When you decide to sell dental gold crowns, bridges, or other precious metal scrap, you want the highest payout. But not all scrap gold buyers calculate their quotes the same way. Understanding the difference between melt and resale values is critical to getting the best price.
Here’s a breakdown of how these two valuation methods work and what it means for your gold scrap payout.
Determining Melt Value
Melt value represents the intrinsic worth of the raw metals in your items. Refineries determine this by first assaying pieces to verify gold purity levels. Standard dental gold has a purity of 10K, 14K, 18K, or 22K.
They weigh each item and calculate the grams of pure gold content based on karat fineness. Multiply the gram weight by the current spot price of gold per gram.
That spot price constantly fluctuates based on gold commodity markets. The result is the core melt value of your lot, based solely on gold content.
Calculating Resale Value
Resale value starts with melt value but also factors in refined metals’ bullion or resale value.
A refinery processes scrap gold to extract pure 24K gold. That gold can then be sold as bullion or used in new jewelry or products. This additional market value contributes to resale valuations.
Due to market demand, items like dental gold often carry higher premiums than their melt value. Their high purity also yields more refined gold from the scrap.
Understanding payout implications
Melt value payouts reflect solely intrinsic gold weight, ignoring post-refining market value. After refining deductions, you may only receive 70–80% of the melt value.
Reputable refineries like ours offer 95–98% of full resale value payouts. This captures the total scrap-to-bullion value chain for maximum return on your dental gold and precious metals.
Maximize your payout when you sell dental gold with resale value buys. To get an instant online quote for your gold today, visit Bay Area Metals, your expert local buyer.
