Karat vs Pure gold

Advertise with us
xelexo
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
W

Watcher

Well-known member
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2024
Messages
77
Location
Ottawa Canada
Hello, general question, thoughts and opinions.
I have three 14kt stamped gold watch cases weighing in at approx 10 grams.
My question is should I sell the gold as is or should I refine to pure!
Purely for monetary gain whats your thoughts? Thanks.

Steve.
 
Watcher said:
Hello, general question, thoughts and opinions.
I have three 14kt stamped gold watch cases weighing in at approx 10 grams.
My question is should I sell the gold as is or should I refine to pure!
Purely for monetary gain whats your thoughts? Thanks.

Steve.
Click to expand...
Well It all depends on what you get payed for Karat and for pure and where you sell it. It's a small amount of gold which usually cuts on the percentage paid out.
Edited for spelling.
 
It's my impression that you will be paid 1:0.96 (or close to) the gold content. So a 10g. piece of 8 karat should yield the same price as 3,3 g. of .9999.

The ~4% difference (as far as I can figure) is because there's some rule that, say, 14k gold must be above 13K, but doesn't actually have to be 14K, and 22K must be above 21K and so on.

So 2 10g pieces of 12K stuff doesn't actually yield 10g of .999 gold, but closer to 10g of 22K.

Also if you aren't an experienced refiner already, the cost of know-how and setup will be far too much to balance out any discount that the buyer will demand.
 
Watcher said:
Hello, general question, thoughts and opinions.
I have three 14kt stamped gold watch cases weighing in at approx 10 grams.
My question is should I sell the gold as is or should I refine to pure!
Purely for monetary gain whats your thoughts? Thanks.

Steve.
Click to expand...

My opinion is, that you should hold on to it if you do not need the money urgently. Do not refine it since the quantity is small, but rather save it, you can sell it anytime or enywhere for cash. Keep it for the dark days.

I do not do watch cases so i have no expertise whatsoever, but i think there could be some market for theses cases among those who restore old gold watches... or am I mistaken?

I think you should sniff around at some watch repair/restorers maybe you`ll get a better price then in pawnshops. (this is just a guess)

It is only my opinion and please treat it accordingly.

Pete.

Edit: Added the quote
 
nwinther said:
It's my impression that you will be paid 1:0.96 (or close to) the gold content. So a 10g. piece of 8 karat should yield the same price as 3,3 g. of .9999.

The ~4% difference (as far as I can figure) is because there's some rule that, say, 14k gold must be above 13K, but doesn't actually have to be 14K, and 22K must be above 21K and so on.

So 2 10g pieces of 12K stuff doesn't actually yield 10g of .999 gold, but closer to 10g of 22K.

Also if you aren't an experienced refiner already, the cost of know-how and setup will be far too much to balance out any discount that the buyer will demand.
Click to expand...
There is a margin for karat gold. It is quite impossible to make exactly 14K or any karat, considering solder and oxides when making an alloy etc. So dealers automatically assume all marked gold is on the low end of that range. Which it usually is.. as manufacturers will do the same.
But for 10 grams of pure gold in an 8 Karat piece dealers will not pay the same as for 10 grams of 3 nines fine gold. There is work to do on the 8K piece. That obviously costs time and money.
Then if you go over 25 gram or so, you get even closer to spot, because the lot is bigger. (administation costs etc. for 1 gram are about the same as for 10Kilo's.. so by doing so, they discourage small sellers to bring in 0,1 gram every other day. By figure of speech..

So if you're not in need of money now, I would refine it and toss it in the pure gold safe until you want to sell to someone in need of gold ;)

Because if you need money fast, you'll never get best price for selling gold. The one buying the gold will.
 
GoIdman said:
My opinion is, that you should hold on to it if you do not need the money urgently. Do not refine it since the quantity is small, but rather save it, you can sell it anytime or enywhere for cash. Keep it for the dark days.

I do not do watch cases so i have no expertise whatsoever, but i think there could be some market for theses cases among those who restore old gold watches... or am I mistaken?

I think you should sniff around at some watch repair/restorers maybe you`ll get a better price then in pawnshops. (this is just a guess)

It is only my opinion and please treat it accordingly.

Pete.

Edit: Added the quote
Click to expand...
Thanks, I always prefer to sell the watches but if they're not selling for whatever reason I'll recover the gold and sell the watch parts to try to get get my costs back.
Steve.
 
Watcher said:
Hello, general question, thoughts and opinions.
I have three 14kt stamped gold watch cases weighing in at approx 10 grams.
My question is should I sell the gold as is or should I refine to pure!
Purely for monetary gain whats your thoughts? Thanks.

Steve.
Click to expand...

There are only 2 real reasons for wanting to "refine" gold

1) it is a "hobby" so you enjoy the "satisfaction" of first the learning process & then the BIG grin on your face when you are actually able to say "I did it" - I took an impure metal & refined it to it's pure metal (y) :cool::p

2) to make a monetary gain - BUT - in order to do that you must FIRST already have a buyer that is willing to pay at least spot price &/or something "above" spot price --- which you will not get if all you have to sell to is your local "we buy gold" shop &/or an actual refiner that you send your gold to

And why is that ?

