Sell Gold Chains in NYC

Almost every real gold chain is stamped, usually on the clasp or on a small tag right beside it. You are looking for 10K, 14K, 18K or 22K, or the European equivalents: 417, 585, 750 and 916. Those numbers are the purity expressed in parts per thousand, so 585 means the metal is 58.5 percent gold.

A stamp on its own is not proof. Stamps get faked, and plated chains are often stamped to look convincing. That is why we acid-test and run an electronic reading at the counter regardless of what the tag claims.

Unstamped does not mean worthless either. Older chains and repaired pieces often lost their stamp along the way, and they test just fine.

Purity is fixed. The dollar figure moves daily with the spot price.

This is where expectations and reality separate most often, so it is worth being blunt about it up front.

A great many rope chains, herringbones and larger Cuban links sold at retail are hollow — the links are formed from thin gold sheet wrapped around empty space. They look substantial and they wear well, but a hollow chain that looks like it should weigh 60 grams can come in at 12. You are paid for the gold that is actually there, and on a hollow chain there is far less of it than the size suggests.

How to tell before you come in: hollow chains feel unexpectedly light for their size, dent rather than bend, and often crimp permanently if crushed. A solid chain of the same length and width feels dense and drapes heavier in the hand.

None of this is a trick and it is not a lowball. A hollow chain was cheaper new than a solid one for exactly the same reason.

Three inputs, no mystery: weight in grams, purity, and the live spot price of gold at the moment you are standing there.

A 14K chain is 58.5 percent gold, so a 30-gram 14K chain contains roughly 17.5 grams of pure gold. An 18K chain is 75 percent, so the same 30 grams contains about 22.5 grams pure. That purity difference is why two chains of identical weight can be worth meaningfully different amounts.

Spot moves every day. We price against it live rather than against a fixed in-house rate, and you are welcome to check the market on your phone while we weigh.

The link style itself barely affects the melt number — gold is gold. Where style matters is in whether the chain is more valuable intact than melted, which happens with heavy solid Cuban links and well-made designer pieces that have resale demand of their own.

Condition matters less than people fear. A snapped link, a missing clasp, a kinked herringbone that will never lie flat again: none of that changes the gold content. Bring it in the state it is in.

One detail worth knowing: the clasp is frequently a different karat than the chain, sometimes a base metal entirely. We weigh and account for it separately rather than assuming.

Gold-plated chains carry a microscopic layer of gold over brass or steel. There is effectively nothing to recover and we will tell you so rather than making an insulting offer for the sake of it.

Gold-filled is a thicker bonded layer and contains real gold, but the recoverable amount is small and often does not justify the trip on its own. Vermeil is gold over sterling silver, so the silver underneath carries the value rather than the plating.

If you genuinely do not know what you have, bring it. Testing is free, takes a minute, and you will leave knowing for certain either way.