Almost every household has the same drawer. One earring whose twin went missing years ago. A chain that snapped and never got mended. A ring nobody has worn since the eighties. Most people, when they finally decide to sell, do the same thing first: they pick out the pieces that still look like jewelry, and leave the rest behind. That single decision — the sorting — is where most of the money gets lost.
What breaking actually takes away
Very little, as it turns out. Gold does not know that it is broken. Fourteen-karat gold that has snapped in half weighs exactly what it weighed intact, and it is exactly the same alloy on both sides of the break. That is why the answer on the gold page is as blunt as it is: “Condition doesn’t matter for scrap value; we pay on the actual gold content.” Whole or broken, marked or mystery — if it is gold, it is tested and paid on its content.
What breaking takes away is wearability, and wearability is only part of the value of a piece — and on plain gold it is not part of the value at all. What a break can affect is the resale value of a signed or antique piece, and even there it usually reduces the premium rather than erasing it.
| What is in the drawer | What the damage took | What it still has | How it is valued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snapped chain | The ability to wear it | Every gram, at its original karat | Weighed and priced on metal content |
| Single earring | Its pair, not its metal | Full metal and stone value | Weighed like any other piece; stones graded on their own merits |
| Ring with a stone missing | One stone — if it is genuinely gone | The whole mount, plus every stone still set | Metal by weight, remaining stones graded individually |
| Bent or crushed piece | Its shape | All of its metal; usually all of its stones | Metal content, plus premium if it is signed or antique |
| Knotted tangle of chains | Nothing at all | Everything — each chain is separated and weighed here | Piece by piece, not as one lump |
| Empty setting or mount | Its stone, which may be in the same drawer | Its full metal weight | Weighed as gold or platinum; send the loose stone with it |
| Class rings, cufflinks, dental gold, watch cases | Any resemblance to jewelry | Real karat gold, often a surprising amount | Assessed the same way as everything else |
Every piece in that list is one we are asked about regularly, and every one of them belongs in the box. Broken, bent and single earrings still hold their full metal and stone value.
The four things people bin that they should not
These are not hypothetical. They are the ones that turn up in a shipment as an afterthought, and then turn out to be the best thing in it.
The lone earring
Unwearable, so it reads as rubbish. It is also solid gold with a diamond in it, sitting in a dish next to a spare button. Its twin turning up later changes nothing — send it then too.
The brooch nobody would wear
Out of fashion is not the same as out of value. A plain-looking brooch can carry a signature, and era and maker are exactly what push a piece above what it weighs.
The mount with nothing in it
A setting whose stone was moved into something else is still a full weight of gold or platinum, and often a piece of real hand work. If the stone is still in the house, it travels with it.
The bag you assumed was costume
Marks wear off, get polished away and get cut out when a ring is resized. Costume pieces cost nothing to include — we set them aside and tell you — so nobody has to make that call in their kitchen.
There is no charge for being wrong about a piece. Everything is valued individually, anything you decline comes back to you free and fully insured, and one prepaid label covers the whole box either way. That is what makes pre-sorting a pure loss: filtering costs you the chance of a surprise, and saves you nothing.
Going through the drawer, in five steps
- 1Tip the whole box out and stop sortingEmpty the drawer, the pouch and the odds-and-ends dish onto a light surface. Do not split it into a good pile and a junk pile. Do not pre-sort — the pieces people leave out are the ones that surprise them.
- 2Look for a mark before you call anything scrapInside a ring band, the flat tag beside a clasp, the back of a pendant bail, the earring post. A karat number, a fineness number or a maker’s name changes what a piece is worth far more than whether it is in one piece.
- 3Keep the pieces of anything broken togetherBoth halves of a snapped chain travel together. A stone that has come out goes in a small bag or a folded square of paper, not loose in the box where it will end up in a corner of the packaging. A piece and its own stone are worth more together than apart.
- 4Photograph the box as it isA few shots of everything laid out, plus a close-up of any mark you can read. A few photos of the box as it is, before you sort anything, tell us most of what we need — and it costs nothing to ask before anything is packed.
- 5Send it all in one insured shipmentOne prepaid label covers all of it, so there is no advantage to splitting the box or holding pieces back. Tell us roughly what is in it when you request your kit, so the insurance matches what is actually inside.
