When you sell gold for cash to a buyer, the buyer will make an offer that's based on multiple factors. Here are some of the more notable factors that can influence how much you get for selling gold.

Current Spot Price

The spot price is how much buyers are paying for an immediate delivery of gold, or an on-the-spot sale. The price is usually given as dollars per troy ounce, and it fluctuates regularly. The spot price will change day by day, and often even by the hour or minute.

You have no control over the current spot price of gold, yet this will directly impact how much your gold is worth. No buyer can afford to regularly pay more than the spot price for gold—this is the price they'll be able to sell the gold at. You can expect whoever buys your gold to check the current spot price and adjust their offer accordingly.

Purity of Your Pieces

The purity of your gold pieces indicates how much gold is actually in them. Investment-quality gold bars and coins might be 100 percent pure, but few other items are. For instance, jewelry is usually made from an alloy that contains gold that is too soft to withstand regular wear without damage. You might find a few different marks.

"Fine Gold" is usually stamped on investment-grade gold bars and coins. The term is an official way to identify virtually 100-percent pure gold— true 100-percent purity is nearly impossible to actually make. Most fine gold is labeled with 999, 99.9, or .999. These numbers refer to the percent —99.9 percent—of the bar that is pure gold.

Within the United States, jewelry is labeled by karats. Pure gold would be 24 karats, but most jewelry is something less than that. To identify the amount of gold, divide the number of karats by 24. Within Canada and England, jewelry is labeled by percentage. Like some gold bars, the percent is expressed as three digits after a decimal. A mark of ".750" indicates that the piece is 75 percent pure.

The more pure your gold items are, the more valuable the pieces will be.

Location of the Buyer

Sometimes the location of a buyer can influence their offer. This stems not from the value of the gold, but rather their cost of doing business. A buyer that has to ship gold far must take their shipping costs into account, and they can't afford to pay as much as one that doesn't have to ship very far.