Selling used gold: what should the shop pay?
When you sell used gold, a shop does not pay for the piece as you bought it but for the gold inside it: the weight times the gram price for its karat on the day of sale, minus a deduction some sellers call a melting, refining or testing fee. The making charge you paid and the VAT do not come back. The right question before going to a shop is therefore what those grams are worth today at the raw gold price. The calculator answers it at the current ounce price and the country’s official exchange rate, lets you enter the deduction the shop names, or the gram price it offered, and shows the gap between that offer and the gold value as a percentage. Bring the original invoice if you have it, since it proves weight and karat and makes haggling easier, and ask for the piece to be weighed in front of you on a visible scale. It helps anyone clearing out jewellery before leaving the Gulf.
Expected payout
SAR 8,745
Making charges are not paid back on resale
| Metal value at 21K | SAR 8,745 |
| Shop deduction | SAR 0 |
Checked by Radif Partners · How we calculate · Editorial policy
What the buyer counts
A shop buying your gold will melt it or sell it to a wholesaler, so it only cares about the pure gold. It weighs the piece, checks the karat, then multiplies the weight by its own gram price after the deduction. The calculator repeats that sum with the ounce price from gold-api.com and the exchange rate of the Saudi Central Bank or the UAE central bank, giving the figure an offer should come close to.
Set pieces and mixed gold
If the piece is set with stones, the scale weight includes them and the shop deducts or estimates them. Ask for the gold weight alone. If you have pieces in different karats, value each karat separately and add up, or convert them to one karat in the karat converter.
Selling or trading in
Some shops offer a new piece against your old one plus the difference. Work out two things: the value of your old gold here, and the final price of the new piece in the jewellery price calculator. The real cost is the gap between them, and the new piece’s making charge often hides in it.