“Cash for gold near me” sounds like a single price. It is not. Two sellers can walk into the same Hickory shop on the same afternoon with “about the same amount of gold” and walk out with different numbers. That is not a trick. It is four numbers stacked in order: today’s market, karat, weight, and whether anything in the bag is more than melt.
This page is the math in plain language. What we buy — scrap, dental gold, coins, bullion — sits on the gold buying page. If you are still choosing a pawn ticket versus a purchase, start with pawn vs buyer instead.
1. Today’s market
Gold’s spot price moves. Yesterday’s Facebook screenshot is not today’s offer. A ticker on a phone is a headline, not a payout. Refiners, dealers, and local buyers all start from that market and then apply the rest of this list. We price from the market in effect while you are at the counter — which is why we do not publish a fake live quote that we would have to honor on a delay.
If someone guarantees last Thursday’s number on metal they have not seen, they are guessing or advertising. Ask to be priced today, in person.
2. Karat (purity)
Karat is how much of the piece is actually gold. In the U.S. jewelry most people bring in, the common stamps are 10k, 14k, and 18k. Roughly: 10k is about 41.7% gold, 14k about 58.3%, 18k about 75%. 22k and 24k sit much closer to pure metal. Those fractions describe the metal, not a secret “percentage of spot” we owe you on the phone.
A heavy 10k chain can weigh more and still pay less than a lighter 18k bracelet. White gold, yellow gold, and rose gold at the same karat are the same purity conversation — color is alloy, not a different metal. We test karat in front of you so that split is visible, including when a stamp is worn, wrong, or missing.
3. Weight
Once purity is known, weight is the quantity. This is the part everyone expects. It is also the part that fails if plated pieces, steel cores, or heavy clasps were left in the pile as if they were gold. Stones do not weigh as gold. A diamond in a mounting is not “more gold.” We weigh the metal we are buying, not the story of the piece.
Do not strip stones at the kitchen table to “help.” You can damage a setting that still had jewelry value, and you still need the metal tested. Bring the piece intact.
4. Extras
Designer jewelry, dated U.S. gold, graded coins, and authentic luxury watches are not “bonus melt.” They are different products. A cash-for-gold offer that never looks for extras is a melt offer wearing a friendlier name. Common bullion is usually a melt-and-purity conversation. A pre-1933 U.S. gold coin or a PCGS/NGC holder can be a collectible conversation. A Tiffany mark can be a jewelry conversation. Those extras are why two bags that feel the same weight are not the same sale.
What a phone quote cannot do
Nobody honest can price a mixed lot from “it’s about a coffee can” or a photo of a chain on a bedspread. Karat has not been tested. Plated has not been pulled. Dates have not been read. A range you hear on the phone is not an offer. The offer is the number you hear after the test, while the gold is still in the room with you.
What to skip before you walk in
Home acid kits, magnet videos, and boiling pieces in a saucepan do not replace a counter test. Polishing coins can cost more than it helps. Calling six shops for a phone quote on metal nobody has seen is how a day disappears. Bring photo ID if you plan to sell. Bring the lot unsorted. Walk in at 1750 Startown Road Monday–Saturday, or call first if the lot is an estate.
Want the buying list — dental gold, scrap, Eagles, bars — before you drive? That is the sell gold in Hickory page.