If you've checked gold prices online before coming in, you've probably noticed the number in the news doesn't match your offer exactly. That's not a bait-and-switch — it's just how the math actually works, and understanding it makes it a lot easier to know whether an offer is fair.
What "spot price" actually means
Spot price is the current market price for one troy ounce of pure (100%) gold, silver, or platinum, trading in real time on global commodities markets. It's the same number you'll see quoted on financial news sites, and it's the same number reflected in the live ticker on our homepage.
Spot price is a benchmark, not a payout number. No buyer — us included — pays exactly spot price for jewelry, coins, or scrap, and any buyer who claims to is either not telling the full story or won't be in business long.
Why the actual offer is lower than spot
A few real factors separate spot price from your offer:
Purity. Spot price assumes 100% pure metal. Your 14k ring is about 58% actual gold content — so the calculation starts with your item's actual gold weight, not its total weight, before spot price even enters the picture.
Business costs. Buying, testing, storing, and eventually reselling or refining precious metals all cost money. That margin is what allows a walk-in shop to exist at all — it's the same reason no retail business sells anything at exactly their own cost.
Form and demand. A bullion coin close to its melt value works differently than jewelry, which often needs to be melted down or refined before it can be resold, adding cost and time to that process.
What doesn't change
Regardless of margin, your offer is always calculated starting from the same transparent, real-time spot price — not a number we make up on the spot. If gold is trading higher today than it was yesterday, your offer reflects that difference. We'll always walk you through exactly how your specific offer was calculated, so the math is never a mystery.
How to know if an offer is fair
The honest answer: ask. A legitimate buyer should be able to explain, in plain terms, how they got from your item's weight and purity to the number they're offering. If a buyer can't or won't explain that, that's a bigger red flag than the specific percentage of spot they're offering.
Want to see what your items are actually worth? Walk in anytime — no appointment necessary — and we'll walk you through the math in person.