By Rocco Clayfield, Founder & Director, GoldPaid Ltd · Published 6 August 2026
How do you check a gold offer in five steps?
- Weigh the item in grams, on scales that read to at least 0.1 g and ideally 0.01 g.
- Confirm the carat from the hallmark, or accept that you do not know it and treat the figure as provisional.
- Look up the fine-gold price in pounds per gram for the day the offer was made. If your source quotes per troy ounce, divide by 31.1034768.
- Multiply: weight in grams × the carat decimal (0.375, 0.585, 0.750, 0.916, 0.999) × the fine-gold rate per gram. That is the metal value.
- Divide the offer by the metal value. The percentage tells you which band the buyer is operating in, and whether the gap has been explained.
Nothing in that sequence is proprietary. It is the same arithmetic every buyer in the trade runs, in the same order, and it is the reason a buyer who will not tell you the purity, the weight and the rate has effectively refused to let you check their work. The rest of this page is the detail behind each step, plus the two situations that trip people up most: a fair offer that looks low, and a low offer that looks fair.
Step 1: what weight are you actually being paid on?
Two different weights exist in every transaction and confusing them is the single most common reason a seller believes they were underpaid. Gross weight is what the whole item weighs on the scales. Payable weight is the weight of the precious metal inside it, after stones, springs, clasps, watch movements, enamel, setting cement and plated components have been taken out of the sum. On a plain chain the two are the same number. On a stone-set ring or a charm bracelet they can differ by half or more.
For a home check, kitchen scales that round to the nearest gram are enough to tell a fair offer from a poor one, but not enough to argue over. On 18.4 g of 9ct, a one-gram rounding error is about £38 of metal value. Jewellery scales reading to 0.01 g cost very little and remove the argument. Weigh in grams rather than troy ounces to start with, and convert only at the end. The relationship between the units is set out in how gold is weighed, and what a kitchen scale can and cannot tell you is worked through in can I weigh my gold on kitchen scales.
The buyer’s scales are not a matter of trust. Weighing equipment used for trade in the UK has to be legal for that use, which means it carries a CE or UKCA mark together with the metrology "M" mark, or on older equipment a Crown stamp, plus a data plate showing capacity and accuracy (Business Companion, Chartered Trading Standards Institute). Equipment carrying a six-pointed star has been rejected by an inspector and it is an offence to use it for legal purposes. You are entitled to see the scales and the reading. A buyer who weighs your gold out of sight has removed the one number you could otherwise verify yourself.
Step 2: how do you confirm the carat?
A full UK hallmark is three compulsory marks: a sponsor’s mark, a millesimal fineness number in a shaped shield, and an assay office mark. The fineness number is the one that drives the arithmetic: 375 is 9ct, 585 is 14ct, 750 is 18ct, 916 is 22ct and 999 is fine gold. Reading one takes under a minute with a loupe, and how to read a gold hallmark in 60 seconds walks through it.
Two things complicate this, and both cut in the seller’s favour as often as against. First, light articles are legally exempt from hallmarking altogether. Schedule 1 to the Hallmarking Act 1973 exempts gold articles below 1 gram, silver below 7.78 grams, platinum below 0.5 gram and palladium below 1 gram. An unmarked gold charm is therefore not evidence of anything: it may be perfectly good 18ct that never needed a mark. Second, a stamp is not proof. Foreign stamps, worn stamps, replaced clasps and imported pieces marked to a standard the UK does not recognise all exist, and so does outright faking.
This is why X-ray fluorescence matters. XRF reads the actual alloy in seconds without damaging the piece, which is how a buyer establishes that a ring stamped 750 really is 750, or that the "gold" bracelet is plated brass. If a buyer tested by acid touchstone or by eye, their carat figure is an opinion. If they did not test at all, there is no figure to check. Our own procedure is on how we value gold, and gold-plated versus solid gold covers the home checks that get you most of the way.
Step 3: where does the per-gram rate come from?
Gold is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce and converted to sterling. One troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams exactly (LBMA), so the fine-gold price per gram is the GBP-per-ounce figure divided by 31.1034768. Use a dated public source and write the date down, because the number is different tomorrow.
On 6 August 2026 the UK gold price was about £3,163.19 per troy ounce, which is £101.70 per gram of fine gold (BullionVault GBP spot, 6 August 2026). Applying the carat decimals to that gives the metal content of one gram of each alloy on that day.
| Carat | Fineness | Carat decimal | Metal content per gram, 6 Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9ct | 375 | 0.375 | £38.14 |
| 14ct | 585 | 0.585 | £59.49 |
| 18ct | 750 | 0.750 | £76.28 |
| 22ct | 916 | 0.916 | £93.16 |
| 24ct | 999 | 0.999 | £101.60 |
Not sure how any of this applies to your own items? Send a photo on WhatsApp and ask. We answer honestly, there is no obligation, and nothing is posted until you decide. Or call 07763 741067, 8am to 9pm, 7 days a week.
