How to Calculate Gold Scrap Price Per Gram Without a Calculator

If you plan to sell scrap gold--which might include gold from electronics, a gold tooth, gold jewelry, or miscellaneous items of gold--to gold refiners, pawn shops or other gold buyers, then a good way to figure out what gold scrap buyers will pay is to calculate gold scrap price per gram. There are online calculators, but it's not hard to do it yourself using simple math. You will just need to know the karat weight of the gold--10K, 14K, 18K, or 24 and have a gram scale.

Recovery of gold items in circulation and melting gold is becoming a popular way to recycle gold. Learn here how to figure scrap gold prices per gram so you can estimate how much those who buy your precious metal should offer you.  Do keep in mind that many legit scrap gold dealers may offer you a fixed percentage less than the current market value.

Step 1 - Find the Current Price of Gold

You'll calculate gold scrap price first by finding the current gold price online. Determine the current price of gold at a website such as Goldprice.org or the many other sites that keep tabs on the metal markets.

The price of gold is conventionally measured in troy ounces and changes each day. One troy ounce is approximately 31 grams.

After you check the current gold price, write down the dollar amount. For instance, if the price of gold happens to be $1,000 per troy ounce, then write down $1,000.

Step 2 - Find the Price of Gold Per Gram

Divide $1,000 (or whatever the price is) by 31 grams. In this example, the price of gold per gram is approximately $32.26.

Step 3 - Sort Your Gold Scrap into Piles of Fineness

Now you're ready to sort your gold scrap. Determine the fineness of the scrap gold by using a magnifying glass if necessary and sort it into piles by fineness (10K, 14K, 18K, or 24K, where K means karat.) Note: Gold plated scrap cannot be weighed this way and should be excluded from this calculation.

Step 4 - Weigh the Scrap Gold

Weigh each pile of gold scrap using a gram scale. Alternatively, you can use an accurate scale that uses ounces and manually convert to grams.

For every ounce of scrap gold you have, you have approximately 28 grams of gold. Write down how much each pile weighs in grams.

Step 5 - Calculate the Gold Price According to the Amount of Pure Gold in the Alloy

Do a simple calculation. Multiply as described below using the number from Step 2:

For scrap gold items of 10 karat (10K) gold, multiply the price of gold per gram by .4167. Example: If the number you get is $12, then $12 is the scrap gold price per gram of 10 karat gold.

For scrap gold items of 14 karat (14K) gold, multiply the price of gold per gram by .5833.

For 18 karat (18K) gold, multiply the price of gold per gram by .75

For 24 karat (24K) gold, multiply the price of gold per gram by 1--which is the same as the price of gold per gram.

Step 6 - Calculate the Current Market Price of Gold Scrap

Multiply the number you figured from Step 5 times the weight of gold in grams from Step 4. Example: If you had 50 grams of 10 karat gold, and if the gold scrap price per gram of 10K gold was $12, then you would have scrap gold with an estimated $600 current market value.