Don’t Melt It Yet. We Price Jewelry Both Ways.
Most gold and silver buyers in Naples are melters. They can only pay a slice of the metal price, because melting is all they can do with your piece. We run a showroom and resell, so we check every piece two ways and pay whichever number is higher.
Two prices, one piece
Every buyer in town watches the same spot price. A melter’s offer is that metal value minus their spread. A reseller’s offer starts from the same floor, then asks a second question the melter never can: what will someone pay to wear this?
A melt-only buyer
One number
- 14k chain on the scale
- 20.0 g
- Pure gold (× 58.3%)
- 11.7 g
- Spot, illustrative
- $2,600 / oz
- Melt value
- ≈ $978
- Minus their spread
- − ?
- Your offer
- a % of $978
The same math is on our Sell guide. Nothing wrong with it. It is just the only math they have.
Naples Estate Jewelry
The same number, then a second look
- Melt floor, worked out loud
- ≈ $978
- Signed maker or hallmark?
- checked
- Wearable as it is?
- checked
- Stones, style, demand in our showroom
- checked
- Resale offer, piece by piece
- when it beats melt
- Your offer
- the higher of the two
No invented percentages. Some pieces are honestly melt, and we will tell you so. The ones that aren’t get paid as jewelry.
What tends to carry value above melt, and what honestly doesn’t
The second look only pays off when there is a buyer for the piece itself. Here is roughly where that line falls at our counter.
Often worth more than the metal
Signed designer pieces
Tiffany & Co., Cartier, David Yurman, and similar marks
Complete, wearable pieces in good condition
Clasps that work, links intact, nothing bent or crushed
Pieces with real stones
Diamonds and colored stones a melter would pop out and set aside
Heavier vintage and antique work
Hand-made, period styles that people come to the showroom looking for
Sterling with a collector following
The small top tier of patterns — the same rule as our flatware guide
Honestly melt, and we will say so
Broken or crushed pieces
Once it cannot be worn, the metal is the value
Plain, thin, unsigned chains
Priced by weight, purity, and spot, in front of you
Single earrings and odd findings
Backs, clasps, broken bracelet sections
Dental gold
Sent out for karat testing first, never priced in the showroom; the offer follows the result
Plated and gold-filled pieces
HGE, GF, and plate marks mean little or no metal value
How the both-ways offer works at the counter
Nothing leaves your sight, and you hear both numbers.
1
The melt floor, out loud
Weight on the scale in front of you, purity tested in front of you, today’s spot on the screen. This is the number a melter would start from too.
2
The resale look
Maker’s marks and hallmarks, condition, stones, and whether it is a piece our showroom customers actually ask for.
3
The higher number
If the piece is worth more as jewelry than as metal, that is the offer. If it is not, you get the honest melt price with no spread hidden in the math.
Bring it to the showroom at 6240 Shirley St, Ste 104, Naples, or book a free evaluation. Home visits on request for larger estates.
Before You Sell to a Melter
Do you pay more than melt for everything?
No — and anyone who says they do is hiding it in the math. We pay more than melt when a piece is worth more as jewelry than as metal. When it is not, we say so and pay the honest melt price, worked out in front of you.
My piece is broken. Is it still worth bringing in?
Yes. A broken piece is usually a melt piece, and we price melt the same transparent way — but a signed piece, or one with good stones, can still carry value with a broken clasp. Let us look before you decide.
Should I remove the stones or take the piece apart first?
Please don’t. A piece that is still complete can be resold; a pile of parts can only be melted. You lose the second price the moment it comes apart.
Do I need the box, papers, or a receipt?
No. They can help with signed pieces, so bring them if you have them, but the piece itself carries its maker’s marks and hallmarks — and that is what we read.
What about dental gold?
We buy it, but it is never priced in the showroom. The karat cannot be read reliably on dental work, so it goes out for testing and the offer follows the result.
Is there any cost or obligation?
None. The evaluation is free, the math is done in front of you, and you can walk out with your pieces and both numbers.
Want the metal math before you come in? It is all on what your gold is worth; for reading the marks, see how to read hallmarks.
Get both numbers before anyone lights a torch
Bring your gold, silver, and jewelry to the showroom, or book a free evaluation. Whichever way it prices higher is the way we pay.