Selling old gold crowns?

[ERD50]

DW has a 2 old gold crowns from the crematorium after her DM passed. They are just sitting in a drawer, might as well try to sell them now so the kids never have to mess with any of this. And it's kind of creepy.

I weighed them at ~ 10 grams, but there appears to be some tooth material in there (they are in a sealed package). I'll guestimate 8 g of gold? Current gold price is ~ $60/gram. My reading so far is since the karat rating would be unknown, I assumed 12K, and that brings you to ~ 8g*$30 = $240.

After their costs to determine K and melt and profit, not sure what to expect, but probably not much for a small amount like this. I don't want to put much work into this, as I doubt the difference will amount to much. I just want to get a decent price for little work. Is a local pawn shop a reasonable way to go, jeweler, or on-line?

-ERD50

 

[Car-Guy]

Yes, that's pretty creepy... Suggest a small local jeweler might be the best/quick way to go on this. Not sure I'd be to quick to tell the jeweler where they came from. Personally, I'd probably just keep them with the ashes......

 

[bobandsherry]

There's a business opportunity for anything..... lol

https://www.garfieldrefining.com/industries/dentists/

https://www.webuydentalscrap.com/

 

[bobandsherry]

More info....

https://www.cdhp.org/how-much-is-de...gold is worth $40,gold content are worth more.

 

[easysurfer]

A bit on the macabre side if you ask me.

But what to I know?

 

[Gumby]

I have a gold crown that came out while I was flying to vacation once. Nice to know that I could possibly get a few bucks for it.

 

[SecondCor521]

I have a local gold and silver shop that seems to be treating me fairly, so if I were in your shoes I would take it to some place like that. A pawn shop might also work fine.

At the place I trust, they have a gold tester thing that tells them what karat level/weight/whatever the gold is. They pay spot minus some small amount which is their margin for providing the service. And they can test, weigh, calculate, offer and pay in about three minutes.

In my state they require a copy of your driver's license when you sell gold to them. State law I think.

I wouldn't mention the tooth material. Any gold/silver place worth their salt (heh) will notice any non-gold material and will make a fair adjustment for it.

 

[dixonge]

you could melt 'em down and make your own grill!

MC Boomer

 

[DrRoy]

Get a few offers. They might vary a lot.

 

[Aerides]

A little googling shows there are definitely places that specialize in dental gold. Perhaps better than a pawn shop, who is looking at items mainly from "what can I sell this for?"

 

[braumeister]

I've had a few gold crowns replaced. Each time my dentist gave it to me along with a preaddressed envelope to mail it to a place that recycles the gold. They then sent me a check, which never amounted to more than a few dollars.
Last time was seven years ago when gold was about half the price it is today, but I still wouldn't expect much.

 

[LateToFIRE]

Local jeweler is the way to go, unless you happen to live in NYC, in which case there are establishments that specialize in buying gold.

 

[pacergal]

I've had a few gold crowns replaced. Each time my dentist gave it to me along with a preaddressed envelope to mail it to a place that recycles the gold. They then sent me a check, which never amounted to more than a few dollars.
Last time was seven years ago when gold was about half the price it is today, but I still wouldn't expect much.

This is what I have experienced also. Very easy process, got a check in the mail.
You could ask your dentist if they have those envelopes?
Or a local jeweler.

 

[ERD50]

Thanks for the input. Yes, it is a bit (maybe more than a bit!) macabre, but that part was done, I'd just as soon get these out of the house. That's less macabre to me, and might as well get a few bucks for them rather than just toss 'em. MIL was frugal, she'd probably be offended if we didn't try to get some $$ for them!

I'm guessing on-line is going to be a low bidder for such a small amount, considering handling, etc. I'll try the local pawn shop, and if it seems even somewhat reasonable, I'll just go with that. For this small amount, probably not worth my time/effort to shop it around.

-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

I've had a few gold crowns replaced. Each time my dentist gave it to me along with a preaddressed envelope to mail it to a place that recycles the gold. They then sent me a check, which never amounted to more than a few dollars.
Last time was seven years ago when gold was about half the price it is today, but I still wouldn't expect much.

I do need to see my dentist anyhow, so I'll ask.

From my online reading, if you get them replaced by the dentist that put them in, they can state the karat value, and that might save some costs (but would the buyer trust the dentist? I don't think I would, honest mistakes can be made).

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

Aren't there stories of grave robbers going after people's gold teeth?

I guess gold is gold whether from a ring or from aunt Betsy .

 

[ERD50]

Aren't there stories of grave robbers going after people's gold teeth?

I guess gold is gold whether from a ring or from aunt Betsy .

From what I understand, almost all the gold ever mined is still available. It's worth so much, that very little is just tossed.

-ERD50

 

[Car-Guy]

How much gold is there in the world?


Consider that the Washington Monument measures 55 feet by 55 feet at its base and is 555 feet tall (17 x 17 x 170 m). That means that if you could somehow gather every scrap of gold that man has ever mined into one place, you could only build about one-third of the Washington Monument.

 

[RetiredHappy]

They won't be worth more than a few dollars. Should have gone with the poor woman, now she is wondering around on the other side without a couple of teeth.

 

[Sunset]

I'll be interested in knowing how much it's worth.

When I had a crown done years ago, the dentist charged me $10 more for the gold one than the white one.
He said the gold was better for a molar so that is why I went for it.

Now I know I made a good choice as I can sell it for a few lunches, whereas I could never sell the white one

 

[RetMD21]

It is 184 days since the last thread about this so I couldn't add on. Anyway I was inspired by that thread to finally sell an old crown. I used Garfield Refinery. They emailed me a USPS label. I mailed the crown and had $65 in my bank account within a week. It was easy. I admire those who drive around and get competitive bids but for myself I knew it had to be easy or it wouldn't get done. It's nice to have it resolved.

 

[braumeister]

For convenience, I added this to the older thread.

You can post to an older thread by simply checking this box in the old thread warning:

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My best friend took grandpa’s gold tooth in to his jeweler and had it used to make a ring.