How Much is a 14k Gold Chain Necklace Worth Today?

14K 18K 24K gold necklace and jewelry worth value depends today’s international pure gold price, its gram weight, gold content and craftsmanship with a simple formula.

The Value of 14K Jewelry Change Everyday

Determining the value of jewelry doesn’t need to be confusing, though this can vary depending on the market and who is buying in the first place. The same goes for people who are interested in knowing the value of a gold necklace 24k, gold necklace 18k, and pieces like a gold necklace with a pendant. We’re going to talk about the many factors that affect the price of gold jewelry in today’s blog.

Why Gold Jewelry is Popular?

As you know, gold jewelry is expensive. Purity of gold is higher, the price is higher. But why people prefer gold jewelry over other type of jewelry? Some of reasons are as followings:

1. Hypoallergenic – gold is a non-allergic metal that good for sensitive skin.
2. Retainable value – because of limited supply,  the value of gold can be retained.
3. Easy to clean
4. Choices of purity of jewelry – There are different purity of gold jewelry in the market, including 9k,10k,14k,18k and 24k. People can make choice according to their financial power.

Can We Tell the Value of Gold Chain by Its Length?

Not really. Length is not even one of the factor to value a gold chain. But it will indirectly affect the value because of the weight, which is one of essential factor of valuing a gold chain. The price should be higher if the weight of gold chain is heavier. However, weight is not the only factor to value the chain, many factors can affect its price. We will cover it later of this blog.

Can We Tell the Value of Other Gold? Other Type of Jewelry?

Sure. Besides 14k gold, there are different kind of gold in the market, e.g. 9k, 10k, 18k, 24k, white gold, yellow gold and rose gold. Above all can apply in many kind of jewelries, such as earrings, necklace and bracelet.

What Tools are Required to Value Gold Jewelry?

• Weight – to measure the weight of gold
• Loupe – to check the stamp marked and cleanliness of gold
• Gold price check – Check the daily gold price

What to Know If You Want to Buy Gold Jewelry?

Firstly, you should buy at premium jewelry shop as quality assurance is important to buy gold jewelry. Secondly, you should know what factors will affect the value of gold. For example, gold origin is one of the factors. Gold chain made in Italy is famous while gold chain from Japan is known as more durable. But obviously, gold content and weight are essential factors to affect the value of gold. Therefore, Therefore, when you look at the price of gold jewelry, the price is always be marked up. It is not only related to exact weight and gold content, but also related to its brand, origin, condition and craftsmanship, etc. We will cover more later in this post. Skip to know the factors.

Where to Buy 14K Gold Jewelry?

If you decided to buy 14k gold jewelry, it is recommended to find well-known jewelry shop or platform, such as Blue Nile, Amazon.

What to Know If You Want to Sell 14K Gold Jewelry at Good Price?

It is understandable for people to want the highest possible appraisal for their gold jewelry. However, the valuation of gold isn’t as simple as it may seem. Though you may have a heavy and seemingly invaluable piece of treasure in your hands, jeweler’s appraisals will depend on many factors. There are three ways to sell your jewelry.

Sell as A Jewelry Piece at Marketplace

The method of valuation consists of both subjective factors (designs, brands, origins, conditions, craftsmanship) and objective factors(weight, gold price, gold content, gemstones value), and append your valuation on it. That means you can make a valuation based on above factors, as long as the perception of the buyer aligns with your valuation, you can probably get a good price for it. From this angle, you can sell it find the next owner of the jewelry piece on market place. You are possible to sell it at a high value, but may need some time because you need to wait for a buyer, who agree with your valuation of the gold jewelry piece.

Sell to Jeweler

This method of valuation is same with selling as jewelry piece. Both subjective factors and objective factors are considered, but sell it to jewerler. It is recommended to sell your gold jewelry back to jeweler you buy from, the value should be relative higher comparing with selling to other jeweler. You can sell the jewelry faster but the value may be a little bit lower comparing with selling at marketplace.

Sell on Its Valuable Materials at Pawn Shop, for its Gold Content and Gemstones Value

To sell gold jewelry on its materials, only objective factors like weight, gold price, gold content, gemstones value will be considered. The method requires a bit of computing.  If you are selling a 14-carat gold necklace for example for scrap gold, its value will be largely determined by its actual gold content, which is what buyers of scrap gold are after in the first place. It is relatively quicker to sell it but only at its material cost. Its brand and design will not affect the value.

So the first thing you have to do is to ascertain the actual ratio of gold in the necklace, and its relation to the other metal/s that may have been used to alloy it.

Factors Affecting Value of Gold

If you are interested in flipping jewelry (buy and sell), you have to take into consideration subjective and objective factors. Subjective factors are wild guess and hard to value while objective factors can be calculated.

Subjective factors are as followings:

• Brands
• Designs
• Origins
• Conditions
• Craftsmanship

Objective factors:

• Weight
• Gold content

Subjective Factors Affecting Value of Gold

These factors are always applied when you buy from jewelry shop and sell to next owners.

Brands

Buying a gold jewelry from premium brand of jewelry shop, the price will be more expensive, but at the same time, it is more reliable that can ensure the purify of gold you buy is actually what the jewelry has. When you decide to sell the gold jewelry, the value of gold jewelry from premium jewelry shop will be higher than unknown jewelry shop.

Designs

Of course, like many kind of jewelry. Complex design of jewelry is cost higher than simple design. It involves more skill, time and gold to create a jewelry piece.