Step 4: the calculation, worked through
Take a hallmarked 9ct curb chain, solid, no stones, no plated links, weighing 18.4 g on jewellery scales. The seller was offered £545 over a counter on 6 August 2026.
- Weight: 18.4 g gross, and because the chain is solid gold throughout, 18.4 g payable.
- Carat: hallmarked 375, so the decimal is 0.375.
- Fine gold inside it: 18.4 × 0.375 = 6.90 g.
- Metal value: 6.90 × £101.70 = £701.73. (Using the rounded per-gram column instead gives 18.4 × £38.14 = £701.78. The pennies differ only because the column is rounded.)
- The offer as a share of metal value: £545 ÷ £701.73 = 77.7 per cent.
So the offer is not a scandal and it is not strong either. It sits in the convenience band, which is where high-street counter offers usually sit, and on this weight the difference between 77.7 per cent and 90 per cent is about £86. Whether that is worth a second written figure is the seller’s call, not ours, but at least it is now a decision made with a number rather than a feeling.
Step 5: how should you read the percentage?
| Offer as a share of metal value | What that usually means |
|---|---|
| 90 per cent or more | Strong. What a postal or trade buyer with no shopfront can sustain on clean, hallmarked, solid gold in a reasonable-sized lot. |
| 80 to 90 per cent | Good. Common on smaller lots, where the fixed cost of testing, handling and paying is a larger share of a smaller figure. |
| 60 to 80 per cent | The convenience band. Typical of high-street shops and jewellers’ buying desks, which fund rent, footfall and staff out of the same gap. Not dishonest, and a second written figure usually moves it. |
| 30 to 60 per cent | Typical of a pawnbroker buying outright, because lending rather than buying is the business. Reasonable if you want cash today with a redemption option; poor if you have simply decided to sell. |
| Below 30 per cent | Only defensible if the buyer names the reason: plating, stones, solder, non-gold parts, or a parcel so small the handling cost consumes it. If no reason is given, do not accept. |
These are the working ranges seen across UK buyer formats rather than a promise, a quotation or a rule, and individual transactions sit outside them in both directions. The reasons the same metal fetches different figures at different firms are set out in why gold recycling prices differ between buyers, and the pawn-versus-sale comparison is worked through in sell gold versus pawnbroker.
When is a low offer genuinely fair?
Often. A low percentage against your own calculation is frequently the buyer being right and the calculation being wrong, because the calculation used gross weight for an item that is not gold all the way through. Here is that case, worked.
A charm bracelet, stamped 375 on the chain, weighs 31.0 g gross. The seller multiplies 31.0 × £38.14 and expects something near £1,182. The buyer offers £425, which looks like 36 per cent, and the seller reasonably feels short-changed. What the assay and the separation actually found was: 12.1 g of solid 9ct chain and four solid charms; 11.3 g of gold-plated base-metal charms; 4.8 g of stones, enamel and setting cement; and 2.8 g of steel spring rings and a base-metal padlock clasp. Payable weight is 12.1 g, not 31.0 g. Metal value is 12.1 × 0.375 × £101.70 = £461.46, and £425 against that is 92.1 per cent. The offer was strong. The paperwork, if it did not show that split, was not.
- Stones. Diamonds, sapphires and cubic zirconia all weigh something and none of it is gold. Most stones in scrap-grade jewellery have no resale value once removed, so they come out of the payable weight and are usually returned or held with the piece.
- Plating and rolled gold. Gold-plated and gold-filled items carry a fraction of a per cent to a few per cent of gold by weight. The yield is real but small, and the refining chemistry is harder than on solid alloy, so the figure is modest and honestly so.
- Solder. Repaired chains and re-sized rings frequently contain solder of a lower carat than the piece. XRF shows it, and an honest buyer pays for what is there rather than for what the stamp claims.
- Non-gold parts. Watch movements, steel spring bars, base-metal clasps, cufflink swivels, brooch pins and hollow-tube fillings all add gross weight and contribute nothing.
- Small parcels. Testing, handling, paperwork and payment cost roughly the same on 2 g as on 200 g. On a very small lot those fixed costs are a large share of a small figure, and the percentage falls for reasons that have nothing to do with the buyer’s honesty.
- Hollow and filled items. Hollow rope chains, filled bangles and some Middle Eastern 22ct designs can contain plaster, resin or cement. The stamp is accurate; the gross weight is misleading.
When is a low offer not fair?
