Price used in this article: pure gold around €120/g on 8 June 2026, down after the start-of-year peak. The price moves every day — check it at the date you're reading.
When the gold price makes the news — whether it soars or tumbles — there's always a wave of people wondering whether to sell their jewellery. Me first, once upon a time: I resold rings I'd been given that didn't suit me, and discovered that on some I'd even made a small gain. But I also understood something the buy-back shops don't put forward.
"Sell now!" — once again, who's telling you that?
Type "is it the time to sell my gold": you land on gold buy-backs. That is, the people who buy it from you. Their answer is always yes — that you should sell now because the price is high, or sell now because it might drop. They're judge and party. It's not a conspiracy, it's just their job; but it means their advice doesn't help you decide, it helps them buy.
The trap: the buy-back barely cares about the spot price
Here's what you need to understand. When you bring a piece to a serious gold buy-back, it always does the same calculation, whatever the day's price:
- it weighs the piece,
- it applies the fineness (for 18-carat: 75% pure gold),
- it pays you that pure-gold weight at the day's price, minus its margin — often around 70% of spot.
Everything else — the jewellery work, the beauty of the piece, the brand, what you paid in the shop — doesn't count. The buy-back pays only for the metal, and it melts it.
So "waiting for the price to climb back" only plays on the metal share, and only up to that 70%. If spot recovers 10%, your buy-back recovers ~10% of €315, about thirty euros on this ring. It can be worth waiting if you're not in a hurry — but it never turns a by-weight buy-back into a good deal. The real question isn't "what price", it's "should I melt this piece, or resell it intact?". There's a third path a jeweller will happily sell you — reworking it into a brand-new piece "using your own gold" — but I've costed out what the "melt loss" and the labour really cost you: often, selling then buying second-hand comes out cheaper.
My decision rule, simple
- Sell to the buy-back (melt) if: you need cash quickly; the piece is broken, mismatched, or has no aesthetic interest; or it's 9- or 14-carat that I consider cheap gold anyway. There, the gold weight is all that counts, so sell it by weight.
- Resell intact (second-hand) if: it's an 18-carat piece in good condition, a vintage ring, a chain that still appeals. There, a second-hand resale to someone who'll wear it almost always earns you more than the by-weight buy-back — because the buyer pays for the piece, not just its metal.
And if you need nothing and the piece pleases you: don't sell. 18-carat gold remains a store of value you can keep and resell in ten years. A price dip isn't a reason to sell — it's rather the opposite, it's a better moment to buy.
Eleven French second-hand 18-carat gold shops, normalised per gram — enough to place the true price of your piece before accepting a buy-back.
To wrap up
The right moment to sell isn't read on the price curve, it's decided on the nature of your piece: to melt, or to resell intact? For pure metal (broken piece, 9-carat, need for cash), the by-weight buy-back does the job. For a fine 18-carat piece, second-hand resale almost always beats the buy-back. And don't forget the taxation depending on the amount and the vehicle: I detailed it here.
I'm telling you what I did with my own jewellery. Make your own choices for your situation — but before accepting a buy-back price, always check the price per gram.
Sources for the figures cited:
- Pure gold price ~€120/g on 8 June 2026: veracash.com — live gold price, accessed 8 June 2026
- Taxation of gold and jewellery resale in 2026: OrOGramme guide
- Why I filter out 9-carat: OrOGramme article