The bottom line first: scrap gold prices depend upon who you’re selling your gold to.

On the most common and easily-accessible gold buyers is a pawn shop. If that’s where you’re thinking of selling your gold, keep in mind that you’ll take home around 60 to 75 percent of the market gold price.

Our gold price calculator is designed to give you a final value that includes that average. Basically, it automatically deducts the portion of the gold value that you can generally expect to lose by selling.

So, if you’re planning to sell your scrap gold, it makes sense to use our calculator and get an idea of what your estimated cash in hand will be.

Scrap gold prices also vary depending on the purity–or fineness–of the gold. As you know, the higher the fineness, the greater the gold value.

And another factor to consider is this: your scrap gold could be worth more to you if it’s intact–that is, if it’s a piece of well-made gold jewelery. The greater the details and workmanship of the jewelery, the more likely you are to get a better price for it, as is. So no rush to scrap anything, until you know whether or not it’s more valuable to you as scrap.

Also keep in mind that any precious stones–rubies, diamonds, emeralds, etc.–are usually valued separately, when looking at jewelery as potential scrap gold. Take the opportunity to get a fair appraisal of rings, necklaces, earrings or any other jewelery items that contain one or more stones. The stones may greatly add to the value of the piece, and can usually be sold apart from the precious metal.

Your location also makes a difference in what you can expect to get for scrap gold prices. Price can vary a lot, even between stores in the same town. If you’re thinking of selling, take the time to shop around for the best prices before you sell.