Do gold buyers melt your gold before you accept the offer?

The straight answer

No reputable gold buyer melts anything before you have accepted an offer, because nothing about a fair valuation requires it. Purity is established with an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) assay, which reads the composition of the alloy without cutting, scratching or removing material, and weight comes from a scale. Both measurements leave the item exactly as it arrived. Melting belongs to refining, the step after a sale has completed, not to valuation. See XRF testing explained for how the assay works. The commitment that nothing is cut, unset or melted before you accept is part of the published process for selling gold by post.

The reason the question is still worth asking is that a minority of buyers write terms permitting items to be “melted, refined or processed on receipt”. Under wording like that, the offer you receive is not really an offer, because the alternative to accepting it, having your items back as they were, no longer exists. The clause is visible in the small print before you post, which is exactly where to look for it.

GoldPaid’s hold policy: nothing is processed until written acceptance

When a parcel arrives at GoldPaid it is logged against the description given on WhatsApp, and the items stay identifiable as yours rather than being pooled with other sellers’ parcels. Each piece is separated by carat, weighed to two decimal places of a gram, and XRF-assayed at our Bristol office, and the written offer itemises the purity found, the weight and the rate used for every piece, so the working is visible. Until you reply to that offer, your items sit exactly as they arrived: nothing is melted, cut, unset or sent onward for refining until you have accepted in writing.

Decline, and the same pieces you sent come back on a free tracked return; Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. Accept, and we aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance, and only then do the items move into the refining stream. The method is set out on how we value gold and what happens if I decline the offer.

Why this question matters more than it sounds

Almost everything else that can go wrong in a postal gold sale is correctable. A low offer can be declined, a delayed parcel usually reappears, a disputed fee can be argued and refunded. Melting is the one irreversible step. Once an item has been through a furnace, a dispute stops being about your items and becomes a dispute about money, and for an inherited ring or a piece with any story attached, money is not the same thing. A “no obligation” valuation only means something while the items still exist in their original form.

There is a consumer-protection angle too. What happens to your items before acceptance is material information, and UK unfair-trading rules treat material information given unclearly, untimely or inconspicuously as omitted. A right to process items before acceptance that surfaces only deep in the terms, especially when paired with a clause treating silence as acceptance, is the pattern to walk away from. That is general information rather than legal advice; the wider warning signs are covered in red flags when choosing a postal gold buyer, and the escalation routes in what to do if something goes wrong.

When melting is legitimate, and when another route is better

Melting itself is not the villain. It is the normal end of the scrap trade: after you accept and are paid, sold items are consolidated and sent to a refiner, recovered back to fine gold and returned to the market. That loop is where scrap value comes from. The only question that matters is sequence, whether the furnace comes after your written acceptance or before it.

Two honest caveats. First, if there is any chance you will want an item back later, do not sell it to anyone, on any terms; acceptance is the point of no return with every buyer, however reputable. Second, postal selling means you cannot watch the test happen. If being present matters to you, a local jeweller with a counter XRF machine is the better route, and if a piece may be worth more than its metal, a signed designer item, a rare coin, a genuine antique, show it to a specialist dealer or auction house before you sell it to anyone.

What to ask any buyer before you post

1. “Are my items kept intact and identifiable until I have accepted in writing?” The answer should be a plain yes, in writing, not a reference to the terms.
2. “How do you test?” XRF removes nothing. Acid touchstone testing scratches a trace of metal from the piece; not a disaster on scrap, worth knowing on anything you may want back.
3. “If I decline, do the same items come back, tracked, and who pays?” A return that costs you money, or arrives untracked, is a cost attached to saying no.
4. “Does anything in your terms allow processing before acceptance, or treat silence as acceptance?” Either clause alone is a reason to stop; the two together are a reason to walk away.

A buyer who answers all four plainly, in writing, has told you most of what you need to know about how they trade. GOLDPAID LTD answers them on WhatsApp on 07944 014111 before you send anything, and the answers match this page.