The problem you already know about
Every shop in your estate receives speciality donations every week. Gold chains in handbags. Watches in biscuit tins. Drawers of tangled costume jewellery. Silver cutlery canteens. Medals in display boxes. A porcelain figure that looks like a car-boot piece but isn’t. Some shops have a manager who recognises them; others do not. Without one, those items go on the shop floor at well below specialist value, get clumped into a bulk sale to a weighbridge buyer, or sit at the back of a stockroom for months. Real revenue leaks out of the estate every week and nobody reports on it because nobody can see it.
What GoldPaid gives a multi-shop charity
A single valuation channel every shop can use without training. Managers WhatsApp a photo to one UK phone number. A real valuer replies with a rough estimate. If it is worth sending, GoldPaid issues a prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label to that shop. The parcel is valued on arrival, and the charity’s registered account is paid by Faster Payments once the offer is accepted. Every transaction produces a written itemised report and a trustee PDF summary. The head office receives a monthly roll-up across the whole estate: parcels sent, categories, values, exceptions, leakage captured.
How head-office onboarding works
It is a single setup call, not a procurement project. GoldPaid verifies the charity number against the Charity Commission register, takes the registered bank account details for payment, agrees a named head-office contact, and agrees which shops are in scope. After that, managers can start sending parcels whenever they want. There is no minimum volume, no monthly fee, no exclusivity clause, and no lock-in. If the arrangement doesn’t work for the charity, you stop, and every parcel already sent still gets paid as normal.
What decides your offer
Every parcel is opened at our Bristol office and each piece is handled on its own. Nothing is averaged across the parcel.
- Weight. Each item is weighed on scales. Stones, steel springs, non-gold clasps and cores are not paid as gold. The written breakdown explains the payable metal weight for each item, rather than treating everything on the scales as precious metal.
- Purity. Each item is tested with an XRF analyser, which reads the metals at the points tested without marking the item. A surface reading alone cannot establish the composition of a plated or filled piece. Hallmarks, construction and different components all need to be considered alongside the test.
- The market on the day. Gold and silver are priced against the live precious-metal market at the time your parcel is assessed, not at the time you posted.
- Condition and intact value. Broken is fine and does not reduce a metal offer. Where a piece is worth more intact (a named maker, a collectable coin, a locket with provenance) we tell you before testing, so you can choose.
- Anything that is not gold or silver. Plated, rolled-gold and base-metal items are listed on the offer at nothing and returned to you free. We never quietly keep them.
Why we do not publish a per-gram price list. A single printed rate hides the things that change the figure: hollow versus solid, stones, mixed carats in one bag, a mark that does not match the metal. We would rather show you the weight, the tested purity and the figure for each item, in writing, and let you decide. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
What you see before you decide. A written, itemised offer by WhatsApp or email: every item, its weight, its tested purity, and its figure. Accept and we aim to pay by bank transfer within one working hour. Decline and the whole parcel comes back by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. No fee, no deduction, no questions.
Control and governance
Every payment goes to the charity’s registered bank account. Never a personal account. Never a shop till. Never a suspense account. The account is verified at onboarding and cannot be changed without a written request from the head-office contact, using the registered charity email domain. Every parcel is logged with a unique reference, the sending shop, the itemised valuation, the total paid, and the Faster Payments transaction reference. Your finance team can reconcile every penny to every parcel to every shop.
What the monthly report looks like
One PDF and one CSV. The PDF is written for trustees: total parcels, total paid to the charity, breakdown by category, breakdown by shop, notable pieces, exceptions (parcels declined and returned). The CSV is written for your finance team: one row per parcel with shop, date sent, date valued, date paid, category mix, total paid, payment reference. If you already run a retail reporting system and want the CSV in a specific format, say so on the onboarding call and we will match it.
What this replaces, and what it doesn’t
It replaces the weighbridge-buyer default for speciality donations, the gold, silver, watches, antiques and collectables that currently leave the estate at scrap value. It replaces the "drawer of tangled costume nobody has time to sort" problem, because the drawer can be posted and we pay per kilo. It replaces the silence around speciality-donation value, because every parcel is itemised and every shop is reported. It does not replace your bulk textile buyer, your rag merchant, your book wholesaler, or your furniture pickup partner. It sits alongside them for the speciality slice.
A sensible way to try it
Pick five shops across different postcode profiles. Give each manager the WhatsApp number (07944 014111). Tell them to send a photo of anything they are uncertain about for one month. At the end of the month, review the monthly report, compare it to what you would otherwise have done with those items, and decide whether to roll it out across the whole estate. No commitment, no contract, no charge, no exclusivity. If the report doesn’t justify rolling it out, the charity has lost nothing.
What an estate may be leaving on the table
GoldPaid publishes no figure for this, because it has no data that would support one. What an estate loses depends on what its shops are given: gold, watches and named-maker porcelain turn up in some donation streams far more than others. The honest way to find your own number is to run a five-shop pilot for a month and look at what comes back.
Who you should pass this to at head office
Whoever owns the retail P&L. That is usually the retail director, head of trading, head of retail operations, or commercial director. Sometimes it is the finance director for smaller charities, or a trustee with retail experience. If you are not sure who should take this call, forward this page to whoever signs off retail supplier arrangements.
Why sell to GoldPaid
GoldPaid is a small, owner-run UK business built on one promise: show the working. Every item is weighed and XRF-assayed, and every offer is itemised in writing. Postage is free and tracked both ways, and there is never a countdown or a hard sell. If something is worth more to a specialist than to us, we say so.
Common questions
What does the monthly multi-shop report contain?
A PDF written for trustees: total parcels, total paid, breakdown by category, by shop, notable pieces and exceptions. A CSV for finance: one row per parcel with shop, dates, category mix, total paid and payment reference. The CSV can be matched to an existing retail-reporting format on request.
Can a multi-shop charity restrict which shops are in scope?
Yes. The charity decides which shops are in scope at onboarding, and the list can be added to or reduced at any time by a written request from the head-office contact. There is no minimum or maximum.
How is data protection handled at estate level?
GoldPaid does not request donor data and does not process it. The only data exchanged is the head-office contact name and work email, used solely to manage the service. A full GDPR data processing agreement is available as a template if your charity’s legal team needs one.
Can we run a pilot before rolling out to the whole estate?
That is the recommended approach. Pick five shops across different postcode profiles, give each manager the WhatsApp number, run for thirty days, review the monthly report with the retail and finance directors, then decide on rollout. No commitment, no charge.
Not the question you had? The full GoldPaid FAQ covers the rest, from postal cover and ID checks to what happens if you decline the offer.
Speak to us before you post
Please send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you. We give a rough estimate where possible and arrange postage with you after our conversation. Your final offer follows inspection.