Selling gold on eBay, Vinted and Facebook Marketplace versus a postal buyer

The fee argument is weaker than it used to be

The usual case against eBay was the fees. That case has largely gone. eBay’s own UK help pages state that it is now free for UK-based private sellers to sell on eBay, excluding motors listings, with no final value fees and no regulatory operating fee when items sell (eBay UK selling fees help page, checked 6 August 2026). If you are a private seller clearing a jewellery box, the headline sale price is much closer to what you keep than it was a few years ago.

So the comparison is no longer "fees versus no fees". It is about who your buyer is, what they are paying for, and what happens when something goes wrong.

What a marketplace is genuinely good at

A marketplace puts your piece in front of somebody who wants to wear it. That is the one thing no metal buyer can do. A 9ct charm bracelet, a signed silver-and-gold designer piece, a 1970s cocktail ring with a good stone, a full set of matching earrings: these can attract bids well above their fine-gold content because the buyer is purchasing an object, not a raw material.

It is also good when the value is not really in the gold at all. Costume jewellery, gold-plated pieces, watch straps, vintage brooches and rolled-gold Alberts often have collector or fashion value and almost no recoverable metal value. Our guides to gold filled, gold plated and vermeil and gold plated versus solid gold cover how to tell which category a piece falls into. If it is plated, a marketplace is the better route by a wide margin, because a refiner will pay almost nothing for it.

What a marketplace is bad at

Scrap. A broken 18ct chain has no photograph that sells it, no story and no wearer. On a marketplace it competes purely on price per gram against sellers who will undercut you, and the winning bid on scrap gold is usually below what a specialist buyer would pay, because the private buyer needs a margin too.

It is also bad at unmarked gold. You cannot state a carat you have not tested, and a listing that says "believed 9ct, unmarked" attracts either low bids or a dispute later. A metal buyer resolves that question with an assay before any money changes hands, which is exactly the uncertainty a private buyer discounts you for.

The risks that sit on the seller

• Item not as described claims. On a marketplace, the buyer protection scheme is a buyer-side product. If a purchaser opens a case saying the gold is not what you said, you are the one answering it, often after the item has left your possession.
• Delivery. You arrange and pay for the postage and the cover, you choose the service, and a signed-for, covered send on a valuable item costs real money that comes out of your sale price.
• Non-payment and returns. Auctions can end with a bidder who does not pay, and a returned item comes back at a time you do not choose.
• Meeting strangers. Facebook Marketplace and other local-listing services usually mean a cash handover in person, with no platform protection on either side and your address or a public meeting point involved.
• Time. Photographing, listing, describing, answering questions, packing and posting is a real amount of work per item, and it is work you are not paid for if the item does not sell.

The authentication step above £500

This one catches sellers out. eBay UK operates an Authenticity Guarantee for jewellery: eligible items that sell for £500 or more, excluding postage, are routed through GIA for verification before they reach the buyer. Eligible metal standards are sterling silver 925 and above, gold 9ct and above, palladium 500 and above and platinum 850 and above, items must meet Hallmarking Act 1973 requirements, and certain stones including jade, opal, turquoise, quartz, amber and pearl are excluded. The seller posts the item to the authentication facility on a signed service at their own cost, and items cannot be hand-delivered (eBay UK Authenticity Guarantee for jewellery pages, checked 6 August 2026).

That is a sensible protection for buyers, and it is one reason higher-value listings do sell. It also means your item makes an extra journey, your money arrives later, and you carry the postage to the authenticator. Worth knowing before you list a £900 ring.

Vinted and Facebook Marketplace specifically

Vinted is built around clothing, and the buying audience prices accordingly. Solid gold listed there tends to attract offers pitched at fashion-jewellery levels rather than metal levels, and the platform has no assay function. It is a reasonable home for costume pieces and a poor one for anything hallmarked.

Facebook Marketplace is a classified-advert service rather than a managed marketplace. There is generally no escrow, no authentication and no dispute process on a local cash sale, which cuts both ways: no platform takes a slice, and no platform helps either party if the transaction goes wrong. For a low-value costume lot that is fine. For a hallmarked chain it puts a valuable item and a stranger in the same room, and we would not recommend it.

A straight comparison

The sensible answer for a mixed box

Sort before you sell. Anything wearable, signed, gem-set or clearly costume goes to a marketplace, where a buyer pays for what it looks like. Anything broken, tangled, single-earring, unmarked or bent goes for a metal valuation, where a buyer pays for what it is made of. Most jewellery boxes contain both, and sending the whole box down one route is what costs people money. Our guide to selling a mixed jewellery box works through the sorting.