How much money would a typical pawnshop offer for a $2,000 piece of gold jewelry?

Question

$100? $500? $50?

Do pawnshops typically offer more money for gold than they would for, say for example, electronics or firearms--or might they offer less?

Answer 1

Remember, pawnshops are in business to make money.  A $2000 piece of gold jewelry may have as little as $200 worth of gold in it.  The markups for gold jewelry are legendary.

To value the gold in a piece of jewelry, look it over for the K rating.  The K system measures purity.  Pure gold is 24K, but pure gold is quite soft, so alloys are common.  Depending on where you are, gold must be at least 14K to lawfully be called "jewelry".  Your jewelry may also be just gold plated, which would mean there is substantially less gold in it than if it was solid gold.

Assuming that you have found a K rating and you believe it is solid:

Weigh the item in grams and multiply the weight by the K number, then divide that number by 24.  For example, if a 20K item weighs 12 grams, 12 x 20 / 24 = 10 grams of 24K gold.

Look up the price of gold online:

http://www.kitco.com

At the time of this writing, the bid price of gold is $826.70US  / troy ounce.  Gold prices fluctuate constantly.  By the time you read this, the price may be lower or higher.

Divide the gold price by 31.1 to get the price in grams.  In this example, $826.70 / 31.1 = $26.58 per gram.  Multiply this price/gram by the weight of 24K gold that you calculated earlier.   We had a 20K piece that weighed 12 grams, and the calcuated weight of 24K gold in it was 10 grams.  So for this example, $26.58 x 10 = $265.80

This is not the value of the piece.  It is certainly less than you paid for the piece.  It is the value of the gold in the piece.  Pawnshops and gold scrap dealers may offer you less than this price, but they will never offer you more than this price.

Grandpa  

Answer 2

It depends on the price of gold at the time you take it there. They do pay better when the gold is worth more. Right now, gold is worth good money, so you would get more money now. But, from what I hear, take it to a jeweler and they can offer you a better price than a pawn shop. I hope this helps. Oh, one more thing, they weigh it at the pawn shop and however much it weighs, they pay by the gram or the penny ounce. I do know this much, one time I took a $300 ring and for the gold, all I got was $20 out of it. This was 1 year ago though, and I know gold is worth more now.