Scrap Gold by Source: Jewellery, Dental, Gold-Filled, Electronics

You find the old dental crown in a drawer, a broken gold-filled chain in a jewelry box, and a box of old computer parts under the desk. You know they contain gold, but you have no idea if any of it is worth cashing in. The short answer is yes, but the value varies wildly by source, and most people overestimate what they have by a long shot. This breaks down what each type of scrap gold is actually worth, how buyers test it, and what you should realistically expect to be paid. Knowing the difference between a solid gold ring and a gold-filled chain is the difference between a decent payout and a disappointing trip to the pawn shop.

Scrap gold is any gold item sold primarily for its metal content rather than its value as jewellery, coinage or dental work. The honest version is that most pieces are low-karat (10K-14K), often worn, broken or plated, and the seller is almost always offered a percentage of the melt value, not the full spot price. The most common source is jewellery, but dental work and electronics are significant categories too. When you separate your scrap by source, you are not being fussy; you are protecting your payout because each type has a different purity and a different refining cost baked into the offer. A jeweller's scale does not care about sentiment, and neither does the refiner's furnace.

Karat jewellery is the backbone of the scrap gold market. You will see 10K, 14K, 18K, and occasionally 22K or higher. The karat number is the gold content by weight: 10K is 10 parts gold and 14 parts alloy, which is 41.7% gold. A 14K piece contains 58.3% gold, not 14/24 of the spot price because the alloy metals have no melt value. When you weigh a piece, you must weigh only the gold. A ring with a large stone weighs less gold than the total weight suggests, and a buyer will subtract the stone's weight or refuse to buy it at all. The practical rule is to remove stones before selling, but if you cannot, tell the buyer the stone is there and let them adjust. Do not accept an offer that does not account for it.

Test Gold at Home Is Unreliable

Nitric acid tests and electronic testers can tell you if a piece is gold, but they cannot give you an exact karat reading. The only way to be sure is to look for the karat stamp, and even then, a worn stamp can be misleading. If the stamp says 14K but the piece is magnetic, it is not solid gold. Most gold buyers will test your piece with acid or an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine before they give you a number. You can ask to see the test result, and if a buyer refuses, walk away.

Gold-filled is a different animal entirely, and it is where most sellers get burned. Gold-filled items have a thick layer of gold mechanically bonded to a base metal, and by US FTC 16 CFR Part 23.4, the marking must show the fraction, the karat, and the letters GF, like "1/20 12K GF". The fraction means that the gold layer is at least 1/20th of the total weight of the item. So a 10-gram gold-filled piece contains at most 0.5 grams of gold. That is a hard number, and it is the single most important fact. Gold-filled scrap value is real, but it is a fraction of what a solid gold piece of the same size would bring. A gold-filled chain that weighs 20 grams might contain less than a gram of gold, and the buyer knows it.

Gold-Plated Is Worse

US FTC 16 CFR Part 23.4 requires a minimum of 0.5 microns of gold for "gold plated" and 2.5 microns for "heavy gold plated". At 2.5 microns, the gold layer is about one-tenth the thickness of a human hair. The gold content is so small that it is often not worth the refiner's time to extract it. You will hear people ask "is gold plated worth anything?" and the honest answer is almost never, unless you have a truckload of it. Gold plated worth anything is a search query that gets a depressing answer. If you have a piece stamped "14K HGE" (heavy gold electroplate), the base metal is worth more than the gold on it. Do not waste your time or a buyer's.

Dental gold value is a different beast because it is an alloy designed for strength and biocompatibility, not for jewellery. Crowns, bridges, inlays, and partial dentures are typically 10K-18K, but they often contain palladium, silver, or platinum. The American Dental Association classifies these alloys as "noble" (25-60% gold) or "high-noble" (60%+ gold) under ANSI/ADA Specification No. 5. A crown that looks like a solid gold tooth may be a metal substructure with a porcelain or ceramic outer layer, and that porcelain is not gold. You cannot tell the gold content by looking at it. The only way to know is to have it tested or to check the hallmark, but most dental work is not marked with a karat stamp. You have to estimate the purity, and the safest assumption is the lower end of the range.

Payout for Dental Gold

When you sell dental gold, you are selling to a refiner who deals with dental scrap all the time. They will weigh the piece, test it, and offer you a percentage of the melt value. The payout for dental gold is lower than for jewellery because the refining process is more complex and the alloy mix is less predictable. A realistic offer is 60-80% of melt value for high-noble alloys, and less for noble ones. Do not assume that a "gold tooth" is worth its weight in gold, because it is not. If you have a crown with a porcelain layer, you can either leave it on (and get paid for the total weight minus the porcelain) or try to remove it, which is rarely worth the effort. The honest move is to ask the buyer how they are treating the porcelain and the base metal substructure before you agree to anything.