Because "we buy gold" shops as well as actual refiners pay for the gold they buy based on the pure gold content of what they are buying using the pure gold spot price as the foundation of their "pay out" rate for buying gold

In other words they buy gold based on it's pure gold "content" - NOT on how pure it is

Example; - if you send a batch of karat gold into a refinery & their payout rate on "the gold" is say 98% of spot price --- then it does not matter what the karat of the gold is because they are going to pay that 98% on the gold "content"

So - if you send them 100 grams of 10 karat gold - 10 karat gold is 41.6% gold - or 41.6 grams gold per 100 grams of the 10 karat ---- so the refinery will pay you 98% of spot on that 41.6 grams of gold

If you send them 100 grams of 12 karat there is 50 grams gold in that 100 grams of 12 karat - so they will pay 98% spot on the 50 grams gold

100 grams of 14K = 58.3 grams gold - so they will pay 98% spot on 58.3 grams gold

100 gram 18K = 75 grams gold - so they will pay 98% spot on 75 grams gold

100 grams 24K = (at least) 99.9 grams gold - so they will pay(rounding up) 98% spot on the100 grams

That is the "basics" for there pay out rates - the actual payout rate slide between (around) 96% & 98.5% depending on the size of the batch sent in & if that batch sent in is under 5 or 10 troy ounces (actual gold) they will likely charge a "small" assay fee ($25 - $35)

The reason they do that is because refineries do not actually make their money on the 2% under spot they pay for the gold "content" they buy --- rather - they make their money on the gold they buy - by turning it into "value added" products which they sell for over spot such as plating solutions/salts - wire, tubbing, sheet etc. etc. for jewelers - bullion rounds or bars & other "value added" products

So - "generally" speaking the same holds true with "we buy gold" shops - just that they buy at some percentage under what the refineries pay because when they send it to the refinery they get paid according to the above

Most (but not all) "we buy gold" shops want to make between 8% - 10% on the gold they buy --- so if they get 98% of spot from the refiner they send their gold to --- then their "buy" rate is likely to be 88% - 90% of spot regardless of what karat the gold you bring them is & that is again is because they - just like the refinery buy their gold based on the gold content - not the gold purity

So the bottom line here - from a monetary "gain" stand point -is that there is no reason to refine karat gold if you are selling to a "we buy gold" shop &/or sending to a refinery (other then the actual difference between the we buy gold shops & the refiners) & that is because the percent of spot the buyer is paying is the same whether it is 10K or 24K --- because they buy on gold content - not gold purity

So - to make a monetary gain on refining your gold - you need to find a buyer - outside of the "we buy gold" shops &/or outside of the actual refineries

In other words - you need to find a privet buyer - that has trust in your refining skills - that will then pay you something "over" spot for "your" refined gold

These kind of buyers are known as "stackers" --- they are willing to pay something over spot for your refined gold because they are "long term" investors counting on the price of gold going up in 10 - 20 - 30 or 40 years

Or if you can find a jeweler that makes custom jewelry they to will buy your refined gold for something over spot (once they trust your refining skills)

For what it is worth

Kurt
 
Thank you Kurt, that information is worth a lot.
I will keep my karat gold and continue to accumulate it and sell it to a "We buy Gold" on a really rainy day.
My recovered gold from rolled and filled watch cases and bracelets I'll continue to learn process and refine for the fun of it. (maybe some profit 😉)
Thanks again Kurt.

Steve.
 
kurtak said:
There are only 2 real reasons for wanting to "refine" gold

1) it is a "hobby" so you enjoy the "satisfaction" of first the learning process & then the BIG grin on your face when you are actually able to say "I did it" - I took an impure metal & refined it to it's pure metal (y) :cool::p

2) to make a monetary gain - BUT - in order to do that you must FIRST already have a buyer that is willing to pay at least spot price &/or something "above" spot price --- which you will not get if all you have to sell to is your local "we buy gold" shop &/or an actual refiner that you send your gold to
Click to expand...
I can think of another reason. If you're selling unrefined gold, you're at the mercy of the buyer as to the purity of your gold, and so, the price they are willing to offer. The seller says it's 14K, but the buyer says it only tests as 12K. It's hard for the seller to know if the buyer is right, and whether they should just accept the offer. But if you refine the gold, and your button has a deep, crystalline pipe, you know your gold is of high purity, and you don't have to accept a low offer.

Dave
 
FrugalRefiner said:
I can think of another reason. If you're selling unrefined gold, you're at the mercy of the buyer as to the purity of your gold, and so, the price they are willing to offer. The seller says it's 14K, but the buyer says it only tests as 12K. It's hard for the seller to know if the buyer is right, and whether they should just accept the offer. But if you refine the gold, and your button has a deep, crystalline pipe, you know your gold is of high purity, and you don't have to accept a low offer.

Dave
Click to expand...
Well, you can go to several different buyers.
compare the readings of the instruments they “shoot”
 

Latest posts

Back
Top