Sharing scrap gold buying prices

Hey all, Can anyone share the prices they are paying for scrap gold?
Dental, 22kt, 18kt, 14kt, 10kt, and even Irish 9.5kt. I am seeing it
all, but I really have not delved into this market. Any formulas or
feed back would be appreciated. Regards, Craig

P.S. A very smart friend of mine told me to always find a way to
make friends with inflation.

the best is to know what prices are specific to your area take some
gold to your local pawn dealer and ask them what they will pay you
for it, then youve got your answer. - g

Aloha! Craig,

it varies, I seen anywhere from 80.00 - 120.00 given to a customer
for gold.

There is a nice “conversion” chart in the Hoover & Strong jewellery
services catalogue, in the refining section its page 193 of the
2006/2008 catalogue.

Now I know that the spot prices quoted for the metals is quite out
of date, but there shouldn’t be any problems with expanding the
charts to handle the current spot prices…

Should give you a place to start, it did me!

Usual disclaimer applies; I’m just a happy customer…

Cheers, Thomas.
Janstrom Designs.

As a refiner with long experience with “scrap” The math is simple at
least as we see it. Just use a calculator to reduce the spot 24kt
market down to your karat. If you do not know the karat, all
estimates are irrelevant. Everybody who “estimates” does so in their
own favor-or else!

Total your ounces or karat scrap and do the math. How much refiners
fee you allow is up to you- Commercial rates run from less than 3
percent, but you must figure in the minimum charge. Ours is $100,
then we pay 97.5% of the result. A 100 minimum charge is nearly
covered by .111 Toz pure!!!

If anyone wants a simple excel sheet I can work one up easily…

Daniel Ballard
www.pmwest.us

A formula to find out what the gold is worth is to take the spot
price, say $900, divide by 24 (24kt), multiply by the karat the item
is, say 14kt., divide by 31.1 for grams or 20 for pennyweight. Then
you need to decide how much to pay below that price.

The people I know who buy are usually about 80-85%.

So $900 divided by 24 =$37.50, assuming the item is 14kt, multiply
by 14 gives you $525 as the value of the fine gold in an ounce of
14kt. Divide $525 by 31 1 gives you $16.88 as the value of the 14kt.
per gram. 80% of $16.88 is $13.50, multiply that times the weight of
the item, let’s say 5 grams, you can pay out $67.52.

People I know who do this can acquire 50 ounces in a few days and
have it refined. If you have to collect it over a period do time, you
have to figure out how it would work for you with the length of time
you have to hold it and the fluctuation of the market.

Basically if you get 97% from a refiner, if you pay out 80%, you
will make 17%, at $900 an ounce you will make $153 per ounce.

Richard Hart

Take the current market price, divide by 20 (in the case of troy),
multiply by fineness, multiply by 90-95%. This gives you an
approximation of what a reputable refiner will pay you per dwt. Then
factor in your profit(which is up to you)

Example…

Bullion is $904 and your using dwts instead of grams, the article in
question is 18K

$904 X.05 X.750 X.95 = $32.20 Then factor in your profit. if you pay
2/3 of what you sell it for then multiply by.666 and you pay $21.45
over the counter for 18K scrap. Paying 2/3 is basically making 50% on
your money, not bad for a quick turn around. But the rate is up to
you. You might feel making 10% is good enough.

A good refiner will pay out about 90-95% of market then deduct
refining charges, so if your lots are too small and frequent it will
cut into your margin. Wait longer to build up the lot and market may
go up or down in the meantime.

For instant scarp gold pricing, go to

click upper area SCRAP CALCULATOR
Its what he pays and he pays about as well as others.
Many use it as their buying guide.

David Geller
JewelerProfit
www.JewelerProfit.com

varies, I seen anywhere from 80.00 - 120.00 given to a customer for
gold. 

For how much gold?? An ounce? A piece? 14k? 18k? 22k?

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.

Daniel, I would think alot of us would like an easy sheet, can you
list it here for us? Does it cover all Kt.s Thanks to all, I have
stuck most replies in a folder to go over later as I have to read
and run today.

