How to sell silver.

Where to start

These guides cover the selling side: choosing a buyer, getting a fair price, packing safely, and the paperwork if you are handling an estate. If you are still working out what you have, the silver guides come first.

Before you commit to anyone

Work out the metal value yourself, then judge every offer as a percentage of it. Getting the best price compares every route honestly, including the cases where an auction house beats us, and lists the deductions that quietly shrink a headline rate. Selling silver online covers the five things to check about a postal buyer before you post anything.

For specific items

Selling silver cutlery deals with the filled knife handle problem, which is the single most common reason a canteen quote comes in too high.

Getting it here safely

Packing silver for posting sets out the standard our cover is based on, and why photographing your packed parcel matters if a claim is ever needed.

Estates and probate

Selling silver from an estate covers date-of-death valuation, what executors need to evidence, and the pieces that should be valued before anything is melted.

Start with where you are in the process

These guides cover the selling side rather than the identifying side. If you are still working out what you own, the silver guides come first: there is no point comparing offers on something that turns out to be plate.

The single most useful thing you can do before contacting anyone is work out the metal value yourself. Weight in grams, multiplied by purity, multiplied by the silver price per gram. That is your benchmark, and every offer is simply a percentage of it. Expressed that way, comparing quotes stops being guesswork.

Which guide do you need?

Before you commit to anyone

Five questions separate a buyer you can check from one you have to trust. Ask them in writing, before anything is posted:

1. What percentage of live spot do you pay for sterling, specifically?
2. What is deducted after that: testing, refining, handling, postage, minimum lot fees?
3. When is the rate fixed, at quote or at processing?
4. If I decline the offer, what does it cost me to get my items back?
5. How is the metal tested, and will I see the tested weight and purity?

Our own answers, so you can hold us to them: a flat 80% of live spot on every purity and quantity, locked for 48 hours when you accept; nothing deducted; free tracked postage both ways; XRF testing with the results shown to you.

When you are ready

The silver calculator and gold calculator turn a weight into a figure at today's price, and you can follow a parcel at track your submission once it is on its way.

Frequently asked questions