The test is not the number. It is whether the buyer has given you the four facts that let you reproduce the number yourself. A written offer worth accepting shows all four.
| What the offer should show | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The purity found, item by item, and how it was tested | Distinguishes an assay result from a guess at the stamp |
| The payable weight, and the gross weight it came from | Exposes the stones, plating and non-gold parts as a stated deduction rather than a silent one |
| The rate per gram used, and the date it was taken | Lets you check it against a public source for that day |
| The arithmetic, or enough of it to reproduce | Turns an offer into something you can verify instead of trust |
- The figure changed after your items arrived, with no stated reason and no revised breakdown.
- You were told the items had already been melted or processed before you accepted. Once that has happened the evidence is gone, which is precisely why acceptance must come first.
- The offer came with a deadline, a countdown, or a "today only" rate. The market moves daily; manufactured urgency is not the market.
- You were asked to accept a verbal figure, or the paperwork arrived only after payment.
- The buyer declined to return the items free of charge, or wanted a fee to send them back.
- The purity or the weight was simply absent from the paperwork.
None of those is about the size of the offer. A firm can pay 88 per cent and still handle a parcel badly; a firm can pay 62 per cent and document every step. What you are judging in this section is process, and the questions worth asking before anything is posted are listed in questions to ask a gold buyer before you post.
What if you have already sold and think the figure was wrong?
Start with the paperwork rather than a complaint. Ask the buyer, in writing, for the purity found, the payable and gross weights, and the rate and date used. Reputable firms keep this and will send it. Put your own photographs of the items alongside it. Very often the gap explains itself at this point, usually as gross weight versus payable weight.
On the law, one point surprises people. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 governs goods a trader supplies to a consumer, so it is the wrong statute when you are the one selling. The rules that do apply are the unfair commercial practices provisions in Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which came into force on 6 April 2025. Section 225(1) prohibits unfair commercial practices, and section 225(3) defines a commercial practice to include an act or omission relating to the supply of "a consumer’s product to the trader or another person". A trader buying gold from you is therefore squarely covered, and section 227 treats the omission of material information the consumer needs to make an informed decision as a misleading omission in its own right.
The practical route is the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, which passes reports to Trading Standards; consumers cannot report to Trading Standards directly. If the parcel itself went missing or came back damaged rather than the price being disputed, that is a different process, covered in what to do if something goes wrong selling gold by post.
Does this check work on GoldPaid’s own offers?
Yes, and here is the answer before you ask for it. GoldPaid’s published indicative rates were last recalibrated on 4 August 2026 against a UK spot of £3,029.42 per troy ounce, which is £97.40 per gram of fine gold. Run the test on every carat and the answer is the same each time.
| Carat | Metal content per gram at £97.40/g fine | GoldPaid indicative rate | Share of metal value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9ct (375) | £36.53 | £34.70 | 95.0% |
| 14ct (585) | £56.98 | £54.15 | 95.0% |
| 18ct (750) | £73.05 | £69.40 | 95.0% |
| 22ct (916) | £89.22 | £84.75 | 95.0% |
| 24ct (999) | £97.30 | £92.45 | 95.0% |
Three honest qualifications sit on that table. The rates are indicative and dated: spot has risen since 4 August, so the ratio against today’s market is not 95.0 per cent, and your firm offer is set against the rate on the day your parcel is assayed rather than the day the published figure was set. The percentage applies to payable weight, so a stone-set or part-plated lot will show a lower figure against its gross weight, and the written valuation shows that split. And the published rate is a guide rather than an offer; nothing is firm before inspection, because purity, weight, stones, solder and non-gold components all move the number.
What we will not do is claim to be the best-paying buyer in the country. We cannot verify that, no one can, and any firm that claims it is asking you to take a number on faith rather than check it. Run the arithmetic on our figures, run it on the last offer you were given, and use whichever comes out ahead. The current figures are on the gold calculator, the deduction-by-deduction method is on how we value gold, and our statutory dealer’s notice under the Hallmarking Act is on the hallmarking page.
If you accept a written valuation, payment is by Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance, usually within 30 minutes during working hours. If you decline, the items come back free of charge. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid Ltd is a UK postal buyer, company number 17382540, ICO registration ZC214216, rated 4.7 from 24 reviews on Trustpilot.
Sources
- LBMA, The Troy Ounce, one troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams exactly: lbma.org.uk
- Hallmarking Act 1973, Schedule 1, exemption weights of 1 g gold, 7.78 g silver, 0.5 g platinum and 1 g palladium: legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/43
- Business Companion (Chartered Trading Standards Institute), Weighing equipment for legal use, on CE/UKCA and "M" marks, Crown stamps and rejected equipment: businesscompanion.info
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4 Chapter 1, sections 225 and 227, in force 6 April 2025: legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13
- Citizens Advice consumer helpline, 0808 223 1133, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, which passes reports to Trading Standards: citizensadvice.org.uk
- UK gold price of £3,163.19 per troy ounce, £101.70 per gram of fine gold, BullionVault GBP spot, 6 August 2026.
