Most people selling gold for the first time have the same worry, and it isn’t really about the price. It’s about not knowing enough to tell whether the number they’re handed is reasonable.
That’s a solvable problem. Gold pricing isn’t a mystery, and once you understand the three inputs every honest buyer uses, you can check any offer against your own math before you accept it.
This guide covers how offers are calculated, how to find a buyer worth visiting, what the process looks like from walking in to walking out with cash, and the mistakes that cost sellers money.
How Local Buyers Make Offers for Your Gold
Every legitimate offer on scrap gold comes from the same three numbers.
Purity. Gold jewelry is almost never pure gold. It’s alloyed with other metals for durability, and the karat stamp tells you the ratio. 14K is 58.5% gold. 10K is 41.7%. 18K is 75%. If you’re not sure what your pieces are, our guide to what the stamps on your gold and silver mean walks through the markings.
Weight. Precious metals are weighed in troy ounces, not the ounces on a kitchen scale. A troy ounce is 31.1 grams; a standard ounce is 28.35. Most buyers work in grams and convert. If a buyer quotes you a weight in standard ounces, that’s either sloppiness or something worse.
The spot price. This is the global market price for pure gold, and it changes by the minute. It’s public information — you can check it before you leave the house, and it should be posted or available at any buyer you visit.
Put together, the calculation looks like this:
(spot price ÷ 31.1) × purity × your weight in grams = the raw metal value
So if gold is trading at $4,600 an ounce, that’s about $148 per gram of pure gold. A 20-gram 14K chain contains 58.5% of that, or roughly $86 per gram — about $1,720 of gold. Check the live price before you rely on any specific figure; gold has moved sharply through 2026.
Why No Buyer Pays 100% of Melt
That $1,720 is the metal content, not the offer. Every buyer pays a percentage of it, and there are real reasons why: the gold has to be refined, the buyer carries the price risk between the moment they hand you cash and the moment the refiner settles, and there’s a storefront and staff behind the counter.
What separates a fair buyer from a bad one isn’t whether they take a margin. It’s whether they’ll tell you what it is.
What a Fair Offer Looks Like
A fair offer is one you can trace backward. You should be able to leave knowing:
- What karat each piece tested at, and how it was tested
- What it weighed, on a scale you could see
- What spot price was used
- What percentage of melt you were paid
If you have all four numbers, you can check the arithmetic yourself. That’s the whole standard.
A lowball offer is usually a single number with nothing behind it. Not necessarily a low number — a lowball can look generous if you have no reference point. The tell is the absence of a breakdown, not the size of the figure.
Bear in mind that not every item should be priced as scrap. Bullion coins and bars typically pay closer to spot because they don’t need refining. Certain coins carry collector value well above their metal content. Designer jewelry, antique pieces, and anything with meaningful stones may be worth more intact than melted. A buyer who weighs everything and quotes one blended number is not evaluating your items — they’re processing them.
Tips for Selling Gold to Local Buyers: What to Look For
Search “cash for gold near me” and you’ll get pawn shops, jewelry stores, mail-in services, and dedicated precious metals buyers. They are not interchangeable.
A physical storefront you can visit. You want an address, posted hours, and a business that’s still there next month if something needs sorting out.
Testing done in front of you. Acid testing, electronic testing, or XRF — the method matters less than whether you can watch it happen.
A visible scale. You should be able to read the weight yourself.
Posted or available spot pricing. A buyer who won’t tell you what spot they’re working from is hiding the only number that makes the offer checkable.
Breadth of what they accept. A buyer who handles jewelry, coins, bullion, sterling flatware, dental gold, and stones can evaluate a mixed lot properly instead of pushing everything through one formula. It also means you’re not making three trips.
Verifiable standing. Look for BBB accreditation, membership in a trade organization like the Texas Numismatic Association, and reviews that describe the process rather than just the payout.
No obligation to sell. A real evaluation is free and you should be able to walk out with your items. Any pressure to decide on the spot is a reason to leave.
