Selling Gold and Designer Jewelry: When an Auction Beats the Gold Buyer

A gold buyer pays you for weight. A bidder pays you for the piece. A 14K gold and ceramic link bracelet we estimated at $200 to $400 sold for $1,400. Here is how to tell which of your jewelry belongs at auction and which belongs on the scale.

SebastianCharles Auctions

Before you sell gold jewelry to a gold buyer, find out what the scale cannot see. A gold buyer pays you for weight. A bidder pays you for the piece. Sometimes those numbers are the same. Often they are not even close.

What a gold buyer actually pays you for

A gold buyer weighs your piece, tests the karat, and multiplies the pure gold content by the day's spot price. That figure is melt value. Then the buyer takes a margin. Even strong scrap buyers typically pay 70 to 80 percent of melt on jewelry, and many pay much less.

That math works for a broken chain or a single earring. It fails for a signed bracelet, a period piece, or anything set with good stones. The scale does not know who made the piece, when, or how many collectors want it.

What our bidders paid above the metal

Here are recent SebastianCharles jewelry results, each with the estimate we published before the sale:

• David Yurman 14K gold bracelet with amethyst and emerald: $2,700 (estimate $1,500 to $2,000)
• Vintage 18K yellow gold and emerald tennis bracelet: $2,500 (estimate $1,000 to $1,500)
• Erté "Nile" gold and silver necklace and earring set: $2,900 (estimate $2,000 to $3,000)
• 14K gold and white ceramic link bracelet: $1,400 (estimate $200 to $400)
• 14K rose gold diamond cross necklace: $1,100 (estimate $800 to $1,200)
• Roberto Coin 18K gold and diamond Elephant Skin ring: $800 (estimate $600 to $900)

Look at the ceramic link bracelet. Ceramic adds nothing on a gold scale, so a scrap buyer would have paid only for the gold links. Bidders saw a designed piece and paid seven times the low estimate.

Five things that push a piece past melt

1. A maker's mark

Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, David Yurman, Roberto Coin and Georg Jensen all carry their own markets. Check inside ring shanks, on clasps, and on the backs of pendants. Roberto Coin sets a small ruby on the inside of its pieces, so a tiny red stone where nobody would see it is worth noticing. If you own vintage Tiffany, read our guide to vintage Tiffany & Co. jewelry.

2. Period and design

Victorian, Art Deco, 1940s rose gold, and mid century modernist jewelry sell on design. A bold 1940s bracelet can bring far more than its weight because collectors cannot buy that look new.

3. Natural stones

A natural sapphire, ruby or emerald with good color can be worth more than the gold around it. Lab grown stones are real stones chemically, but they sell for a fraction of natural ones. Our post on lab grown vs natural diamonds explains the difference.

4. Native American and Southwestern work

Navajo, Zuni and Hopi silver and turquoise has a deep collector market. A plain looking Navajo cuff we estimated at $50 to $100 sold for $2,300. Read what Native American jewelry sells for before you scrap any old silver.

5. Boxes, papers and receipts

Original boxes, certificates, grading reports and old appraisals help remote bidders bid with confidence. Keep them with the piece.

How to read the stamps

Gold stamps come in two systems. Karat marks read 10K, 14K or 18K. Fineness marks read 417, 585 or 750. So 585 means 14K and 750 means 18K. A 375 stamp means 9K gold, common on British pieces. Our post on what 375 stamped on gold means goes deeper.

Marks like GF, GP, HGE, RGP or 1/20 12K mean gold filled or gold plated. Those pieces have little metal value, but signed vintage costume jewelry still sells. Sterling silver usually reads 925 or Sterling.

A missing stamp does not mean a piece is not gold. Older and custom pieces often went unmarked, and stamps wear off. Testing answers the question.

Before you sell anything

• Do not clean jewelry with chemicals or an ultrasonic cleaner. Opals, pearls, emeralds and turquoise damage easily.
• Keep pairs and sets together. A matched necklace and earrings sell better than the parts.
• Do not pull stones out to sell the gold.
• Gather boxes, receipts, appraisals and grading reports.
• Photograph the front, the back, the clasp and any stamps.
• Sort scrap from keepers last, not first.

When scrap is the right answer

Plenty of jewelry is worth melt and nothing more: broken chains, single earrings, worn plain bands, dented class rings. For those, a reputable refiner or gold buyer is the right call. Get two or three quotes and ask each buyer what percentage of melt they pay and which spot price they use.

How we can help

SebastianCharles Auctions photographs and catalogs each piece and offers it to a national and international bidder base. Send photos of your jewelry through our free estimate form, and include the stamps and any boxes or papers. You can see more of what we have sold on our auction highlights page and in our jewelry department.