Selling Gold

When selling gold you should really know the up to date gold price and in the case of scrap gold or coins only worth gold bullion, try to sell your gold for as close to the current gold price as possible.

If you are selling gold sovereigns or other gold coins, it is advisable to check that they aren’t worth more then current gold value (in most cases they are) and it would be a shame to have a historic old coin melted down.

If you own gold sovereigns, a good book to buy is Spinks – Standard Catalogue of British Coins (available on Amazon). In it you can see exactly what any given British coins value is in different conditions. It comes out each year and is often referred to and used by both coin collectors and dealers alike.

Of course the grade of your coin/s will have a big impact on their value and to read more about grading coins, you should read our Coin Grading page. If in doubt you could always take your coin/s to a local coin dealer and ask their value, most dealers will give you a value or their purchase price without an obligation to sell. Or if you can you could always join a coin forum and post clear pictures of your coins for more experience members/ collectors to judge for you.

Advantages of selling to a dealer:

• Fast payment.
• You can build up a good relationship, which helps when buying or selling in future.
• You know exactly the amount you will be receiving.

Disadvantages of selling to a dealer:

• You may receive slightly lower price for coins (a dealer has to make some money of each coin they sell) as compared to say an auction.

Advantages of selling via an auction:

• You should receive the top value for your coin/s at that time, especially if you choose a venue with a lot of potential buyers.
• The auction house will take the pictures and write the descriptions for your coins.

Disadvantages of selling via an auction:

• It may take slightly longer to get paid.
• Most auction houses charge commission for sellers as well as buyers.
• You don’t know the exact amount you will be receiving, if you have two or more bidders interested you may be very happy with the end sale price, other times I have seen coins sell for below their estimates.

Advantages of selling on eBay:

• You should receive a good price for your coins as eBay has a lot of exposure to potential buyers.
• You can set your own price as a “Buy it now”

Disadvantages of selling on eBay:

• It is recommended that you have good feedback as a seller to encourage bidders. Obviously you won’t have any feedback if you are a new member so I would recommend selling a few lower value items before selling gold or gold coins.
• You still have commission to pay and if you are accepting PayPal as a payment method, which incidentally is a very good fast and secure payment method, you will also have to pay a small fee to PayPal.
• You have to take your own pictures and add your own descriptions for the items.