Scrap gold : Should I sell jewellery online or at a shop ?

Do you want to get cash for your unused, unwanted or broken jewellery ? With the current gold price that has been very high for a few years now, it is indeed a favourable period to empty your jewellery box.

Where should I sell jewellery ? Online ? At a shop ? What is the best solution depending on my needs ?

Sell jewellery at a jeweller

The most natural is to go back where you have bought the piece of jewellery in the first place : a jeweller.

After all, he/she is a specialist and knows very well how much is worth jewellery.

It is very convenient and quick as the transaction is executed immediately.

You will get some cash if you accept his offer ; if you don't, you get your jewellery back.

In case of litigation, it is much easier with someone face to face than having to write and send mail.

We have just seen the pros of going to a jeweller to sell jewellery.

Now let's see the cons :

Price

When I started this website, I had the curiosity to walk to many different shops that propose to buy jewellery and see what it is like.

The differences in price between shops were astounding ! Some would offer 3 times as much as others. Some would offer me cash, some only a bank wire.

Some of them wouldn't even give me real money, only a coupon to buy more stuff at their shop !

Therefore, to get the most in term of price, it is not as easy as checking online a price. The process can be quite time consuming if you wish to get the maximum amount for your pieces.

Security

This one is paradoxical : Some people think it is safer to carry themselves jewellery whereas there are thugs that around jewellers/pawn shops preying on such people.

I am not saying that it will be like this for each shop, but if you want to get a good price, you'll need to try quite a few jewellers.

When a thief, steals a wallet, he makes around £50. Not many people carry a lot of cash these days. But with people carrying maybe 1-2 necklaces and a few rings, the amount they can get is more like £500-1000. That's a widely different story is it not ?

When you consider that gold is smelted easily and that these thugs will have absolutely no difficulty to sell your stolen jewellery back, then maybe you'd better be cautious !

The paradox is because, it is much safer to send online jewellery. In the beginning of this line of business (2011-2013), there were quite a few online companies that were very dishonest and would play on keeping your jewellery with them until you accept a very unfavourable offer.

The good thing is that it is now a much more mature market and almost all scammers are gone. Sooner or later, word gets known that they are not reputable and they shut down. Besides, independent review companies such as FreeIndex, Trustpilot or Ekomi will provide some real feedback about real clients. I personally always check what is said about a company on these sites, and if there is no data, I just pass.

Independent review companies such as FreeIndex, Trustpilot or Ekomi will provide some real feedback about real clients. I personally always check what is said about a company on these sites, and if there is no data, I just pass.

By the way, in my scrap gold buyers comparison tool , I have included such reviews for even more transparency. Some other comparison tools only displayed scammers and the comparison was fake. Now you know what is important to look for in a comparison online besides price.

Let's summarise

Sell jewellery at a shop

Pros

Fast : You get your cash immediately.

Convenient : No need to fill forms, go to the post office, pay for insurance.

Precious stones : jewellers can sell jewellery with precious stones.

Cons

Price : You are very unlikely to get as much cash as possible

Security : It is a very real possibility to get mugged and lose everything.

Sell jewellery Online

The other way to sell jewellery is online : The main idea is you choose a website that proposes to buy back your jewellery, send it your jewellery ; they make you an offer. if you accept you get a bank wire within 24h. if you refuse they send you your pieces back.

This is the way to get the best possible price for jewellery. Indeed instead of having a very limited choice bases on where you live, you can compare all firms in all United Kingdom.

How to safely choose a scrap gold buyer online ?

Sure if you live in London or Birmingham, you will get a very good price by just showing up a to few jeweller shops with your jewellery. However if you live elsewhere, the price offered in a shop will be vastly different with the one you can get online !

As for security, you do NOT want to send your jewellery by mail to a firm that has no independent reviews on websites like FreeIndex, Trustpilot or Ekomi. Make sure there are at least 50 reviews, but make it 200 at least if possible. You would want to read the 1 star reviews as well and be wary if the grade is less than 4/5.

The good news is that we are not a in mature market and many scammers are just gone. You can also type "scam" and the name of the firm you want to analyse to check out if there are complaints from users somewhere else online.

Make sure there are at least 50 reviews, but make it 200 at least if possible. You would want to read the 1 star reviews as well and be wary if the grade is less than 4/5.

Google reviews does not count as they are too easy to manipulate and fake. You can still check out the bad reviews, but I would be wary of the good one on Google.

One more thing to look for is that you want to have an estimate of the cash you can get BEFORE sending jewellery by mail. Even though, gold prices change everyday, the variations are minimal and once the scrap gold buyer receives your jewellery, you can expect their offer to be 98-99% the same with the one you expected.

Sometimes you'll get an even better offer than expected if the gold price goes up.

We have made this choice easy for you with our comparison tool . Not only you get an estimate of the price for your jewellery but we have aggregated the ratings for Trutpilot or Freeindex to help you find a reputable professional. It is mandatory to have such reviews to be in this comparison.

Pros and cons of sending jewellery by mail

Let's summarize the pros of going through an online scrap gold professional :

• The price is usually the best as you compare nation-wide and not only locally.
• No need to waste time going from jeweller to jeweller to get a better price.
• You already have a good estimate on how much is your jewellery worth even before sending by mail your pieces.
• No risk of being mugged near a jeweller/pawn shop.

What are the cons of sending by mail jewellery ?

We have already talked at length about how to select a reputable professional and avoid scammers. So that is one risk that can be minimised.

You sure need to pay some insurance when sending by mail jewellery. In case, they lose your mail, you'll get more from insurance than you could have got from the scrap gold dealer.

This implies that if you jut want to sell a ring or 2, it might not be worth to send it by mail. Even though the rates you would get are better by by going to a physical shop, the cost of sending mail will outweigh this.

My personal take is that sending jewellery by mail is profitable from at least 20 grams of gold sent.

Another aspect is that it will take a bit longer to get money. You need to take into account the time the package takes to be sent to the scrap gold dealer's office, which is a few days. Then, someone there opens the package and evaluates the contents and send you an offer. It is usually done during the day they have received your package, but you never know, they might be overwhelmed this day. Once you have accepted their offer, it takes 24h for the bank wire to be seen in your account.

Therefore, the whole process can take from a few days to a week.

Litigation is no longer an issue nowadays. Early in 2011-2012 some scammers played on delaying sending you back jewellery in case you refuse their ridiculously low offer. That will not happen if you have followed the process to choose a reputable professional.

Let's summarise the cons of going through an online scrap gold professional :

• It can take up to a week to get the money
• You need to pay for postage and insurance in case your package gets lost