The Process of Getting Cash for Gold
At a dedicated buyer, it’s short:
- Bring your items in. No appointment needed at most storefronts, ours included. Bring everything, including pieces you assume are worthless — broken chains, single earrings, class rings, dental gold. Sorting is free and people are regularly surprised.
- Everything is sorted and tested. Items are separated by metal and karat, since 10K and 14K pay differently. Anything that might be worth more than melt gets pulled aside.
- Weighing. By karat group, on a visible scale.
- The offer. You get a number with the reasoning behind it, and no obligation to accept.
- Payment. If you accept, you’re paid on the spot.
Start to finish, a typical jewelry-box lot takes fifteen or twenty minutes.
Selling Gold in a Hurry
Sometimes the timing isn’t strategic. A bill came due, a repair can’t wait, or a move is happening faster than planned.
Selling quickly doesn’t have to mean selling badly. What it means practically is skipping the shopping-around step, so the buyer you pick matters more. The vetting above takes about ten minutes online before you drive anywhere, and it’s the difference between a same-day sale and a same-day regret.
Bring identification. Texas law requires precious metals dealers to record seller information, so a valid ID keeps the transaction moving. If you’re selling a large amount, call ahead — not for an appointment, but so the cash is on hand.
If your timing is flexible rather than urgent, our post on whether now is the right time to sell covers what actually moves the market and what doesn’t.
Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Gold
Cleaning or polishing first. It doesn’t raise the melt value and it can damage collector value on older pieces. Bring things as they are.
Assuming plated items are worthless — or that they’re not. Stamps reading GP, GF, HGE, or RGP mean a thin layer of gold over base metal, and they carry little scrap value. But people throw out solid gold because it’s tarnished and hold onto plated pieces because they shine. Let someone test it.
Selling a collection piece as scrap. If you have coins, bring them to someone who can assess numismatic value. Melting a coin worth three times its gold content is a permanent mistake.
Taking the first offer without a reference point. You don’t have to shop around if you’ve done the math yourself. But do one or the other.
Splitting a lot across several buyers. You lose the ability to compare, and mixed lots are often valued better as a whole.
Forgetting about taxes on a large sale. Most everyday sales don’t trigger anything, but larger ones can. See what actually triggers IRS reporting.
Common Misconceptions About Cash for Gold Services
“They won’t take small amounts.” They will. A single broken chain is a normal transaction.
“Broken or damaged jewelry is worthless.” Condition is irrelevant to scrap value. Gold is gold whether the clasp works or not.
“You need receipts or certificates.” Not for scrap. Documentation can help establish provenance on collector pieces, but nothing is required.
“Every sale gets reported to the IRS.” No. Cash transactions over $10,000 require a Form 8300 filing, and certain bullion sales have their own rules, but ordinary jewelry sales don’t generate paperwork.
“Pawn shops and gold buyers are the same thing.” They operate on different models. A pawn shop evaluates resale potential across every category of goods; a precious metals buyer evaluates metal content and collector value specifically. We compared them in detail in gold buyer vs. pawn shop.
“You’ll get spot price.” No buyer pays spot for scrap. Anyone claiming to is making the margin back somewhere you can’t see.
Selling Gold in Fort Worth
We’ve been buying gold, silver, coins, bullion, and diamonds in north Fort Worth for years. We test in front of you, weigh on a scale you can read, and explain how we arrived at the number. The evaluation is free, there’s no appointment, and you’re free to decline and take your items home.
If you’re still working out what you have, start with what kind of gold can be sold or which types of gold bring the highest payout.
Alliance Gold & Silver Exchange
2901 Western Center Blvd. #120
Fort Worth, TX 76131
682-316-4221
Monday–Friday 10AM–6PM | Saturday 10AM–2PM
Serving Fort Worth, Saginaw, Blue Mound, Haslet, Keller, and the greater DFW area.