Jewelry Resellers Score Profits on Gold, Silver Price Spikes

To understand why this opportunity exists, we need to take a look at the market driving it. Gold and especially silver have surged in value through 2025 and repeatedly broken all-time-high records up through December.

Gold started the year around $2,600/oz and steadily grew up through October, by which time it had reached $4,200/oz. After some shakeups in November, it once again began spiking, and by December 2025 gold had reached a new ATH of over $4,500/oz after Christmas.

Silver has been even more explosive. After starting the year at just under $30/oz, it began skyrocketing late in 2025 to over $70/oz, representing a yearly gain of over 140%.

Like most price increases in 2025, precious metals are gaining in value from a confluence of general economic volatility, fear, and sudden supply shock primarily driven electric vehicles, solar panels, and newly constructed AI data centers. Yes, the same reason you can’t buy RAM is (partly) the same reason silver is worth $70/oz.

Consumers are trying to counteract oppressive inflation by accumulating hard assets. With economic uncertainty from Trump’s tariffs and new ecological legislation in China looming over the horizon, precious metals like gold and silver are very attractive.

If you think you’re too late to profit from this market, you’re not. We’ve got a unique opportunity that’s earning resellers hundreds, even thousands of dollars, but it’ll require some legwork.

Let us first say upfront: this is risky. We are not giving financial advice, don’t make dumb decisions with your money, and don’t get mad at us if you do. We’ll explain how to do the profit calculations in a second.

Still with us? Here’s the play: Big box retailers like Walmart and Fred Meyer operate jewelry counters. These are the perfect places to find large(ish) amounts of precious metals like gold and silver at well below the spot price.

These retailers often discount or mark jewelry for clearance. Critically, these prices may be outdated compared to current spot prices. If Walmart marked down a ring in May and never bothered to update it in December, you can buy it for considerably less than what the metal is worth to a scrap dealer or refiner.

Does this mean you should simply buy up all the jewelry you can find at a big box retailer and assume you’ll make a profit? Absolutely not. Instead, you’ll need to carefully appraise individual items and do some profit calculations before you buy anything.

Before we can get into the math, let’s take a moment to go over spot price because it’s going to come up a lot. Spot price is a way to determine the agreed-upon value of a particular metal on a minute-to-minute basis. It’s usually calculated as the price of one ounce of pure metal (e.g. 24k gold or .999 silver).

This is important to know as retail jewelry is usually sold for well over spot price. It’s only because of the sudden spike in metal values and potentially outdated clearance prices that we’re getting an opportunity like this.

You can find the current spot price for a metal with a quick online search, but be aware markets update frequently.

Grab a magnifying glass and check the inside of rings, clasps on necklaces, or any hidden spots on the piece. You’re looking for tiny engravings that tell you what you actually have.

Real gold stamps:

• 10K or 417 (41.7% gold)
• 14K or 585 (58.3% gold)
• 18K or 750 (75% gold)
• 24k or 999 (essentially pure gold)

Real silver stamps:

• 925, Sterling, or Ster (92.5% silver)
• 900 (90% silver, usually older coins)

Worthless stamps to avoid:

• GP (gold plated)
• GF (gold filled)
• HGE (heavy gold electroplate)
• RGP (rolled gold plate)

If it says “plated” or “filled,” walk away. You’re looking at a thin coating over cheap metal with zero scrap value.

Here’s the formula to calculate the spot value of your jewelry:

1. Convert weight to troy ounces: Grams ÷ 31.1 = troy ounces
2. Calculate pure metal content: Troy ounces × purity percentage (0.583 for 14K, 0.925 for sterling)
3. Multiply by spot price: Pure metal weight × current spot price = gross value

Quick example:

• 14K gold ring that weighs 4 grams
• 4 ÷ 31.1 = 0.129 troy oz
• 0.129 × 0.583 = 0.075 oz pure gold
• 0.075 × $4,330 (current spot) = $324.75

Following this formula will get you the spot price, but remember that you won’t be able to sell it for that amount. Depending on who you’re dealing with, expect to sell your gold and silver jewelry for 50-90% of spot, with some refiners offering up to 98% of spot.

Yes. People are doing this right now, and making real profits. Obviously, there is plenty of chance involved when it comes to what retailers are listing their gold and silver jewelry for, but this is not a hypothetical flip.

Want proof? One member of the r/Gold subreddit is documenting their process. After two days of work and 20+ Walmart stores visited, they spent over $1,300 to accrue an estimated $2,600 worth of precious metal. After dealer’s fees, they stand to profit over $1,000.

Abe put it best: “A penny saved is a penny earned”. If you live in or near a state with no sales tax, we strongly recommend doing your buying and selling there. Tax isn’t factored into spot price, so sellers in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have an advantage.

Note that some states will advertise no taxes on precious metal, but this only applies to investment grade metal like bullion and coins, and usually excludes jewelry. Check individual states’ laws here.

Walmart generally restocks their jewelry overnight, so checking early in the morning shortly after the store opens is the best way to find new items on clearance. If you find a store that is selling jewelry at a profitable price, make sure you return after a day to see if they’ve put out additional items.

This is a moderately risky flip. On the one hand, if you’re buying from established retailers like Walmart or Fred Meyer, jewelry is generally covered under thirty day returns. Always check before making a purchase, but these policies go a long way towards mitigating risk.

On the other, you’re betting a highly volatile market that’s already showing signs of slipping. While precious metals hit an all-time high last week, the market slipped pretty heavily this morning and many are concerned this trend will continue.

This goes doubly for silver, with experts agreeing its the more volatile of the two metals we’ve discussed. If you’re risk-averse, we recommend focusing on gold over silver for the larger margins and reduced volatility.

This is a unique opportunity that will not last long. Once retailers become aware of how outdated their prices are, they will begin raising them. It’s possible this won’t be viable past the new year.

Before buying anything, make sure you’ve calculated the actual value of the gold or silver using the formula we’ve provided. Not every store is pricing their jewelry the same way, so don’t assume you’re getting a good deal until you’ve crunched the numbers.

Remember that you will not be able to sell your jewelry for its spot value. Assume losses of 10-20%, and include that with your purchase calculations. You’ll likely need to buy a considerable amount of jewelry to make considerable profits, but that could mean earning several thousand dollars for a few hours of work.

And finally, save your receipts!