Gold Investment

How To Sell Your Gold and Silver for Maximum Profit

Investing in precious metals is a great way to secure your financial future. Of course, an investment only really becomes valuable once you see a return. This means that learning how to sell gold and silver is just as important as knowing how to buy it at a great price.

Of course, these two actions require different subsets of knowledge. Anyone can purchase gold and silver knowing that they’ll serve as a great store of value for bad economic times. When it comes time to profit from your investment, though, countless factors come into play.

The following guide on how to sell gold and silver will help you become more informed in this area. Educating yourself as an investor is the single most important thing you can do to maximize your profits. Once you’re finished reading, you’ll understand why.

Reasons to Sell Gold and Silver

If you’re considering selling gold or silver, there’s likely a reason behind your decision. It’s rare that a person randomly decides they don’t want to invest in precious metals any longer. And if you do happen to fall into this category, it’s important to not act rashly and potentially miss out on profits.

After all, if you sold an ounce of gold “just to liquidate” in May 2019, you could’ve walked away with $1,278. The person you sold it to, however, would have an ounce worth more than $2,000 by August 2020. After learning how to sell gold and silver, it’s imperative to know when to sell.

The following are some of the most common reasons people decide to liquidate:

  • Urgent need for immediate cash. This can arise from unexpected events in life.
  • Investment value has increased. While prices may rise further, knowing when to take your profits and move on is vital.
  • Jewelry containing precious metals no longer gets worn. If you bought gold or silver that wasn’t an investment, it may be time to sell.
  • Storage has become an issue. If you’re running out of room to store gold and silver, you may need to liquidate or seek precious metals storage.
  • Paying off credit cards. Even with the massive increase in the value of some precious metals, high credit card balances can easily eclipse your gains.
  • Desire to invest in other things. If you’re learning how to sell gold and silver to move into other investments, timing may not be a big issue.

While these are among the most common reasons for selling precious metals, it really all comes down to personal preference. Even if you’ve chosen to sell at a loss, there’s no shame in making what you believe to be the right investment decision.

Whether you’re selling at a loss or profit, though, getting a fair price remains paramount. This is why appropriate pricing is one of the most vital aspects of learning how to sell gold and silver. If you can succeed in this endeavor, any precious metals sale you make will be the right sale.

How to Sell Gold and Silver for a Fair Price

Regardless of your reason for liquidating your precious metals investment, always take a few steps to ensure maximum profit. There are plenty of people who would love for you to sell gold or silver at an insanely reduced price, but your job is to ensure this doesn’t happen.

It’s important to remember that you may not always get spot price when selling. Unfortunately, sales fees and other costs often make this impossible. If you can abide by the following rules, though, you can certainly get the most from your investment.

Avoid Pawn Shops

If you only take one lesson away from this guide on how to sell gold and silver, let it be to avoid pawn shops at all costs. While these businesses historically offered some of the first consumer loans, you’re very unlikely to get a fair price when selling precious metals to them.

It may be a tough pill to swallow, but pawn shops earn money on the backs of people in need. They know they can offer low values — because most folks who visit them need money immediately. Don’t sell your gold and silver for pennies on the dollar.

Don’t Use eBay for Selling

If you pursue eBay to buy silver bullion bars, gold coins, or any other precious metals investment, you’ll likely find items going for much more than spot value. This may make using the auction site to sell your gold or silver seem enticing, but there’s plenty of fine print you should know about.

The reason to not sell precious metals on eBay comes down to one word: fees. Once you pay a percentage of the sale price to cover website and payment processing costs, you’ll end up getting far less than the final value price.

When you add in the fact that some buyers may try to scam you, using the e-commerce site for precious metals selling is risky.

Sell Gold and Silver Directly from Allocated Storage

Not everyone who wants to learn how to sell gold or silver needs to worry about doing it on their own. Many people keep their investment in storage facilities. And if a bullion storage company provides allocated services, they may also offer to sell items on your behalf.

This is a great opportunity to increase your profits. If you bought precious metals from a bullion dealer and left them in the vault, it means the items may have never been in retail consumers’ hands. This gives them a higher value because it’s less likely that any tampering occurred.

This is very similar to the chain of integrity that ensures bullion bars are legitimate.

Understand Different Types of Precious Metals

While it may sound strange, not all precious metal items are equal. If you buy a gold bullion bar, for instance, you may pay a very different price than if you bought scrap metal. Consider the following bullion types when selling precious metals:

  • Gold and Silver Coins: These maintain value well since they’re guaranteed by governments.
  • Gold and Silver Bars: Bullion bars also have good resale value, but will be bought back at a slightly lower rate than coins.
  • Gold and Silver Jewelry: Many types of jewelry have high markups not related to their precious metal content. This means a necklace may sell for far less than it initially cost — especially if no one plans on wearing it as jewelry.
  • Scrap Gold and Silver: Refiners and scrap services offered by bullion dealers, like Silver Gold Bull, can help you sell back any scrap gold and silver you have laying around.

While these are important rules, it’s essential to remember that there are some exceptions. Some jewelry may have special historic value, and someone may have tampered with coins. In either of these cases — and many others — you must give special consideration before selling.

How to Sell Gold and Silver Quickly

If you want to sell precious metals quickly, you might think a pawn shop is your only option. Don’t let the excitable sign spinner standing outside your local strip mall convince you to undervalue your investment. Reputable online dealers like Silver Gold Bull will purchase your precious metals.

In fact, we break it down into three simple steps:

  1. Get a quote: When we provide a quote, it’s locked in. Even if precious metal values suddenly drop, you’re guaranteed the price quoted.
  2. Ship your items: Silver Gold Bull offers everything you need to ship your items safely. We provide insurance, tracking, signature requirement, and even camera-monitored opening of packages.
  3. Next-day payment: As soon as we verify your items, you receive next-day payment. There are no delays and no hassle.

Knowing how to sell gold and silver is one thing, but knowing how to do it easily and at a fair price is another. We can help you in that endeavor at Silver Gold Bull.

Sell Your Gold and Silver Today!

Maybe you purchased your precious metals at the perfect time and are ready to cash out, or maybe you just need to convert gold or silver into cash for other purposes. Regardless of the reason, the high liquidity of these metals makes them easy to sell quickly.

Of course, being able to sell items fast isn’t the same as selling them the right way. Now that you’re better informed on how to sell gold and silver, you can avoid getting taken advantage of. This is an integral part of being an informed investor.

If you’re ready to make money from your investment now, visit our Precious Metals Selling page. You’ll see just how easy we make it unload your gold or silver for maximum profits.

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Silver Gold Bull Staff

At Silver Gold Bull, our content is researched, written, edited and reviewed by a team of financial experts with decades of experience in the precious metals industry. With each piece we write, we bring our own personal experience and expertise, while combining that with today's leading research and data. Our ultimate goal is to help extend our award-winning customer service to our educational content. Ultimately, we want you to feel comfortable and informed when making investment decisions, regardless of whether that is with us or not. Thank you for being part of the Silver Gold Bull community. We really appreciate and value your trust in us.

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