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With the current high price of gold, many are looking to sell any and all old gold they may have in their possession. Broken or twisted chains, mismatched earrings and bent or damaged rings may not have much value as jewelry, but the gold they contain is still valuable. The same can be said of old dental gold. Where is the best place to sell scrap dental gold?

Where to Sell Scrap Dental Gold

Normally, if one wants to sell an old piece of gold jewelry, there may be a number of places to do so. Pawn shops buy old jewelry, especially if they think they can resell it. Some jewelry stores also buy old pieces, either to resell or possibly rework. Then there are all of the ads for Internet gold buyers asking you to mail in your old gold. However, with old dental gold, what is being sold really is nothing more than scrap. So the best prices will be obtained from a buyer who specifically deals in scrap gold.

With the recent economic downturn, many businesses that normally wouldn't be interested in scrap gold have begun dealing in it. However, pawn shops and jewelry stores have a business model that involves high markups, and that may also carry over into their scrap gold buying practices. In November 2009, Consumer Reports researched Internet gold buyers and found that they offered some of the lowest payouts, all claims to the contrary aside. They concluded that the best prices could most often be obtained from local scrap gold buyers.

In order to find a local scrap gold buyer, input any of the following search terms, along with the desired location, into any of the major search engines:

• sell gold "your city"
• gold buyer "your city"
• gold dealer "your city"

If a local scrap gold specialist can't be found, check with a few jewelry stores or pawn shops that are serious about buying scrap gold to see who offers the best price.

Preparing to Sell Scrap Dental Gold

First, it is important to prepare the pieces as well as possible. Many times old gold fillings or gold crowns still have teeth or other filling material still attached. The scrap gold buyer is only going to pay based on the weight of the gold. So it is best to remove any foreign material as well as is reasonably possible. If the teeth are still attached, use a hammer or pair of pliers to break them off. Always wear safety glasses as old teeth can be very brittle and shatter as they are removed. If there is some metallic filling material still attached, it may not be feasible to remove it at home, so just leave it.

It doesn't matter if the gold gets somewhat bent during this as it is going to be melted down eventually, anyway. The key is to have as little extra material as possible so the gold buyer doesn't have to guess and deduct weight since they will usually err on the side of caution, to the seller's detriment.

How Much is Dental Gold Worth?

The value of dental gold is no different than any other scrap gold. In fact, it might be a little more valuable per gram since some dental work can be as pure as 18 karat, as opposed to the 10KT or 14KT that most jewelry is made of. However, since there generally isn't much weight to a piece of dental gold, it probably won't be an enormous sum, unless several pieces are involved.