Do not repair, polish or take anything apart first.
Do not mend a broken chain to make it presentable. On plain gold you would be paying a bench fee to add nothing at all — the metal is weighed either way. On a signed or antique piece, a repair made without knowing what the piece is can cost more than the break did.
Do not cut a knot out of a tangle. Cut links are gold you paid for and then removed. Tangles are separated here as a matter of routine; a knot is not a problem, a pair of scissors is.
Do not pry a loose stone out of its setting to send it separately, and do not glue one back in. And do not clean or polish anything before it ships — polishing is how a readable hallmark becomes unreadable, and on an antique the surface itself is part of the value.
When broken is worth more than melted
This is the part that matters most, and it is the reason the sorting instinct is dangerous. A damaged piece with a signature on it, or a genuinely old piece, is not automatically scrap just because it needs work. A signed or antique piece can still be worth restoring rather than melting — and the difference between those two outcomes is not small.
So that call is never made for you. Every piece is valued piece by piece by a trained gemologist and never blindly melted, because melting a signed piece destroys value that can never be recovered. Plain gold is paid at melt and never below it; branded and gem-set pieces are priced on the resale market instead, which is usually well above metal value. Send it as it is, and you will be told honestly which of the two is worth more.
Not sure whether a drawer of odds and ends is worth the trouble? Photograph it as it is and ask, before you pack anything or throw anything out.
Ask on WhatsAppWhat happens to the box once it is here
Nothing is treated as a lump. Every piece is weighed and its karat confirmed by testing, stones are graded on their own merits, and the offer comes back in writing with the metal value and any brand or gemstone premium shown separately — so you can see which part of the number came off the scale and which part did not.
You then decide piece by piece: sell what you like, keep the rest. Nothing is melted, altered or dismantled before you accept in writing. Accept, and payment is the same day by bank transfer. Decline any of it, and those exact pieces come back to you free and fully insured, with no restocking fee — costume strays included. The best of what we buy does not get melted at all; it goes into our own collection.
Frequently asked questions
Is broken gold jewelry worth anything?
Yes. Broken chains, single earrings, bent rings, dental gold and scrap are all welcome, and condition does not matter for scrap value because we pay on the actual gold content. Gold does not know it is broken: the same weight of the same karat is the same metal value whether the piece is wearable or in three pieces. Where condition does matter is on signed and antique pieces — and there it can work in your favour, because a damaged signed piece may still be worth restoring rather than melting.
Where can I sell a single gold earring?
Here, in the same shipment as everything else. A single earring is one of the most commonly thrown-away pieces of real gold there is: it is not wearable, so people treat it as rubbish, but it weighs what it weighs and its karat is what it always was. Broken, bent and single earrings still hold their full metal and stone value. If the missing twin turns up later, send that in too.
Should I have a broken chain repaired before I sell it?
For plain gold, no — repairing it costs you money and adds nothing, because plain gold is paid on its metal content, not on whether the clasp works. For a signed or antique piece the answer can be different, and it is not a decision to make blind: such a piece can still be worth restoring rather than melting, and that judgement is exactly what the valuation is for. Send it as it is and you will be told honestly which is worth more.
What do I do with a ring that has lost its stone?
Send the ring, and send the stone with it if you still have it. An empty mount is still gold or platinum by weight, and a stone out of its setting is still a stone, graded on its own merits. Keep the two together in the same package rather than mailing one and keeping the other, and do not try to reset it first — nothing is unset, altered or dismantled here before you accept an offer in writing.
Do you buy costume jewelry?
It is not a metal purchase, but it costs nothing to include. Costume pieces travel in with everything else, we set them aside and tell you, and they come back with anything else you decline, free and fully insured. That is deliberate: it means you never have to make the call yourself about whether a piece is real, which is exactly the point at which genuinely valuable things get binned.
Is a small amount of broken gold worth mailing at all?
Sending it costs you nothing either way, so the honest answer is to find out rather than guess. The shipping kit, the insurance in both directions and the valuation are all free, and if the number is not worth it to you, the exact pieces you sent come back free and insured. If you would rather know before you pack anything, photograph the pieces and the marks and send them on WhatsApp for a straight answer.