Gold Filled/Plated Jewelry

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skippy_8503

New member
Joined
Aug 6, 2021
Messages
3
Hello. May be a stupid question but I thought might be worth asking.

I have been buying scrap gold, silver & platinum for the past 11 years. The first thing I learned was how to tell whats real and whats plated and to not buy plated. So I'm here at the store today reading an article on the worth of an Olympic gold medal and the article breaks down and gives value to the silver and also to the 6 grams of gold plating. So I started searching google and found myself here and it appears there are ways to get gold from plated jewelry. If so would anyone know if it would be worth buying and if so is there some sort of calculation to get a 10, 14, 18K pennyweight or gram value from it? Also as to who would buy it from me, no refinery's or gold buyers buy it that I know of.

Thanks
 
skippy_8503 said:
If so would anyone know if it would be worth buying and if so is there some sort of calculation to get a 10, 14, 18K pennyweight or gram value from it? Also as to who would buy it from me, no refinery's or gold buyers buy it that I know of.

Welcome to the forum.

It can be worth buying gold plated material, but you have to get it very cheap. Keep in mind that plated goods begin losing value from the day they are made as the gold on the surface begins to be worn away. You also have to consider the costs of acids and waste disposal.

I don't understand the part about getting a "10, 14, 18K pennyweight or gram value". Gold plate and "10, 14, 18K" are quite different animals, so I'm not sure what you mean. For gold plate, think more in terms of a cost per pound than grams or pennyweights.

If you refine the gold, there are many buyers, including forum members. If you're thinking about buying it and reselling it, you'll have a harder time.

Dave
 
I don't understand the part about getting a "10, 14, 18K pennyweight or gram value". Gold plate and "10, 14, 18K" are quite different animals, so I'm not sure what you mean. For gold plate, think more in terms of a cost per pound than grams or pennyweights.

If you refine the gold, there are many buyers, including forum members. If you're thinking about buying it and reselling it, you'll have a harder time.

Dave
[/quote]


Thanks for your reply.

What I mean is a piece of jewelry stamped 10K GP or 14K GF or 18K GFEP or even 1/20 10K. I guess you're saying these don't matter as gold plate has the same value on all pieces? Also, I doubt I would want to refine it but if there are people out there who do would it be worth it to sell it to them. Sounds like the answer is probably not, which I figured but thought I may as well ask.

Thanks
 
skippy_8503 said:
What I mean is a piece of jewelry stamped 10K GP or 14K GF or 18K GFEP or even 1/20 10K. I guess you're saying these don't matter as gold plate has the same value on all pieces? Also, I doubt I would want to refine it but if there are people out there who do would it be worth it to sell it to them. Sounds like the answer is probably not, which I figured but thought I may as well ask.

The stamps you've mentioned are all quite different. I've never seen a couple of them, but I'm familiar with a couple.

10K GP - I've not seen this one, but it would seem to mean 10 karat gold plated. This could mean a couple of different things. It could mean gold plating that has the "look" of 10K gold. While it could imply the item was plated with 10K gold, it's unlikely as most gold plating is usually nearly pure gold plated onto base metal.

14K GF - This means 14 karat gold filled. It means the item has a base metal core, covered by an outer surface of 14 karat gold.

18K GFEP - I've not seen this one. Similar to the 10K GP, it would imply a coating of 18 karat gold over a base metal core, with the coating being electroplated but comparable to 18 karat gold.

1/20 10K - This is a standard stamping. It means that the item has a base metal core, with a coating of 10 karat gold that weighs 1/20th of the total weight of the item.

Gold filled, rolled gold plate, gold plate, gold electroplate, etc. can have gold contents anywhere from a significant amount of gold to a nearly negligible amount. If you plan to buy this type of material you need to educate yourself on what the various stampings mean. Then you need to educate yourself on how to assess and test these these items. As I've cautioned before, anyone with $10.00 can buy any of these stamps, make jewelry items in their own shop, and stamp them any way they want. They may or may not have the gold content implied by the stamp. Buyer beware.

Dave
 
The stamps you've mentioned are all quite different. I've never seen a couple of them, but I'm familiar with a couple.

10K GP - I've not seen this one, but it would seem to mean 10 karat gold plated. This could mean a couple of different things. It could mean gold plating that has the "look" of 10K gold. While it could imply the item was plated with 10K gold, it's unlikely as most gold plating is usually nearly pure gold plated onto base metal.

14K GF - This means 14 karat gold filled. It means the item has a base metal core, covered by an outer surface of 14 karat gold.

18K GFEP - I've not seen this one. Similar to the 10K GP, it would imply a coating of 18 karat gold over a base metal core, with the coating being electroplated but comparable to 18 karat gold.

1/20 10K - This is a standard stamping. It means that the item has a base metal core, with a coating of 10 karat gold that weighs 1/20th of the total weight of the item.

Gold filled, rolled gold plate, gold plate, gold electroplate, etc. can have gold contents anywhere from a significant amount of gold to a nearly negligible amount. If you plan to buy this type of material you need to educate yourself on what the various stampings mean. Then you need to educate yourself on how to assess and test these these items. As I've cautioned before, anyone with $10.00 can buy any of these stamps, make jewelry items in their own shop, and stamp them any way they want. They may or may not have the gold content implied by the stamp. Buyer beware.

Dave
[/quote]

Thanks FrugalRefiner for your help and time.

I think we may be talking past each other. Yeah the karat stamp wasn't important just the invalidating stamps. I see all ranges of karat before the dreaded gold plate, filled, electroplate 1/10 or 1/20 stamp. I have been for years giving these back to sellers telling them in so many words they got nothing of value. I was just wondering if, while not worth $100's of dollars, they may be (depending on weight) worth $10 or $20 and could pay $5 or $10 and sell to someone for $8 or $15. Again I'm sure it's probably not an option but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

You said even those plated stamps could be manufactured so that pretty much means no need to look into it further on my end.
 
Gold filled is usually well worth buying and to assess its value is fairly simple as the gold content is stamped onto the item.
Say you are offered a gold filled bangle that weighs 27 grams and is stamped 1/20 14k gf you multiply the weight of the item by the karat so 27 x 585 = 15.7 then multiply that figure by 0.05 = 0.7 grams , this is on the best possible outcome , bear in mind that the item will have wear on its gold surface and any original polishing will be done on the gold surfaces so allow for that say 10 - 15 % which will mean you probably have 0.6 grams of fine gold and as a base figure use $1750 for gold which means that the bangle has a value of $33, from that figure you can work out what you want to make on the purchase allowing for processing costs say 10% so you now have the base line to work out what you want to offer.
Hope that helps and allows you to buy with confidence, when in doubt low ball the offer.
 
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