Almost everyone has a drawer with gold in it. A snapped chain, one earring, a class ring, something inherited that nobody wears. Most people have no idea what it is worth, and that uncertainty is exactly what the mail-in gold industry is built on.

So here is the whole thing, explained. Once you understand it you can check any offer anyone makes you, including ours.

Step One: Is It Actually Gold?

The karat stamp is a starting point, not proof. Stamps wear away, and plated or gold-filled pieces are routinely stamped in ways that look convincing. So every piece gets tested rather than taken on faith.

Testing is quick and it happens at the counter where you can watch. If something turns out to be plated rather than solid, you will be told, shown why, and handed it straight back. That is a conversation worth having even if you had no intention of selling.

Step Two: How Much Gold Is In It?

This is where most of the surprise comes from. Gold jewelry is not gold — it is an alloy, and only part of it has value as scrap.

  • 10k is 41.7% gold
  • 14k is 58.5% gold
  • 18k is 75% gold
  • 22k is 91.6% gold
  • 24k is 99.9% gold

So a 14k chain is a little over half gold. The rest is copper, silver, zinc and nickel, which have almost no scrap value. A 10k ring is less than half gold. When someone is surprised by an offer, this is usually why.

Step Three: What Does It Weigh?

Everything is weighed on a calibrated scale, in grams or pennyweight, in front of you. Weight is the one part of the calculation with no judgment in it at all.

Worth knowing: hollow chains and hollow bangles weigh far less than they look like they should. A substantial-looking rope chain can be mostly air.

Step Four: The Market Price

Gold trades on a world market and the price moves every day, sometimes several times a day. That spot price per troy ounce is the base for everything.

The arithmetic is then simple: market price × purity × weight. That is what the gold in your piece is worth. Any honest buyer is working from the same three numbers; the only difference between offers is the margin taken on top.

Because the market moves, an offer is good for that day. If you want to go away and think about it, that is completely reasonable — bring the piece back and it gets re-priced at that day’s market.

Why the Number Is Sometimes Higher Than Expected

Two situations regularly beat scrap value:

Stones. Diamonds and coloured stones are assessed separately from the metal. Occasionally a stone is worth considerably more than the gold holding it, and selling the piece as scrap would be a genuine loss. We will tell you if that is the case.

The jewelry itself. A piece with real design merit, a recognised maker, or antique value can be worth more intact than melted. It is not common, but it happens, and it is the single biggest argument for having gold looked at by a jeweler rather than posted to a refinery.

What to Bring

Bring the items and a valid photo ID — identification is recorded on precious-metal purchases. If you have paperwork or certificates for any stones, bring those too. You do not need to clean or sort anything; condition makes no difference to scrap value, and a tangled pile of broken chain is perfectly normal.

The Option Most People Do Not Consider

You do not have to walk out with cash. A lot of customers put the value of old gold toward something they will actually wear.

The old metal goes toward a new piece, the sentimental stones come out and are reset, and a ring nobody has worn in twenty years becomes something that gets worn daily. If that sounds more appealing than an envelope of cash, read about how we redesign and remount existing jewelry.

It also works in smaller ways. The value of a broken chain can cover a repair on a piece you do love.

Find Out What You Have

Testing, weighing and valuing is free, takes a few minutes, and carries no obligation whatsoever. Plenty of people come in purely to find out, and that is fine.

More detail on the process is on our we buy gold page, or just walk into either Bakersfield store.

Rosedale Highway — 9160 Rosedale Hwy, Suite #600 — (661) 587-9298
Ming Avenue — 3769 Ming Ave — (661) 834-0824

Roco’s Jewelry has been buying gold over the counter in Bakersfield since 1978.