Orgins

Gold jewelry made in Italy is famous. 18K gold jewelry or higher are common in Italy. On the other hand, you will notice that if your gold jewelry made in Japan, it will be more durable. Therefore, its value of gold jewelry is higher.

Conditions

Undamaged jewelry is the minimum. When you decide to buy gold jewelry, keep in mind to check the condition before make the payment to ensure no defect attached with the jewelry. New jewelry should be in a good condition. If the jewelry has defect, it will affect its value when you decide to sell it. Therefore, take care of your gold jewelry after purchases is essential to retain its value.

Craftsmanship

Jewelry created by well-known artisans or icons in the market will fetch more than nameless designers. Items from rare collections that have limited release will also attract wealthy buyers in well-known auctions as well. Then, of course, there is the actual craftsmanship. The innate beauty of the jewelry should shine right down to the most intricate details.

Objective Factors Affecting Value of Gold

Weight

The price value will be higher if the weight of gold jewelry is higher. Be notice that if your gold jewelry is attached with gemstone, of course, the weight calculation will be separated. The weight of gemstone will not calculated into gold’s weight. Also, keep in mind the weight is common to use sensitive weight with 2 decimal place. If you want to weight your jewelry, remember to set as zero before you weight.

Gold content

Different karat of gold refers to different gold content of the jewelry. 14K, 18K and 24K are common gold content of gold jewelry market. The higher purity of precious metals is highly prized. You can check these marks on the jewelry piece assuming the mark is real when you buy it. If you want to sell it, gold buyers and jeweler will check it in professional ways, no worry if your jewelry don’t have the mark. Read gold purity chart.

What is Gold Purity?

To know about gold purity, you should know what is karat first. Karat is measurement of ratio of your gold to other metal. Common karat can be 9k, 10k, 12k,14k,18k, 22k and 24K (which is the purest gold). Higher number of karat means lower content of other metal in your gold jewelry. The rest is the metal used to strengthen the gold because pure gold is too malleable and would make awful jewelry because they can get bent and damaged easily. Read gold purity conversion chart.

How to measure gold purity?

Let’s say if your gold chain is 14K gold. The number amount of karats you have is 14 karat while the purest gold is 24, so divide the 14 Karats by 24. You will get 0.583, so the gold purity is 58.3%, means that your gold chain contains 58.3% of gold.

Precious stones used in the construction of the jewelry will also increase the valuation. Diamonds, rubies, and sapphires occupy the higher tiers in the world of jewelry and the flawlessness of these stones will improve your chances of getting a better price.

Gold Price

The price of the gold will depend on current market prices, which are not determined by the jewelers or pawnshops, but by the larger gold market in your country of residence.

You can always check the Today’s GOLD Price and its Trend on goldprice.org or kitco.com.

Take note however that the current gold index does not reflect literally how much you are going to get for scrap gold because businesses who do buy gold will mark it down, so they can make a profit (which is the entire point of the practice, if you think about it).

Gemstone

As mentioned, if your gold jewelry is with gemstone, the weight of gemstone is minus from the whole jewelry piece, the price calculation of gemstone is separated . But how to check the price of gemstone? It is not easy to value its price actually, but you can search for if your gemstone is valuable or not. You can choose to keep the gemstones after scrap for future use.

Example of Steps for Checking Value of Gold Jewelry : Gold Chain without Gemstones

If your jewelry has precious stones and other ornamentations set onto them, those would have to be temporarily removed. Why? Gold dealers will only be interested in paying for the gold, not the stones. You can probably make an offer to them, but we’re focused on the gold for now.

Step 1: Set the weight 

You will need an accurate weighing scale. A small digital scale should be sufficient, though jewelers tend to use accurate scales so they can get the most accurate readings right down to the smallest unit (milligram).

Remember to set it at zero.

Step 2: Clean and dry the chain

Condition of gold chain will affect gold price. To trade with good price, it is better to clean your gold jewelry before selling.

Step 3: Weight the chain

Place your gold jewelry on the weighting scale and get its weight either in grams, milligrams, or ounces.

1 gram is equivalent to 0.03215 in troy ounces.

One ounce, on the other hand, is equivalent to 0.91146 troy ounces. In some instances, gold dealers also use a standard of weight called the pennyweight. 1 troy ounce is equivalent to 20 pennyweights (DWT).

Now assume your gold chain that weighs about is 8 grams.

Step 4: Check the gold content

Let’s say if your gold chain is 14K gold. You can check it on your chain, it may be marked as “14K” or “14KT” or sometimes “585”. The number amount of karats you have is 14 karat while the purest gold is 24, so divide the 14 Karats by 24. You will get 0.583, so the gold purity is 58.3%, means that your gold chain contains 58.3% gold content.

Therefore, your chains contents weights that 4.66 grams of gold, which is calculated by 8×58.3%= 4.664, it is common to use sensitive weight with 2 decimal place, but it depends.

Step 5: Check the gold price

Check current market price of gold. You can check the today’s gold price and its trend on goldprice.org or kitco.com.

Assume the current gold price is USD 61 per gram.

Step 6: Calculate the gold value with formula 

After gathering this information, we can calculate the roughly gold value with the formula as following:

61 x 4.66 = USD284.3

To get the actual price of your gold jewelry (after determining its gold content), you can take note of the commodity index price and mark it down by 20 to 30%.

This will be the reasonable valuation of gold, and you can use this to find out if you are being given a good deal or a bad deal by anyone who would like to buy your gold jewelry. Jewelers and pawnshops often pay 80% of the current price of gold after ascertaining that you have the genuine article.