Electronic scrap gold is the most misunderstood category. Gold is used in connectors, pins, and circuit boards because it does not corrode, but the amount is tiny. A typical computer motherboard has about 0.1-0.5 grams of gold per kilogram of board, and a handful of gold pins might have a few milligrams. The gold is also not pure; it is plated onto base metals, and the plating is often only a few microns thick. When a buyer says "electronic scrap gold", they are thinking in bulk, not in individual pieces. A single cell phone contains about 0.034 grams of gold, which at $70 per gram is about $2.40. That is the gross value before the refiner takes their cut, which is substantial because the recovery rate for e-waste is only 90-95% of the pure gold present, and the refining cost is higher per gram than for jewellery.

Is E-Waste Worth It?

The practical rule for e-waste is that it is not worth it for an individual seller unless you have a box of hundreds of boards or a dedicated pile of gold-plated pins. You will not get melt value; you will get a percentage of the refined gold minus the cost of the acid and the furnace time. A realistic payout for a pound of gold-fingered RAM sticks might be $20-40, not the $200 you imagined. If you have a single gold pin, it is worth less than the bus fare to get to the buyer. The failure mode is spending an afternoon stripping boards and ending up with less than minimum wage. If you are serious about e-waste, collect until you have at least a kilogram of gold-bearing parts, and then get quotes from multiple refiners. Do not sell to a buyer who cannot tell you the recovery rate they use.

Buyers use different methods to test each source, and the payout reflects that. For karat jewellery, they will acid test a spot on the piece or use an XRF gun that reads the surface. The XRF is non-destructive, but it only reads the surface, so a plated piece can fool it. For gold-filled, the buyer will look at the marking and weigh the piece, then apply the 1/20 fraction to the total weight. For dental gold, they may test the piece with acid or assume a purity based on the ADA classification. For e-waste, they will weigh the gold-bearing parts and apply an estimated recovery rate. In every case, the buyer is paying for the gold content minus a refining cost and their margin. The payout percentage varies: 80-90% of melt for high-karat jewellery, 60-80% for dental, and 40-60% for e-waste.

Know Your Weight and Purity

The single most important thing you can do is to know the weight and purity before you walk in. Use a jeweller's scale or a kitchen scale that reads in grams, and check the calibration with a known weight. A US nickel weighs 5 grams, and a dollar bill weighs 1 gram. Weigh your items at home, write down the numbers, and do not let a buyer use their own scale without watching it. If a buyer will not tell you the karat and the weight they used to calculate their offer, walk away. You cannot verify an offer you cannot see. Get at least three quotes, and remember that the first offer is never the best. This is not a negotiation; it is a commodity sale, and the buyer is pricing in their cost of capital and the risk of a bad batch.

Sorting your scrap by type is not a suggestion; it is the difference between a fair payout and a lowball. A bag of mixed jewellery, dental gold, and gold-filled chains will be bought at the lowest common denominator, because the refiner has to sort it themselves. Separate by karat, then by source. A 10K chain goes with other 10K, a 14K ring with other 14K, and a gold-filled clasp goes with gold-filled, not with solid. Remove non-gold materials before weighing: stones, porcelain, plastic, steel clasps, and any hollow parts. A ring with a large stone weighs less gold than the total weight suggests, and a buyer will subtract the stone's weight or refuse to buy it at all. The failure mode is accepting a buyer's weight without verification; the buyer's scale may be inaccurate, or they may round down to the nearest gram.

For dental gold, separate the crowns from the bridges and the fillings, because they have different alloy compositions. For e-waste, remove the gold-plated pins from the plastic connectors and cut the fingers off the circuit boards. A board with the fingers cut off is worth less per pound, but it is easier for the refiner to process, and you will get a better percentage. The practical rule is to do the buyer's job for them. If you bring clean, sorted scrap, you are a preferred seller, and you will get a better price. If you bring a shoebox of tangled necklaces and a jar of teeth, you are a problem, and the buyer will price in the hassle.

You will see scrap gold value ranges published, and they are useful only if you understand what they mean. A range like $50-70 per gram for 14K jewellery reflects the spot price, the buyer's margin, and the purity of the piece. The melt value is the theoretical maximum, and you will never see it in an offer. A realistic payout for 14K is 80-90% of melt, which means if the melt value is $100, you will get $80-90. For dental gold, the range is wider, 60-80%, because the alloy mix is less predictable and the refining cost is higher. For e-waste, the range is 40-60% of the gold value, and that is before you subtract the cost of your time. A range that seems too good to be true is a marketing hook, not an offer.

