Paying under melt is not one of them
Start here, because it is the most common misunderstanding. Every buyer pays less than melt value, and that is not a trick. Your jewellery is not refined metal: it has to be tested, melted, assayed and refined before it becomes the deliverable gold the benchmark prices, and each of those steps costs money. The buyer also carries the price risk between paying you and selling the refined metal, and takes a margin for doing so.
A pawn shop at 50% to 60% of melt is expensive, not dishonest. What follows are the practices that are genuinely worth guarding against, and every one of them has a simple check.
Unit switching: grams, pennyweights and ounces
Three units are in circulation and mixing them up is the most expensive mistake on this page. A pennyweight is 1.55517384 grams. A troy ounce is 31.1034768 grams. The ounce on a kitchen scale is 28.35 grams and has no place in a precious metals transaction at all.
A price quoted per pennyweight is about 55% larger than the same price per gram, so "$85 a pennyweight" sounds far better than "$55 a gram" even when the second is the better offer. Quoting in dwt is traditional in the US jewellery trade and is not dishonest by itself. Comparing a per-dwt quote against a per-gram quote without converting is how people choose the worse one.
The check: ask for every quote in dollars per gram, or divide any per-dwt figure by 1.55517384 yourself. Troy ounce vs ounce works through all three units.
Karat lumping
If you hand over a mixed pile, the quick way for a buyer to price it is to test one piece and apply the lowest karat present to the whole lot. Your 18k gets paid at the 10k rate, and the difference is enormous: 18k holds 75% gold against 10k at 41.7%, so the same weight is worth nearly 80% more.
The check: sort your gold by stamp before you go in, and ask for each karat to be weighed and quoted separately. A buyer who insists on pricing a sorted lot as a single blended weight should be asked why, and the answer will tell you whether to stay.
Testing you cannot see
Acid testing takes a few seconds and an XRF gun gives a reading instantly. There is no legitimate reason for either to happen out of your sight, and no established buyer needs to take your property into a back room to do it.
The check: watch the test and watch the scale, with the display facing you. If that is refused, ask for your items back. This is the clearest single signal there is, and the good news is that the overwhelming majority of buyers do all of this in front of you as standard.
The offer that expires today
Pressure to decide immediately is the oldest tactic there is, and in a market where the underlying price moves by fractions of a percent a day, an offer that cannot survive until tomorrow is a sales technique rather than a market reality. The metal in your hand will be worth almost exactly the same tomorrow.
The check: leave, and get a second quote. If the first offer was genuinely good it will still be available, and if it was not you have just saved the difference.
Mail-in kits that melt before quoting
Postal buying is legitimate and refiners pay the best rates in the business, but read the terms before anything goes in an envelope. The two lines that matter are whether your items are returned free of charge if you decline the offer, and how long you have to decide before the offer is treated as accepted.
The check: photograph and weigh every piece before posting, send tracked and insured for the full value, and keep the receipt. A refiner that will not return declined items intact is not one to use, and the good ones say so clearly in their terms.
The stone deduction nobody explains
A buyer should deduct the weight of any stones, because stone weight is not metal weight. What matters is whether the deduction is an estimate you can check or a lump sum taken off the price at the end.
The check: ask for the deduction in grams, not in dollars. Diamonds and most coloured stones are much lighter than gold for their size, so on a typical ring the deduction should be small. On a heavy cluster piece it will not be, and it should still be stated as a weight.
The check that defeats all of them
Know your melt value before you walk in. If your lot is 20 grams of 14k, it is worth $1,645 at the current benchmark, and every offer can be turned into a percentage of that on the spot. An offer at 70% is a normal jeweller price. An offer at 35% is one to walk away from, whatever explanation comes with it.
That single number turns an opaque negotiation into arithmetic, which is the whole reason the calculator on this page exists. The step by step guide covers the order to do everything in.
Questions about selling gold safely
Are cash-for-gold places a ripoff?
Not usually a fraud, but usually the worst price. They operate on a wide margin and pay roughly 55% to 70% of melt, against 80% to 85% from a refiner. The genuine problems are the ones described on this page: unit switching, karat lumping and testing out of sight, all of which are avoidable.
How do I know if a gold buyer is cheating me?
Convert their offer into a percentage of melt. If you know your lot is worth $1,000 at melt and the offer is $400, that is 40%, below every legitimate band. Any buyer who will not let you watch the weighing, will not state the karat they tested, or will not quote a percentage, is one to walk away from.
Do gold buyers use rigged scales?
Outright rigged scales are rare and are a criminal offence, since trade scales are legally required to be certified and inspected. The far more common problem is a scale you cannot see, or a quote in pennyweights compared against a price per gram. Both are fixed by watching the display and checking the unit.
What is the pennyweight trick?
Quoting a price per pennyweight while you are thinking in grams. A pennyweight is 1.555 grams, so a price per dwt is about 55% larger than the same price per gram, and it sounds like a better offer than it is. Divide any per-dwt figure by 1.555 before comparing it to a per-gram one.
Should I let a buyer test my gold in another room?
No. Testing takes seconds and there is no legitimate reason for your property to leave your sight. Ask for the items back and go elsewhere. This is the single clearest signal that a buyer is not operating the way an established one does.
Is it a scam if a buyer offers less than melt value?
No, that is how the trade works. Your jewellery has to be tested, melted, assayed and refined before it becomes the metal the benchmark prices, and the buyer carries the price risk and takes a margin. Paying under melt is normal; paying far under every published band is the thing to question.
What can I do if I think I was underpaid for gold?
Practically, very little after the fact, which is why the checks matter beforehand. Precious metal dealers in most US states are licensed and must report transactions, so a complaint to the state licensing body or consumer protection office is the route if you believe a dealer misrepresented what they tested or weighed.