Weighing your goldNow that you have confirmed the authenticity and karat content, it’s time for weighing your gold. Your final investment will be a jewelry scale, which will cost in the range of $25.00. It is necessary to purchase a dedicated jewelry scale for weighing your gold because it is calibrated to troy weights whereas a kitchen scale used for weighing food measures weight in avoirdupois ounces. One troy ounce of gold weighs 31.1 grams, and one avoirdupois ounce weighs 28.35 grams. If you type in "digital pocket scale," "digital scale," "jewelry scale," or "gold scale," many results will turn up. 
The industry today seems to be divided between two different standards of weighing methods. Jewelers in particular weigh by the pennyweight (dwt), whereas home shopping clubs, jewelry counters in retail stores and the majority of Ebay sellers weigh by the gram. There are 1.555 grams in 1 pennyweight (dwt). We'll talk more about that later.
Before weighing what you have, separate it into piles of 10KT, 14KT, 18KT, etc. Set the “Unit” section of your scale to either grams or dwt. Then you can reverse the units so you know the weight in both grams and dwt. If you have a large pile that won’t fit on the top of the scale, you may need to use the “Tare” function. That will allow you to fill up the lid of the scale or a small box top and then weigh it while the scale automatically deducts the weight of the container. The identical pile of 14kt in both pictures below. The pile on the left was weighed in grams, and the pile on the right was weighed in pennyweights (dwt). Do you see how important it is for you to know what it weighs in both grams and pennyweights, and how the buyer is weighing it before you sell? 
Some of your jewelry may contain stones. Unless they are diamonds of good size and clarity, stones have very little value and present a huge gray area when trying to weigh your jewelry because their weight also has to be taken into account. This may sound shocking, but I remove all stones with either a pair of jeweler’s pliers or simply crack them out with a hammer.
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