By Rocco Clayfield, founder of GoldPaid (GOLDPAID LTD) · Published · updated
What these events are
A buying team hires a room for a day or two, advertises locally, and buys gold, silver, coins and watches across a counter. Many are run by established firms and are perfectly legitimate. Some are run by traders you will never encounter again. From the outside the two look identical, which is the reason to go in prepared rather than to go in suspicious.
The service they sell is convenience and immediacy. If you are elderly, without transport, not online, or simply want the thing dealt with today, an event in your own town is genuinely useful. That is a real value and it is worth something. The question is what it is worth, and whether you can tell.
Not sure how any of this applies to your own items? Send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you, call 07944 014111 (8am to 9pm, 7 days a week). We can arrange postage after we have spoken. Nothing is posted until you decide, your parcel is tracked and signed for, the written offer follows the XRF assay, the return is free if you decline, and we aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance.
The point most people miss: there is no cooling-off period
Consumers often assume a 14-day right to change their mind applies. It does not, and the reason is worth understanding. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 govern contracts where a trader supplies goods or services to a consumer, and reserve the cancellation right for the consumer as the buyer. Regulation 5 defines a sales contract as one under which the trader transfers ownership of goods to a consumer, and regulations 27, 29 and 30 give the cancellation right to that consumer (SI 2013/3134). At a gold buying event the direction of travel is reversed: you are the seller and the trader is the buyer. The cancellation right is not yours to use.
That is not a criticism of the format, it is simply the legal position and it is the same at a jeweller’s counter or a pawnbroker’s. It matters more at a one-day event because the counter itself is gone by Tuesday. Once you have accepted the cash, the transaction is complete and the items have left. The same rule, and the narrow routes that survive an acceptance, are set out in can I change my mind after accepting a gold offer. This is general information, not legal advice.
What to do before you go
- Photograph every item, laid out flat, with any hallmarks close up. This costs a minute and is your only record.
- Weigh the lot on kitchen scales and note it. Digital scales accurate to 0.1g cost very little and remove all guesswork about weight.
- Separate by carat mark if you can: 375, 585, 750, 916. Mixed lots are much harder to check an offer against.
- Look up the day’s gold price from a market data feed and note your weights and carats, so you arrive with a rough sense of the metal rather than none.
- Decide in advance what you will not sell, and leave it at home. Nothing sentimental should be in the bag.
What to ask at the counter
- What is the trading name and company number of the business buying this? A legitimate operator answers immediately.
- What testing method are you using, and may I see the reading? Acid and touchstone tests read the surface; XRF reads the body of the alloy.
- What per-gram rate are you paying at each carat today, and what fine-gold rate is that based on?
- Will I get an itemised written receipt showing each item, its carat, its weight and the price paid?
- Are you weighing everything together or by carat? A mixed weight priced at the lowest carat present is a common way to lose money legitimately.
None of those questions are confrontational, and a good buyer will be happy to answer them. If any of them produce a vague answer or a change of subject, that is information, and you are free to put your things back in your bag.
How it compares with the postal route
| Pop-up event | Postal specialist | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Cash the same hour | A working day each way, then Faster Payments; we aim to pay within one working hour of acceptance |
| Testing | Whatever the team brought, often acid or touchstone | XRF assay, purity shown in the written offer |
| Decision time | At the counter, on the day | At home, in writing, no deadline pressure |
| If you decline | You walk out with the items | Free tracked, signed-for return |
| Comparing offers | Difficult once the event has gone | Straightforward, the offer is a document |
| Cost structure inside the offer | Room hire, travel, staff for the day | Labels, assay, handling, payments |
| Who it suits | Small lots, no transport, cash needed today | Anything where the figure matters more than the hour |
When an event genuinely is the right choice
If you do not use the internet, cannot easily get to a Post Office, and want the matter closed today, a local event is a reasonable answer and we would not argue otherwise. The same applies to a very small lot, where the effort of any process outweighs the difference in the figure. And if a trusted, established local firm is running the event, the fact that it is temporary does not make it worse than their shop.
What we would suggest in every case is not selling the whole lot at the first counter you meet. Sell part of it, see what the figure looks like against your own weights, and keep the rest until you have something to compare against. That single habit protects more sellers than any amount of research.