70–85% of melt value. Private sales of intact, wearable pieces usually beat scrap prices comfortably.
Photograph the piece and any hallmarks with Valuenator for an instant AI estimate — free, and it flags when a piece may be worth more than scrap.