Broken chains, single earrings, dental gold, tangled pieces, old settings — if it's gold, it has value. Get paid today.
That tangled chain in your jewelry box, the single earring missing its pair, the old dental crown in a drawer — all of it contains real gold with real value. The condition of the piece doesn't matter. What matters is the karat purity and weight of the gold inside.
At GetGoldValue, we pay up to 80% of the live gold spot price for scrap gold — significantly more than most pawnshops and cash-for-gold stores that typically offer 50–60%.
The value of scrap gold depends on two things: its karat purity (how much of the piece is actual gold) and its weight in grams. We use XRF spectrometry to determine the exact purity of every item — no acid tests, no guessing. Once tested, your payout is calculated in real time against the live spot price.
For example, a 14K gold chain weighing 20 grams contains about 11.66 grams of pure gold. At current prices, that could be worth hundreds of dollars — and we pay up to 80% of that value, which is far above average.
Not sure what your scrap is worth? Use our free live gold calculator to get an instant estimate. Enter the karat and weight, and you'll see your estimated payout in seconds — no signup, no obligation.
When you bring scrap gold to GetGoldValue, the first thing that happens is not a guess and not an acid scratch. It is an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scan that reads the elemental composition of your piece in under ten seconds without touching or damaging the metal.
What XRF actually measures. The spectrometer fires a focused beam of X-rays at the metal surface. Different elements absorb and re-emit energy at characteristic wavelengths. The instrument reads those wavelengths and returns a precise elemental breakdown: 58.3% gold, 20.1% silver, 21.6% copper, for example. That reading tells us the exact karat of the alloy without any destructive testing.
Why this matters for your payout. A piece stamped 14K might test at 13.2K if it was made in a country with loose stamping standards or if the alloy composition shifted during manufacture. It might also test at 14.4K. The XRF reading determines what we pay — not the stamp alone. For sellers, this means a buyer who uses XRF cannot round down arbitrarily; the data is right there.
What you see during the test. We run the scan with you watching. The result appears on the instrument display: elemental percentages and calculated karat equivalents. We then apply the current spot price to calculate your payout per gram at that karat. You can verify the arithmetic yourself if you looked up the spot price before arriving.
Gold-plated pieces. XRF penetrates past surface plating and reads the base metal underneath. A gold-plated brass bracelet shows up immediately as brass. There is no ambiguity and no arguing about it. If a piece is plated, we tell you before any offer is made.
No. The value is based entirely on the gold content — karat purity and weight. A broken chain has the same gold value as an intact one of the same karat and weight.
We use XRF (X-ray fluorescence) spectrometry, which gives a precise reading of the gold content without damaging the piece. No acid tests, no scratching.
Definitely. Dental gold is typically high-karat (often 16K–22K equivalent) and can be surprisingly valuable. We test and pay for the actual gold content.
Gold-plated items contain very little actual gold and typically aren't worth selling for melt value. However, gold-filled items (marked GF) contain more gold and may be worthwhile — bring them in and we'll test for free.
Even a small pile of broken pieces can add up to hundreds of dollars. Find out what yours is worth.