How to Get the Most Money From Selling Your Gold and Silver

A gold item’s value is proportional to its weight. If the weight is not marked on the item, you can use a digital kitchen scale to get a rough estimate. (You can weigh silver pieces and items of jewelry with the same purity together because that’s what buyers will do when you sell it to them for scrap.)

Without this information, “it’s very easy to get ripped off,” Gleason warns.

Step 3: Understand how buyers price your items

Professional buyers will verify the metal content of your gold or silver by looking for purity stamps, using an electronic testing device or performing traditional acid testing, which can detect if an item isn’t pure. They’ll also weigh the items.

For gold jewelry with small gems, the stones are likely to be included in the weight rather than removed and evaluated separately. (Caveat: If your jewelry has a large stone, consider getting an appraisal for resale rather than selling it for scrap.)

Once the buyer verifies the metal purity and weight, they’ll make you an offer. This is where it can get confusing.

Let’s say you have 1 troy ounce of 14-karat gold. If the spot price is $5,000, your gold’s value would be 58.3 percent of that price — $2,915. But the buyer is looking to turn a profit, so don’t expect a full-price offer.

Oftentimes, the offer depends on the type of item you’re selling. With coins and bars, you can expect an offer that’s close to the market price. For example, Gleason of MoneyMetals.com and Mike LaLonde, marketing director at Express Gold Cash, both say they’re currently offering up to 98 percent of the market price of gold for pure gold coins. 

Don’t assume buyers will pay extra for rare coins, says Lisa Little, owner of Fieldstone Jewelry and Pawn in Conyers, Georgia. If you think you have one on your hands, get a ballpark value from A Guide Book of United States Coins or online resources such as Professional Coin Grading Services, the Numismatic Guaranty Company and big auctioneers such as Heritage Auctions or Stack’s Bowers. You might find your coin isn’t worth more than its metal value.

For jewelry and sterling items that will be sold for scrap, a buyer’s offer also depends on refining costs. “Refineries are massively backlogged,” Gleason says. “As a result, they’re not able to pay as much. They might not even accept it because they’re so busy from all the people selling. That has put pressure on the bids that people are being offered.”

Step 4: Find gold and silver buyers

Depending on what you have, you may be able to sell your gold and silver online or to a local precious metals dealer, jewelry shop, pawn shop or coin dealer. One benefit of selling precious metals locally is that you can get paid on the spot.

To identify reputable businesses in your area, read customer reviews on Google, Yelp and other sites. “Look for consistency, especially comments about fairness, honesty and repeat customers,” says Kerry Rainey, owner of Bayou Pawn and Jewelry in Hammond, Louisiana, and secretary of the National Pawnbrokers Association’s (NPA) board of directors. Reputable businesses are transparent and happy to answer questions about how they determine their pricing, Rainey says.

I recommend calling shops before going in person to find out if they’re buying the types of metal you want to sell. While looking for buyers, I came across some that were not accepting certain metals due to refinery backlogs.

If you don’t want to drive around town to multiple shops or aren’t satisfied with your options locally, consider selling to a national online metals dealer. However, the process will take longer because you’ll have to ship your items to them.

Some online dealers provide free shipping kits and insurance, as well as free return shipping if you choose not to accept their offer. Others provide explicit packing instructions to ensure your items arrive in good condition and recommend using the U.S. Postal Service’s Registered Mail, which includes insurance coverage of up to $50,000 and requires a signature upon delivery.

Vetting is crucial to getting top dollar. When scouting online dealers, Gleason recommends checking the Better Business Bureau’s ratings. Read reviews on websites such as Google and Trustpilot and on forums like Reddit. Also, check the “about” page on a dealer’s site to see how long they’ve been in business.

Some online dealers, such as JM Bullion and MoneyMetals.com, allow you to lock in the price of coins and bars before shipping them. However, online dealers can’t offer a price for jewelry and sterling silver pieces before receiving them, as they need to weigh and test them for purity. LaLonde recommends taking items to a local pawn shop or metals dealer to weigh and test them prior to shipping, so you’ll have a point of comparison.

Step 5: Shop around for the best offer

Prices can vary significantly from buyer to buyer. If you’re selling locally, visit at least three different pawn shops, jewelry stores or metal dealers — ideally on the same day, so the quotes are based on similar market prices.

“If somebody offers you 50 cents on the dollar for your 3 ounces of gold, that’s probably a bad deal, and you should not take it,” Gleason says. 

A calculator can come in handy to figure out what percentage of the spot price of gold or silver you’re being offered and assess whether you’re getting a fair shake. I used the Gold Tracker app’s calculator, which lets you enter the weight and purity of your items to find their value based on the spot price, which was automatically provided.

What about haggling? Don’t expect to get far, the professionals say. 

“While negotiation is always welcome, margins are often slim and there may be limited room for adjustment,” Rainey says. This is the same message I heard at the stores I visited.

I obtained quotes from a local jeweler, a jewelry repair and design store, and a pawn shop in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where I live. The pawn shop offered me the best price for my gold jewelry: $2,830. The shop also purchased my silver — which the other two stores weren’t taking at the time — for $1,370, as well as a platinum ring that was given to me by my grandmother for $308.

“Because [pawn shops] often partner directly with refineries, they can offer competitive payouts to people with old or broken jewelry that otherwise has no retail value,” says Laura Wasileski, the NPA’s director of marketing and media. Small jewelry shops that don’t buy large volumes of gold or silver (like the ones I visited) often sell to larger buyers that then sell to refineries. Adding a middleman cuts into the price they can offer.

In total, I made off with $4,508 for old jewelry and sterling silver that was just collecting dust. Unfortunately, I won’t be using the money for anything fun. I have a tax bill to pay.

Speaking of taxes, the IRS classifies precious metals as collectibles. When you sell them, you might be liable for capital gains taxes of up to 28 percent of the profit. If you inherited jewelry or sterling serving pieces, the capital gains tax is based on the difference between the sale price and the market value of the item on the date of the original owner’s death.