If all you know is “3D hard gold bought for over 3,000,” you cannot turn that receipt total into a fair resale price. The useful answer is to calculate from the item, not from the old budget: confirm the metal mark, weigh the piece, read the buyer’s written rate basis, then subtract only the fees or deductions that are actually stated on that quote.
Why the old 3,000 price is not the resale value
The Lukfook gold jewellery guide explains electroformed gold articles as pure gold layered onto a wax model, with hollow, light-weight and complex designs, and it distinguishes regional fineness markings. The term “3D hard gold” describes a product or manufacturing style, not a complete assay report for your item. With a hollow ornament, size can be particularly misleading: the item may be real high-purity gold, but the retail price also paid for forming, design, brand margin and shop pricing.
The World Gold Council investment guide describes premiums on investment bars and coins and lists gram and troy-ounce units for bars. That is a different market from finished jewellery resale; a displayed bullion spot price is not an offer to buy your piece. The original “more than 3,000” tells you what was paid; it does not tell you the grams of recoverable gold.
The facts to collect before comparing offers
- Actual weight: use the measured weight of the gold item in grams, not the receipt total. Remove packaging, cords and non-gold add-ons from the comparison if the buyer will not pay for them as gold.
- Fineness or purity: Au999 means 999 parts per thousand, Au990 means 990 parts per thousand, and 18K means 18 parts out of 24. Do not automatically interpret an unqualified 足金 stamp as Au999: the accompanying numerical fineness and applicable marking rules matter. The FTC precious-metal jewelry guide explains that a karat mark tells how much pure gold the piece contains; for example, 18K means 18 parts gold out of 24.
- Quote basis: ask whether the buyer’s rate is a pure-gold price per gram, a 足金/999 jewellery buyback price per gram, or only an exchange credit for buying a new item.
- Deductions: ask the buyer to itemize any proposed testing fee, weight or refining deduction, service fee or exchange labour charge. These are terms to check, not a list of charges that every buyer is entitled to make. Establish whether a percentage applies to accepted weight or to the payment amount, and whether a charge is already included in the rate.
How to calculate a reasonable estimate
Use the formula that matches the quotation. If the buyer writes “999 jewellery buyback rate per gram,” the simple estimate is:
measured grams × quoted jewellery buyback rate − written fixed fees = estimated cash
If the buyer writes a pure-gold basis instead, adjust for purity once:
measured grams × confirmed purity factor × pure-gold rate − written fees = estimated cash
If the quote expressly applies a percentage deduction to the payment amount, multiply that gross amount by the remaining percentage once, then subtract any separately stated fixed fee. A deduction to accepted weight must instead be accounted for in the weight used in the calculation. Do not multiply by 99.9% again when the counter has already quoted a per-gram rate specifically for 足金, 999 gold or 3D hard-gold jewellery.
Teaching examples, not today’s price
These examples use made-up quotation numbers only to show the calculation. All amounts use the same unspecified currency. Replace them with a dated offer in your own currency; none is a current market quotation.
- Example A: jewellery buyback basis. A 3D hard-gold charm is weighed at 5.00 g. The buyer writes “999 hard-gold jewellery buyback: 500 per gram; handling fee: 30” in the same currency. Estimate: 5.00 × 500 − 30 = 2,470.
- Example B: pure-gold basis. The same 5.00 g item is tested/treated as Au999, the buyer writes “pure-gold basis: 505 per gram; payment deduction: 1.5%; no fixed fee.” Estimate: 5.00 × 0.999 × 505 × 0.985 ≈ 2,485. The small difference comes from the stated rate and deduction method.
- Example C: why weight is essential. With a teaching quote of 500 per gram before fees, a 3.00 g item starts at 1,500, while a 6.00 g item starts at 3,000. Both could have been bought for “more than 3,000” if the retail craft premium was different, so the receipt total cannot replace weighing.
Cash resale and exchange credit are different offers
An exchange allowance of 3,000 is not necessarily a cash offer of 3,000. Ask whether you must buy a replacement item, what that item costs without the exchange, whether labour charges are added, and how much extra cash you must pay. Compare two routes: the total additional payment under the exchange, versus the replacement item’s separate purchase price minus the net cash offer for your old piece. Use the same replacement item and written terms; a larger allowance alone does not establish a better deal.
How to compare two buyers fairly
Put every offer into the same unit, currency and time. Compare the written net amount after fees, not the highest headline per-gram number. If one counter quotes after testing and another quotes only after looking at the stamp, ask what happens if the test result changes the purity. The World Gold Council hallmark explanation notes that hallmarks show purity or fineness and that marking systems vary by country, so a mark is a starting point for discussion, not a substitute for the buyer’s written basis.
Before leaving an item for testing, ask whether the process will mark, cut or melt it and what happens if you decline the final offer. Record the piece and agreed weight on the receipt. If you may want to keep wearing a hollow piece or obtain a second opinion, do not assume every test is reversible.
For a piece bought for over 3,000, it might sell near that number only if the measured gold weight and the same-day written buyback rate are high enough and the deductions are small. It might also sell for much less if the original price contained a large 3D craft premium or the item is lighter than expected. Without weight, purity and a written quote, no exact resale amount is supportable.