I buy/sell gold items every day,and I frequently have to help people understand what it is that they have,so they can understand its value (or lack of value...) People see the gold market going up and get all excited about the value of their scrap gold items going up as well,and the two markets are very closely related,but vastly different.Let's say gold is $500 per ounce and you have a scrap gold wedding band that is marked 10k....The $500 per ounce price is for FINE gold which is .999 fine,or 99.9% pure.To estimate the value of your piece take the karat marking of your piece (10) and make into a fraction over 32..or 10/32 pure...or about 1/3 (this formula is accurate REGARDLESS of the karat marking of your piece ,14k will be 14/32   18k will be 18/32,etc.) .999 fine gold will be 32/32. There are 31 grams in a troy ounce which is the standard for gold silver,and platinum.Lets say your ring weighs 3.1 grams...That means your ring contains $50 worth of gold.Then consider the fact that your ring must be melted to recover the fine gold.Fine gold is too soft to make jewelry out of,so copper and other materials are added for hardness and durability.Whoever buys your ring has to make a profit,and so does the refiner he sells it to....But it at least gives you an idea of it's value,so you can shop it around for the highest price without unrealistic expectations.

 If an item is marked with letters next to the karat mark...like RGP or HGE it is usually not gold,but is filled or plated,making its scrap value VERY low...$2 per ounce or less..RGP stands for rolled gold plate.HGE stands for heavy gold electroplate.most older eyeglass frames and other large items will usually be gold filled and marked something like 1/20 12kgf ....which means 1/20 of the weight of the frames (without the glass lenses) is 12/32 pure gold.....     that's NOT very much !! about $3 is all it is worth.You can gold electroplate 14,000 pairs of earrings with an ounce of gold,so if you do the math gold plate is just about worthless.I will be happy to answer specific email questions about individual pieces if you have other questions !

 Cheryl at millionpatternstore