Sell your 14K gold online with clarity

14K gold is about 58.5% pure as the melt baseline is that share of the live gold price per gram, applied to the net gold weight of your piece. It changes daily, and it depends entirely on what you own. A 10-gram solid 14K chain and a 10-gram chain with a steel clasp and hollow links do not land anywhere near each other. 

Be sure to weigh the item, photograph the hallmark, and get an itemized estimate showing the purity, net weight and price used.

All three mean the same thing: 14 parts gold out of 24, roughly 58.5% pure. 14K and 14KT are the American convention. 585 is the European millesimal fineness mark, expressing that purity as parts per thousand. You will see it more often on imported and modern pieces. Either way, the stamp is a manufacturer’s claim rather than proof so it is verified during authentication. If the mark has worn illegible, which is common on older rings and bracelets, testing establishes purity without it.

Weight and wear give it away more reliably than the stamp does. Solid 14K feels dense for its size and does not discolor. Plated and gold-filled pieces feel light and wear through at edges and high-contact points, revealing a different color underneath. Be sure to check the marks for GF, GP, HGE or RGP, all of which indicate a gold layer over base metal. A magnet is a rough screen since gold is not magnetic and many base cores are. However, it is important to note that it will not catch everything.

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They start with gross weight, then deduct everything that is not gold. Stones come out, and so do clasps, spring rings, steel pins in watch bands, and the filler inside hollow chains and lightweight hoops.

What is left is the net gold weight, which then gets multiplied by purity and the live market price. This is the step where offers on the same item most often diverge so it is worth asking any buyer to show it. Your Unvault estimate itemizes the deductions rather than presenting one combined figure.

Yes, and broken pieces are valued the same way intact ones are. Snapped chains, single earrings, bent rings and settings missing stones all still contain their full gold weight, and that does not diminish because the piece no longer wears. What can change is whether the item is worth more repaired than melted. A designer piece or a well-made older setting may well be, and is assessed before anything is decided. Just make sure to send it as it is and do not pay for repairs first, because the cost rarely comes back.

No, just leave them in. Removing stones at home risks chipping or losing them, can damage the setting, and almost never improves the outcome, because the stones and the gold are already valued separately in an itemized estimate. If a stone has genuine standalone value, it is identified during authentication and priced on its own terms. The only thing worth doing beforehand is photographing the piece whole, hallmarks included.

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Speed- If you need money today, a pawn shop or cash-for-gold counter can pay the same day. The trade-off is how the number gets built. These buyers carry resale risk and inventory cost, and many price on metal weight alone, so a designer signature, a good diamond, or a piece worth more intact tends not to register at all. If you are not in a hurry, get an itemized estimate first and compare. It is free, and declining costs you nothing. Read more on weighing up buyers

Always ask for the arithmetic. A fair offer on 14K can be shown to you: verified purity, net gold weight after deductions, the gold price used and when it was taken, plus anything valued separately from the metal. An offer that arrives as a single number with no breakdown cannot be compared to anything. 

Get an itemized estimate before you ship and use the time your offer allows. Be wary of pressure to decide on the spot, because nothing about gold requires it.