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

The straight answer

GoldPaid does not melt, cut, unset or process an item before written acceptance. Our initial assessment uses inspection, weighing and XRF surface readings. XRF is non-destructive, but a surface reading cannot establish composition throughout a plated or filled piece. If the available evidence is insufficient, ask what further assessment is proposed before consenting to any alteration. Do not assume every buyer uses the same procedure. 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.

Processing-on-receipt wording needs clarification before you post. It may describe permission for an irreversible operation, but the existence of a clause does not prove that an item has already been altered or settle whether the term is enforceable. Ask what is actually proposed and whether an intact return remains available if you decline.

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

Melting destroys the original form of a piece, and other alterations such as cutting or unsetting can also affect its condition and value. A financial remedy cannot recreate the same heirloom. Establishing permission before any irreversible step matters even where you expect to accept the eventual offer. A return promise should be understood alongside the assessment process.

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 sequence, authority to sell and agreed treatment of the items all matter.

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; do not rely on being able to recover it after acceptance. 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.

Separate permission to inspect from permission to alter

Inspection is not a single operation. Looking at a hallmark, weighing an item and taking a surface reading differ from filing a surface, cutting a component, removing a stone or melting a lot. Ask which operations the buyer proposes before an offer and which require a separate instruction. The word testing should not be allowed to hide a step that changes the object.

For an ordinary broken chain, a small alteration may seem unimportant to you. For an engraved ring, a plated object or a potentially collectable piece, the same action could matter considerably. Decide what you are willing to authorise for that object. If preserving it intact is essential, state that restriction and confirm that the service can operate within it before sending the parcel.

An inability to give a complete assessment without more intrusive work does not itself show bad practice. It may mean that the uncertainty needs to remain unresolved or that another specialist route is suitable. What matters is an explanation before the work, followed by a decision from someone authorised to give it. A technical limitation is not permission to proceed automatically.

Match the instructions to the items rather than the whole box

A mixed parcel can contain objects for different purposes. One might be offered for sale, another retained pending a family decision and a third included only because you want to ask whether it is worth specialist attention. Those intentions need to be stated clearly. Simply enclosing everything together can leave the recipient unable to distinguish an instruction from a question.

Use the buyer’s agreed item identifiers when giving permission. If the offer lists several pieces, identify exactly which are accepted and which must remain outside the sale. Ask for a corrected list if the descriptions are ambiguous. An instruction covering all the gold can be unclear when a silver item has a gold component or when a stone-set piece includes several materials.

If you are not ready to decide about an object, retaining it at home is often the clearest way to avoid accidental inclusion. This is particularly useful for an heirloom whose family ownership is unresolved. No testing method or hold policy can substitute for deciding who has authority to sell the item in the first place.

Check what intact return means for stones and separate components

A promise to return an item is more useful when its condition is understood. Ask whether a declined ring would come back assembled, whether any detachable part would be kept with it and whether any proposed preparation could leave a mark. The point is to clarify the service, not to assume that every assessment involves dismantling.

Stones deserve a separate question because a metal offer may exclude their value without explaining their physical treatment. Not paying for a stone is not the same as permission to remove, retain or discard it. Establish both points before deciding whether the route suits the object. If the stone might be significant, obtain suitable advice while the complete piece remains available.

The same distinction applies to a watch movement, a steel blade in a silver handle or a non-gold fitting. An excluded component affects the assessment, but its treatment should still be understood. Avoid interpreting a deduction from payable weight as a statement that the component has already been removed.

Respond to uncertainty before it becomes a processing dispute

If a message suggests that work may start before the decision you expected to make, contact the buyer promptly through a verified route. Identify the item and say which action you have not authorised. Ask for confirmation of its current condition and that the disputed operation is paused while the instructions are clarified. Keep the request and reply together.

Ask about actual events rather than relying on labels such as processed or sent on. Has the item been inspected, grouped with other pieces, dispatched or physically altered? Those stages have different practical consequences. An item can sometimes remain identifiable after dispatch, while an alteration before dispatch may already prevent its return in the original condition. Only the business can explain what has actually happened to that lot.

If alteration has occurred without the permission you understood was required, preserve the offer, terms and instructions and seek appropriate advice. The loss of the original physical form does not establish that every possible remedy has disappeared. A claim about payment or loss is different from recovering the original object. The dispute guide explains how to organise the next step.

Distinguish keeping an item identifiable from merely keeping its metal

If recovering the same object matters, ask whether the item remains separately identifiable during the assessment stage. Keeping a weight of gold associated with an account is not equivalent to retaining the original ring. A promise about the amount of metal cannot preserve an engraving, a setting or the history attached to a particular object.

This distinction becomes especially important when a parcel contains similar pieces. Ask how an offer’s description corresponds to the individual item and clarify any uncertainty before giving a partial acceptance. You do not need to prescribe the buyer’s stock system, but the instructions must be precise enough that both parties know which object is being discussed.

For a family piece, decide whether you are seeking a value, an offer or an actual sale. Those are different objectives. If you only need a documented valuation for another purpose, ask whether the proposed service provides that type of valuation; a buying offer may not answer the question. Keeping the objective clear prevents a request for information from drifting into permission for processing.

Finally, avoid relying on the recoverability of metal as reassurance about an irreversible decision. A refiner may recover precious metal successfully while the original object is permanently lost. If the object itself is what you value, retaining it or choosing an appropriate non-destructive assessment is the decision to make before accepting a sale.