kaplan
·Exactly this, I've owned very, very nice 18kt watches that I couldn't sell due to the minimum price that I'd accept being gold melt and nobody was prepared to pay that. The two that spring to mind were both Baume & Mercier Baumatics, both with great 18kt screw back cases, in great shape with attractive dials, but the market is the market. In the end I stripped them myself and extracted the gold value. What's the alternative, that I sell them for a loss so next buyer can do the same?
At least you saved the parts, I've seen some listings where movements were torn out instead of just unscrewing 2 large screws