How Much Can You Sell Your Wedding Ring For?
A sad fact of life is that many of our relationships don’t turn out like we had hoped. In 2022 in the United States alone, there were over 673,989 divorces.1 Wedding rings, a symbol of those marriages, become sources of resentment rather than the happiness they are supposed to represent.
Many people look to sell their wedding rings and other sentimental jewelry after a divorce. They’ve lost the special, symbolic meaning they once held, and being made of gold it makes a lot more sense to sell it than tossing it into the ocean.
If your partner was also heir to a Pittsburgh steel fortune, then maybe your wedding ring and other jewelry should be sold in a private auction or placed in a museum. But if you’re like the rest of us, your wedding ring is probably worth a couple hundred dollars and you just want a fast, convenient way to get a fair price for it.
How much is your wedding ring worth?
The value of your wedding ring depends on three main factors:
- The weight of your ring
- The purity of the gold in your ring
- The current price of gold
The weight of your ring
When pricing your gold, you need to figure out how much gold is actually in your ring. The first step to doing that is weighing it. Depending on the style and size of the wedding band, the weight can vary from 3.4 grams to 5.8 grams.
At Express Gold Cash, we use frequently calibrated, high-precision weight machines to calculate the exact weight of your ring and other jewelry.
The purity of the gold in your ring
Gold intended for daily use – like a wedding ring – is not made of 24k (pure) gold. Pure gold is more prone to blemishes and wear and tear, so it isn’t recommended for everyday use. Adding other metal alloys to the gold strengthens it and keeps it looking great for years.
What this means is that your ring is part valuable gold, part worthless alloy. Wedding rings are frequently made of 10k, 14k, and sometimes 18k gold. The higher the number of karats, the more your gold is worth.
18k = (18k/24k) = 75% gold
14k = (14k/24k) = 58.3% gold
10k = (10k/24k) = 41.7% gold
With a 18k gold ring containing 80% more gold than a 10k ring, the purity of the ring has a huge impact on the pricing. If you’re looking to sell your gold wedding band, hope it’s 18k gold!
The current price of gold
The last factor that determines how much you can get for your wedding ring is the current price of gold. While the price fluctuates frequently, gold is known for its price stability, especially in times of economic crisis.
In August of 2020, Gold hit its all-time high of $2074.88/troy ounce. You can check the current price of gold here.
Calculating the value of your gold band
Bring it all together, you can calculate the melt value of your gold by multiplying those three factors together:
Weight of your ring [X] gold purity [X] price of gold = value
For example, let’s say you have a 4g, 14k gold wedding band to sell and the current value of gold is $2000/ounce. The calculation would look like this:
4 [X] (14/24) [x] $64.302 = $150.03
Note that $64.30/gram is equivalent to $2000/troy ounce.2 The melt value of your ring would be $150.03.
How much can you sell your wedding ring for?
At Express Gold Cash, we are transparent with our customers about what we pay for gold. We pay up to 85% of the refined value of gold jewelry.
So, from the example above, we would pay up to $127.53 for the gold wedding band. The more gold you have, the higher the amount we’re able to pay.
Request a Free Express Gold Kit
Ready to get started? Sell to Express Gold Cash without even leaving your home! See how our simple 3-step process works and request your free gold pack today.
Examples
Want to learn more about how much gold wedding bands can be worth? Check out our recent payouts for gold rings now! Here are a few examples of payouts from happy customers:
1 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/marriage-divorce.htm
2 1 troy ounce = ~31.1034768 grams. So the price per gram at $2000/troy ounce is $64.30/gram. Remember, a troy ounce is different than a regular ounce! There are ~28.3495 grams in a regular ounce.