Common questions
How do I know if I was ripped off selling my gold?
Work out the metal value and compare. Multiply the weight in grams by the carat decimal (0.375 for 9ct, 0.750 for 18ct) by the fine-gold price per gram on the day of the offer, then divide the offer by that figure. Above 90 per cent is strong, 60 to 80 per cent is the high-street convenience band, and 30 to 60 per cent is typical of a pawn counter buying outright. Below that, the buyer needs to name a reason such as stones, plating or solder.
What percentage of the gold price should a buyer pay?
There is no legal figure. In practice, postal and trade buyers with no shopfront can sustain 90 per cent or more of metal value on clean solid gold, high-street shops usually sit between 60 and 80 per cent, and pawnbrokers buying outright often sit between 30 and 60 per cent because lending rather than buying is their business. Smaller lots fall lower in every format, because the cost of testing and handling barely changes with weight.
Why was my offer so much lower than my own calculation?
Almost always because the calculation used gross weight and the offer used payable weight. Stones, enamel, setting cement, steel springs, base-metal clasps, watch movements and gold-plated components all add weight and contain no payable gold. A 31 g charm bracelet containing 12.1 g of solid 9ct is paid on 12.1 g. An honest offer states both numbers so you can see the deduction rather than guess at it.
Should a buyer pay me the spot price?
No, and none does. Spot is the wholesale price of fine gold in good-delivery bar form. Refining, assay, handling, the working-capital gap between paying you today and settling with a refiner weeks later, and margin all sit between spot and any consumer offer. The gap on solid carat gold is typically a single-digit percentage at a trade buyer and much wider on the high street.
Can I check the offer if I do not know the carat?
Only provisionally. Without a confirmed carat the calculation has no multiplier, so run it twice, once at the carat you suspect and once a step lower, and treat the answer as a range. A full UK hallmark settles it; light articles are legally exempt from hallmarking (below 1 g for gold), so an absent mark does not mean the piece is not gold. XRF testing settles it properly.
Do gold buyers have to use legal-for-trade scales?
Weighing equipment used for trade must be legal for that use. That means a CE or UKCA mark alongside the metrology "M" mark, or a Crown stamp on older equipment, plus a data plate showing capacity and accuracy. Equipment bearing a six-pointed star has been rejected by an inspector and using it for legal purposes is an offence. You are entitled to see the scales and the reading.
Is a low offer on a gold-plated item a scam?
No. Gold-plated and gold-filled pieces carry a fraction of a per cent to a few per cent of gold by weight, and the refining chemistry is harder than on solid alloy, so the recovered figure is genuinely small. What matters is that the buyer tells you the item is plated rather than quietly pricing it as solid and pocketing the difference. A written offer that names the plating is doing the right thing.
What should a written gold offer contain?
Four things: the purity found and how it was tested, the payable weight and the gross weight it came from, the rate per gram used with the date it was taken, and enough arithmetic to reproduce the total. With those four you can check the offer against a public price source yourself. Without them you are being asked to trust rather than verify.
I have already been paid and I think the figure was wrong. What can I do?
Ask the buyer in writing for the purity, the payable and gross weights, and the rate and date used, and set it against your own photographs. If you believe you were misled, the unfair commercial practices rules in Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 cover a trader buying a consumer’s goods, and reports go to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133. General information, not legal advice.
Does this method work for silver?
The structure does, but the percentages do not transfer. Silver refining costs far more relative to the metal recovered, so the gap between spot and any consumer offer is proportionally much wider than on gold, and a sterling offer well below 90 per cent of spot metal value can be entirely reasonable. Named-maker, antique or ecclesiastical silver frequently beats scrap value and should be checked before it is weighed.
Is it worth getting a second offer?
On anything above a few grams, usually yes, because a written second figure costs nothing and the spread between buyer formats on the same metal is often 20 to 30 per cent. On one or two grams of 9ct the difference is a few pounds and convenience reasonably wins. The one thing to avoid is comparing a verbal figure against a written one, because only one of them is checkable.
Will GoldPaid tell me if my item is worth more than its metal?
Yes, and we return it. Signed designer pieces, fine gemstones, rare-date sovereigns, good antique work and sealed investment bullion are all better served elsewhere, by a specialist dealer, an auction house or a bullion dealer as appropriate. Where we think that applies we say so in the written valuation and send the item back free of charge rather than buying it as metal.