Is it true what everyone says about 10K gold? Should you throw yours away? Bring it down to the pawn store and sell it right now? Well, guess what? I am the 10 Karat Messiah!  Lets talk about why this gold gets a bad rap, and why you should absolutely love it.

1. The Resale Value

There's a myth out there that 10K has no resale value. People are never going to buy it from you. Go down to a jewelry store, and nobody's going to give you anything. But that couldn't be further from the truth! 10 karat gold has 41.7% gold in the mix. In other words, contains more alloy than fine gold. But there is still fine gold in that jewelry, which means that no matter what, 10K is worth 41.7% of the ounce value at the time you walk into that store. And if the value of that percentage goes up, then your money goes up. 

People are always going to buy 10K as a metal with meltdown value. Sure, there are other countries out there that may not necessarily have so much demand for it. Can you go into a jewelry store and maybe they just give you the value of it instead of buying it as a chain? That can always be the case. However, the fact still remains that, yes, it has a resale value. Yes, there's a demand for it. And yes, you could still make money on 10K jewelry. People who bought their jewelry back in the early '90s at $800 - $1,100 an ounce are selling it at today's market, which is over $22,000—and they actually made money on that 10K jewelry. Because as long as that piece has fine gold in it, it will sell anywhere.

2. 10K Gold Does Not Tarnish

Tarnish is a word used primarily with silver, because silver gets watered down to .925 or .950 with different kinds of alloys, like copper. Those alloys react to the oxygen in the air, and the actual jewelry begins to tarnish. But our friend 10K gold does not tarnish!

Gold is a fine, beautiful metal, and it has anti-corrosion properties just like rhodium and palladium. Therefore, when added to any sort of alloy mix, it won't have any sort of tarnishing. Feel free to jump on that jet ski! Dive in that pool water. It's not going to turn black, it won't get ugly. It's perfectly fine! And there's going to be people out there that say, "Gus, I had a 10K chain and it got corroded." That's a one-off of maybe a million 10 karat pieces out there, because the alloy that had some silver or another corrosive metal. But the reality is 99.9999% of the time, you're not going to have any issues. So when you're sweating, dancing with that big girl in Miami 'cause you got too banged up off of shots, know your sweat won't corrode any of your 10K pieces.

3. The color is perfect 

Another common myth about 10 karat jewelry is the color, when compared to 14 and 18 karat, is completely off. This one is kind of true. Because as a jeweler, the mix is dependent on whatever metals I put in there. Say we're going to use the same gold chain in a vacuum—one of them is 10 karat, the other 14 karat. If I decide to make the two colors an exact match, I can add more brownish and darker tones to the 10K alloy and make them near identical.

However, if I did use the exact same alloy, technically the 14k would be slightly darker. But the variation is barely visible to the naked eye. So yes, there is a difference. Ultimately, if you want your 10 karat to look exactly like 14 karat, you could do it very easily. Same thing goes with rose gold or white gold. And those differences are even less noticeable.

Is Gold Supposed to Have a Certain Look?

No gold is supposed to look like anything! I love it when people say, "Oh my 18K doesn't look like 18K." That 18 karat jewelry could look like anything I want it to! If I had a bunch of white metals in your 18K, then I throw in some yellow ones, it's going to look like a metallic yellow. You can manipulate whatever the karat appearance you wanted to look. You're used to seeing these looks from these big manufacturers in Italy and Turkey who use the same alloys. So stop saying that.

4. 10K gold is, in fact, real gold

Of course 10K gold is real gold. Maybe there are people out there visiting our website from the Middle East, from China—they only use 18 karat, 22 karat or 23 karat and above. Maybe some of these places only use pure gold culturally. You may think that true gold is only what's used in your country, but there is a huge, huge market for 10K gold around the world, including Australia where 9 karat is hugely popular. There's still 41% fine gold in the mix, and it's just jewelry. If somebody wants to wear a 10K chain, but you only wear 22 karat chains, who cares? Wear what you like, people! But it 10K is real gold. Stop saying it's not because if it wasn't, then there is a huge industry of commercial plants and fabrication shops creating fake 10 karat gold. So yeah, I'd say it's pretty real!

5. 10K is extremely durable 

This is one I find most hilarious. The idea that 10K is not durable. Ten karat gold is the hardest karat to damage, to dent, and it also shines longer than any other karat out there. Why? Because the fine metal alloys in the mix will retain both shine and durability. And because actual gold is so incredibly soft, when you add other alloys into it, you're actually strengthening the gold. Now the difference is minimal, but there is a slight difference in the durability of 10K. Feel free to bang it up—it's going to dent less. It's going to retain its shine. It's going to be completely fine.

So don't even get me started on 22K chains, because those you actually do have to take care of. But anyway, guys, what I want to portray here is the fact that 10K, 14K, 18K and 22K are just a matter of preference. There are a reasons for people to bash other karats because, in their culture, it means that it's not real gold or it's not respected like 22K. And ultimately what it boils down to is kind of like a dick measuring contest. Wearing only 22K or 18K because its more fine gold and it's more expensive is a way of downplaying anything that's not that same price point. It's wrong, and to be honest with you, it just needs to stop. There are a lot of people that don't necessarily want to spend thousands of dollars on a 22K chain just because "Oh, this is considered real gold."

The hell with what you consider real gold! Wear what you want! Enough regurgitating these crazy stupid lies that really have no basis for it. And if you do want any sort of 10K jewelry, visit Gusvilla Jewelry. We'll make your 10K gold dreams come true.