Regards, CB

Ah Daniel,

If you do not know the karat, all estimates are irrelevant. Total
your ounces or karat scrap and do the math. How much refiners fee
you allow is up to you- Commercial rates run from less than 

If only it were this simple for retailers. But you forget that we
have to make money too. So figuring out the actual value of the gold
that is presented to us is basically meaningless. What makes it
meaningful is the following:

How much overhead are we paying so that we are there for the
customers to come into our stores to actually sell us the scrap"

How often do we actually send in the scrap (I only refine once a
year so if I base my payout prices on what gold is today and it drops
significantly by the time I send it in how much have I lost)"

How much do we need to make (so that we stay in business so that we
can keep sending you the scrap that you charge us to refine) on the
scrap"

How much testing do we do on the scrap to insure that what we are
getting is what we think it is (in other words, what’s our cushion
against something that isn’t what we think it is)"

All of these factors have to enter into it, not just simply what
gold is priced at and what we might yield on today’s date, as it
might for a refiner.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

I have payed anywhere from $6/dwt upto $14/dwt for 14k scrap. A
dollar less for 10k, and a dollar more for 18k. For larger lots, I
pay more /dwt. - less for smaller lots. If you do some promo, you’ll
be amazed at how much gold folks have locked away and dont know what
to do with it. People bring in hi karat gold teeth, big bags of
silver coins, small and large batches of low grade wally world type
gold jewelry thats worn out,and little old ladies literally have
stacks of 1 oz. gold Krugerands setting around, and dont have a clue
how to sell them.

Generally, I pay the highest rates in my area, so I don’t make the
most profit per dwt, but I get alot more people coming to sell to me
because they’ve heard what friends have received.

And then theres a zillion diamond melee to be had, as well as a few
center-sized diamonds and colored stones. Usually, I’ll pay 1/4 to
1/2 of wholesale for melee and small center stones. Some stuff is
simply not worth the labor time to remove it so I pay nothing for
that.

In the last year I have acquired a 1.51 carat, I2 ish, and countless
1/5 to 1/3 carat marquise and round diamonds, all at a fraction of
their normal wholesale. Alot of the colored stones I see, are pretty
low grade, and are often quite abraded, but every once in a while
there’ll be a decent one.

Generall, its not a good idea to pay very much for most of the
stones, as the bulk are strictly commercial grade goods, nothing fine
quality. And always remember that it takes labor time($) to remove
these stones from the settings. If you send scrap to the refiners
like Hoover and Strong, with a bunch of diamond mellee still in it,
they will charge you for removal.

A bonus that comes with buying scrap is that alot of people will
bring piles and piles of costume jewelry left over from handling
their moms estate. Often times there are loads of name brand pieces
that will bring very nice $ on Ebay.

Be prepared to wait a little while on your money from the refineries
right now, as most are backlogged with so many batches to process.
Hoover & Strong is running 2-3 weeks right now, whereas 1 year ago
they were running 3-4 days, so allow plenty of time if you are going
to need your money back.

Overall, scrap buying is an immensly profitable venture to consider,
just make sure that you know what/who you are buying before you pay,
and know your local laws on this type of business activity.

Ed

Daniel,

Total your ounces or karat scrap and do the math. How much refiners
fee you allow is up to you- Commercial rates run from less than 3
percent, but you must figure in the minimum charge. Ours is $100,
then we pay 97.5% of the result. A 100 minimum charge is nearly
covered by .111 Toz pure!

Is the 2.5% on top of the $100.00 minimum or is that included in the
$100.00? You can write off list if you want.

Thanks,
Vera
http://verabattemarco.com

How often do we actually send in the scrap (I only refine once a
year so if I base my payout prices on what gold is today and it
drops significantly by the time I send it in how much have I lost)

If you are buying scrap gold and only refining it once per year you
are asking for trouble or not buying quantity. I saw it in the early
80’s when gold was thought to have no ceiling. Many people held it
way
too long and lost a lot of money. Gold went down under 300 after that
and only now is up again. Same thing happened with silver back then.

I buy scrap to make money and remelt for sizing stock and such. A
nice piece I will pay more for if it can be refinished and I think I
can sell it as an estate piece. In doing so I pay as high as I can
and
still have a comfortable cushion. (Fair to me and fair to the
customer) Sometimes even nicer pieces will be scraped though. Simple
economics. $ out vs. $ in.

Mark

This is what I pay for street gold

10k market X.0875 X Penney weight (dwt)=$payment( pmt.)
14k mkt x.0126 x dwt=$ pmt.
18k mkt x.0164 x dwt=$ pmt.
ss mkt. x.025 x dwt =$pmt.

If you are buying scrap gold and only refining it once per year
you are asking for trouble or not buying quantity. 

I don’t actually buy scrap gold, only take it in as credit towards
work being done, but I can assure you that I make money on it
regardless of how rarely I send it in. That’s because I take that
factor into account when I give the customers a credit for it. But I
wasn’t talking to the people who buy and sell a lot of scrap gold, I
was responding to the poster who seemed to just be dabbling in it a
bit and to the refiner who offered a formula for how much to pay
based on what results from him would yield. For someone not taking
in enough to send it in on a regular basis, the refiners comments
weren’t going to work for them unless they bought a whole bunch at
once.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140