Don't Anchor on the Top

The failure mode is misreading the range. A page that says "up to $70 per gram" is telling you the best case, not the average. The actual offer depends on the day's spot price, the buyer's overhead, and the purity of your lot. Do not anchor on the top of the range; anchor on the middle and expect to be offered less. If a buyer quotes you a number that is above the melt value, they are either not weighing correctly or they are a scam. Walk away from any buyer who offers a percentage of spot without explaining their deductions. The honest buyer will show you the calculation: weight, purity, spot price, and their percentage.

Gold buyer payout is not a mystery, but it is a minefield. The payout is always a percentage of melt value, and the percentage depends on the source. You will hear terms like "spot price" and "melt value" used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Spot price is the market price per troy ounce of pure gold, and melt value is the dollar value of the gold in your specific item. A buyer who quotes spot price is not offering you spot; they are offering a percentage of it. The FTC requires gold buyers to mark their items with the correct karat, but they do not require them to pay a fair percentage. The only protection you have is your own knowledge of the weight and purity.

Mail-in Buyers: A Warning

The biggest mistake is selling to a mail-in buyer who does not disclose the karat or weight they used in their calculation. You cannot verify an offer you cannot see, and once you have mailed your gold, you have no leverage. The failure mode is accepting a buyer's weight without verification; the buyer's scale may be inaccurate, or they may round down to the nearest gram. If you sell in person, ask to see the scale and the testing results. If the buyer will not show you, leave. There are plenty of reputable buyers who will happily explain their process because it builds trust. The honest caveat is that no buyer is paying you a fair price if you do not know what you have. The moment you hand over your gold without knowing its weight and purity, you have given up the only advantage you had.

A scrap gold calculator is a tool, not a promise. It takes your weight and purity, multiplies by the spot price, and gives you a melt value. The problem is that most people use the total weight instead of the gold weight, or they use the wrong ounce. The scrap gold value formula uses troy ounces, not avoirdupois ounces. A troy ounce is 31.1 grams, while a regular ounce is 28.35 grams. Using the wrong ounce overstates value by about 9.7%. The difference between a fair offer and a lowball is the most common error. If you enter the weight in grams, the calculator should convert to troy ounces for you, but not all do. Check the formula: weight in grams divided by 31.1, times purity, times spot price.

Adjust for Recovery

The calculator also assumes 100% recovery, which is impossible. Refiners lose gold in the process, and they charge for that loss. A realistic recovery rate is 90-95% for jewellery, 90% for dental, and 85-90% for e-waste. When you use the calculator, reduce the result by the recovery rate and then by the buyer's margin. If the calculator says $500 melt value, a fair offer is $400-450 for jewellery, $350-400 for dental, and $250-300 for e-waste. The failure mode is treating the calculator's output as an offer. It is a starting point, not a floor. The buyer will not pay you melt value, and you should not expect it.

Sometimes the honest answer is that your scrap gold is not worth selling. A single gold-plated pin is worth less than the bus fare to the buyer. A dental crown with a porcelain layer might yield $5-10 in gold, which is not worth the trip.That is real money, but it is not the $200 you imagined. The failure mode is spending an afternoon stripping boards and ending up with less than minimum wage. If you have a small amount of low-purity scrap, the best move is to hold it until you have more, or to sell it to a local refiner who will not charge shipping. Do not mail a single gold pin; the shipping will eat the profit.

Tax Considerations

The other hidden cost is the tax. The IRS treats gold as a collectible, and if you sell for a gain, you owe capital gains tax. For small sales, you may not get a 1099-B, but you are still required to report the gain. The honest caveat is that the tax is your problem, not the buyer's. If you sell $600 worth of scrap, you might owe $100-150 in tax, depending on your bracket. That is a real deduction from your payout, and it is one that most sellers do not budget for. The practical advice is to keep your receipts and your records, and to know that the IRS can audit you even on small sales. If you are selling gold to pay a bill, the tax is a bitter pill, but it is the law.

Dental gold value is real, but it is not a windfall. A crown that weighs 2 grams and is 50% gold has a melt value of about $70 at $70 per gram. A buyer will offer you $40-50. That is a decent payout for something you were going to throw away, but it is not life-changing. The same is true for gold-filled and e-waste. The sources that sound exotic are the ones that pay the least per gram, because they cost the most to refine. The honest caveat is that if you are selling scrap gold to make rent, you are in trouble. The payout will not save you. But if you have a small box of broken jewellery and dental work, sorting it and selling it to a reputable buyer is a legitimate way to turn trash into cash. The key is to know what you have, weigh it correctly, and get three quotes. The moment you do that, you are no longer a seller; you are a commodity trader.