Why I Started Checking Gold Prices Before Buying Jewelry

A few months ago I inherited a small box of gold pieces from a relative—rings, a broken chain, some earrings without backs. I had no idea what any of it was worth. The stamps said 14K and 18K, but that meant nothing to me. When I tried to sell a piece locally, the first shop offered a price that felt low, but I had no way to verify it. I left without selling and decided to figure out the basics first.

That’s when I learned how gold is actually valued. The price you see in the news is typically per troy ounce of pure (24K) gold. Jewelry is almost never pure—it’s alloyed with other metals for durability. So 14K means 14 parts gold out of 24, or about 58.5% gold by weight. 18K is 75%, 22K is about 92%. The “melt value” of a piece is basically: take its weight, multiply by the purity factor, and apply the current spot price. It sounds simple, but the math gets messy when you switch between grams, ounces, and troy ounces.

I spent a while doing it manually in a spreadsheet. Then I realised there are free calculators online that do this automatically. You enter the weight and purity, and they pull current prices and show you the melt value. No sign-up, no account—just useful when you’re trying to decide whether a price is fair or when you’re browsing jewelry and want a rough idea of what you’re looking at.

For anyone dealing with gold—whether you’re selling inherited pieces, buying secondhand, or just curious about the value of something you own—having a quick way to check melt value is helpful. It doesn’t tell you what a jeweler will pay (they need margin for refining and labour), but it gives you a baseline. If a buyer offers way below melt, you know to shop around. And if you’re buying, at least you have a sense of the raw material cost behind the price tag.

When I need a quick check now, I use a simple online calculator that handles grams, ounces, and different purities. The one I bookmarked is this free gold value calculator—no registration, prices update regularly, and it works on my phone when I’m at a shop or market. It’s one less thing to calculate by hand.