Class Rings

Ahh, yes the class ring. That ring that many of us purchased as a final momento of our years receiving an education. These rings are often gold, usually inscibed with the owners name, they are dated to a specific graduation year and of course are for the high school that the owner attended. With the exception of the gold content these rings can be difficult to sell.

Why?? Originally these momento's were quite expensive but in todays market the only real value is in the metal content. The probability that someone from your graduating class with your exact initials wanting a class ring 40 years after the commencement occured are very slim. Then on top of that you have to find them.

The good news is that the rings typically have quite a bit of gold content. So the real question is what is a fair price for that gold? The answer lies in mathmatics, so if you are an admittedly mathmatically challenged this would be a good time to stop reading.

The first part of computing the value is simple enough, look on (typically) the inside of the ring and determine what the karat marking is. Most rings are either 10k or 14k. The second step after determining the karat marking is to actually weigh the ring. It is very important to know that any embedded stones are not part of that weight and that they need to be removed first. Purchasers of gold class rings are not interested in having a synthetic stone depicting your school colors as part of their purchase. They want the ring for the gold content only. Weighing the ring needs to be very accurate. You should find a very accurate scale that weighs in grams.

Now that we know the karat marking and the weight it is time to do the math. I will try to explain as well as I can the process. Don't let it frustrate you if you don't get it a first follow the steps and you should be able to get a pretty good estimate.

Step 1

Do a google search to find out the current selling / purhasing cost of gold. I usually use monex because they have live current prices.

Step 2

Calculate the current value per gram for gold. This is fairly easy. Gold is typically valued using onces. Since there are 31..1 grams per ounce all you have to do is divide the current price of gold by 31..1 An example would be finding that gold's current value is $1200 per once. Divide $1200 by 31..1 (1200/31.1) to get the amount of $38.58 per gram. This number will change each time that the value of gold changes.

Step 3

This part will never change so write these percentages down:

10K = .41666

14K = .58333

18K = .75000

24K = 1.0000

Step 4

Multiply:

Take the first figure that you have calculated in step 2 and multiply it by the percentage that corresponds to you karat weight in step 3. So using our example if your ring is 10K multiply $38.58 times .41666 to get $16.08.

If your ring is 14k then you would multiply $38.58 times .58333 to get $22.50.

Step 5

Multipy the gram weight for your karat times the weight of the ring.

10K ring = 16.08 x weight of 6 grams = $96.48

It may seem confusing at first but it is really a very simple calculation. There only items that will change are the weight of the ring (or any other gold item for that matter) and the current selling price of gold. So here you go again:

Determine the Karat of gold marked on the ring

Deterimine the current value of gold

Weigh the ring

Multiply

These are a great CASH IT item. They are typically very heavy and the price of gold is currently very strong. So go ahead and grab them out of the old jewelry box and call up your old girlfriends (to get them back!) to turn them into cash.

One last note. Precious metals are weighed using troy ounces. A standard ounce has 28 grams in it a troy ounce has 32.1.