If you've never sold gold before, the testing process can feel like a bit of a mystery. You hand over a ring or a chain, someone examines it for a few minutes, and then you get a number. Here's what's actually happening in those few minutes, and why it's the fairest way to determine what your gold is worth.
Why purity is the whole ballgame
Gold jewelry is almost never 100% pure gold. Pure gold (24 karat) is too soft for everyday jewelry, so it's mixed with other metals — copper, silver, zinc — to make it more durable. That mixture is what determines the karat: 10k, 14k, 18k, and so on. The higher the karat, the more actual gold is in the piece, and the more it's worth by weight.
The problem is, you usually can't tell the karat just by looking at a piece, and stamped markings ("14k," "585," etc.) aren't always reliable — they can wear off, be mismarked, or in rarer cases, be intentionally misleading on plated items. That's exactly why testing matters: it tells us what's actually there, not just what a piece claims to be.
What the testing process looks like
When you bring items in, we start by weighing each piece separately, since price is calculated per gram (or pennyweight) of actual gold content, not the piece's total weight.
From there, we test purity using a combination of methods depending on the item — this typically includes a touchstone and acid testing process, where a small mark is made on a testing stone and a diluted acid solution is applied to determine karat based on how the mark reacts. For jewelry with mixed metals or plating, additional testing helps confirm we're pricing the actual gold content accurately rather than being misled by a gold-plated or gold-filled piece that only looks solid.
This isn't a guessing game or a quick glance — it's a deliberate process specifically so that the number we offer you reflects what's really there.
How the offer is calculated
Once we know the exact weight and karat, we calculate the offer using the current market spot price for gold — the same live price shown in the ticker on our homepage, updated regularly throughout the day. Your offer is based on that real, transparent number, not a marked-down guess.
This is also why gold prices matter for timing: since spot price moves throughout each trading day, the value of the exact same piece can shift slightly depending on when you bring it in. We'll always walk you through exactly how we arrived at your offer, so there's no mystery about the math.
What this means for you
You don't need to know your jewelry's karat before you walk in. You don't need to guess whether that ring is real gold or gold-plated. That's what the testing process is for — and it's the same process every time, for every customer, so the offer you get reflects the actual metal, not assumptions.
Curious what your gold is actually worth? Walk in anytime during business hours, no appointment necessary, and we'll test it right in front of you.