If you own a solid gold chain, you own something with a floor under it. That floor is called melt value — what the gold itself is worth if you stripped away the craftsmanship, the brand, and the box, and sold it purely as metal. Understanding it is the single most useful thing you can learn before you buy gold, and before you ever sell it.
Here's how it works, how to calculate it yourself, and what it means for what you should pay — and what you should accept.
What melt value is (and isn't)
Melt value is the market value of the pure gold contained in a piece, at today's gold price. Nothing else counts: not the labor to make the chain, not the design, not the clasp, not any stones set in it.
It's called "melt" because it's what a refiner would pay to melt the piece down and recover the gold. It is not a price you'd normally sell a finished, wearable chain for — a good piece is worth more than its metal — but it's the number every other price is built on top of.
Three things decide melt value: the current gold price, the purity of the gold, and the weight of the piece. That's the whole formula.
The formula
Gold is quoted per troy ounce. One troy ounce is 31.1 grams, so the first step is turning the spot price into a per-gram number for pure gold:
Spot price per troy ounce ÷ 31.1 = value of one gram of pure (24K) gold
Then adjust for karat, because a chain isn't pure gold. Karat is a fraction out of 24:
- 10K = 10/24 = 41.7% gold
- 14K = 14/24 = 58.3% gold (you'll often see 14K stamped "585," meaning 58.5% — the small difference is a common alloy standard, not a discrepancy)
- 18K = 18/24 = 75% gold
Put it together:
Melt value = weight in grams × karat purity × per-gram price of pure gold
A worked example
Say pure gold is worth $100 per gram. (This is a made-up round number so the math is easy — look up the real spot price when you do this yourself.)
A 30-gram 14K Cuban link:
- 30 g × 0.583 = 17.5 g of pure gold
- 17.5 g × $100 = $1,750 melt value
The same 30 grams in 10K would be 30 × 0.417 × $100 = $1,251. In 18K, 30 × 0.75 × $100 = $2,250.
That's why we publish the exact gram weight and karat on every listing: with those two numbers and today's spot price, you can check the melt value of any chain we sell in under a minute. If a seller won't tell you the weight, you can't do this math — and that's usually the point.
Why a chain costs more than its melt value
A fair retail price for a solid gold chain is melt value plus two things: the labor to manufacture it, and the seller's margin. We broke that down in detail in our guide to how much a gold Cuban link chain should cost, but the short version is that the gap between melt and retail is what you're really paying for, and it should be reasonable and explainable.
Some things push a chain's price well above melt without adding melt value:
- Handmade construction. A handmade Cuban carries real labor cost. Its melt value is still just its gold weight.
- Diamonds and stones. Stones have their own value, but they add nothing to melt. A refiner removes them.
- Brand name. A designer stamp adds resale appeal in some markets, and zero melt value.
- Traditional retail markup. Mall and franchise jewelers commonly price at several times the metal value. That gap is the markup, not the gold.
Buy the gold and the workmanship. Be skeptical of paying a lot for anything else.
What gold buyers actually pay
Here's the part most people learn the hard way. When you sell gold, most buyers pay less than melt value — sometimes a lot less. Pawn shops and walk-in "we buy gold" counters price in their own margin, refining fees, and the risk that the piece isn't what it's stamped. Refiners deduct assay and processing fees. The offer you get is a percentage of melt, and that percentage varies widely from buyer to buyer.
So when you're selling, "melt value" is the number to know going in. Any offer should be compared against it, and anyone who won't tell you what weight and purity they're paying on isn't giving you a real quote.
What we pay
We buy and trade pre-owned gold jewelry at 100% of melt value, issued as store credit toward any piece on the site. Pieces need to be in good, wearable, fully functional condition — a chain with a broken clasp or bent links isn't eligible. Full terms, including how and when the gold price is locked, are on our Sell or Trade Your Gold page.
We can do this because we're not melting your chain. We're reselling wearable gold to people who want wearable gold — so we don't need a refiner's cushion.
Melt value and gold as a long-term holding
Because a solid gold chain has real metal value, it behaves differently from most things you buy. Clothes, electronics, and cars lose most of their value the moment you own them. A gold chain's floor moves with the gold market — it can go down as well as up, and no one can tell you where it will be in ten years — but it never goes to zero, and it doesn't wear out.
That's the honest case for buying solid gold over plated, filled, or hollow alternatives, and it's a big part of why our long-time customers tend to buy heavier pieces over time: they know the gram weight is the part that holds.
If you're deciding between metals or karats with this in mind, our 10K vs 14K vs 18K guide covers how purity affects both price and durability, and our sterling silver vs. gold guide covers why silver is a purchase you enjoy rather than a holding.
Quick checks before you trust any melt number
- Confirm it's solid gold. Plated and gold-filled pieces have almost no melt value. Our guide to telling if a gold Cuban is real walks through the checks.
- Weigh it yourself. A kitchen scale that reads to 0.1 g is enough. Weigh the whole piece, then remember any stones or non-gold clasps are included in that number.
- Use the right karat. Check the stamp (10K/417, 14K/585, 18K/750). If there's no stamp, an acid or XRF test will tell you.
- Use today's price. Gold moves daily. A melt figure from last month is a guess.
The bottom line
Melt value is the floor under every real gold chain. Learn the formula — weight × purity × today's per-gram gold price — and you can check what any chain is worth, spot an overpriced piece, and know a lowball offer when you see one.
When you buy from us, you'll always have the two numbers you need to do that math, printed right on the listing. And when the day comes to trade up, we'll pay you the full melt value of what you bought.
Ott Family Jewelry is a family-owned fine jewelry business in the Dallas–Fort Worth area selling solid gold Cuban link chains, lab-grown diamond tennis pieces, and custom handmade chains, with published gram weights on every listing. Read what our customers say.