Sell Cartier jewellery, watches and lighters by post

No pressure to begin with

Asking commits you to nothing. A WhatsApp message with a couple of photos of your Cartier jewellery, watches and lighters gets you a quick indicative figure and a straight answer to any question. Whether you post anything is your call, made later.

GoldPaid has no high-street branches. It is postal-only and UK-wide, so you never have to travel.

Where GoldPaid stands on Cartier

GOLDPAID LTD is an independent UK postal precious-metal buyer. We are not affiliated with, authorised by, or connected to Cartier, and nothing here is endorsed by them. The name appears only to describe the items customers ask us about.

The distinction that matters most is between metal and authenticity. Our XRF spectrometer measures elemental composition, so it will tell you with certainty whether a bracelet is 18ct gold, gilded sterling silver or plated brass. It cannot tell you who made it. Cartier is one of the most copied names in the world and some copies are made in real gold, so a clean 18ct reading is a fact about the metal and nothing more. The method is set out on our XRF testing pages.

Two commitments follow. We never describe an item as genuine Cartier without proper authentication, and we do not knowingly buy or onward-sell counterfeit goods. If a piece turns out not to be what it is marked as, it comes back free of charge by tracked post with no fee, and you are told what the assay measured so you know what you actually own.

The Cartier pieces we handle

• Jewellery. Love bracelets and rings, Trinity rings, Juste un Clou and Panthere pieces, usually 18ct gold
• Watches. Tank, Santos, Pasha, Panthere and Ballon Bleu, in solid gold, gold and steel, or steel
• Lighters and pens. The oval and rectangular gas lighters and the pen ranges, most of them plated rather than solid
• Must de Cartier. The lower-priced line from the 1970s onwards, frequently vermeil, gilded sterling silver, rather than solid gold
• Single earrings, broken chains, damaged pieces, and settings with the stones already removed

One warning before you go further. A genuine, authenticated Cartier piece in wearable condition normally sells for more on the pre-owned branded market than its metal is worth, often a great deal more. Where that looks likely we say so, and you can either take our figure for the piece as it stands or take it to an auction house or a specialist pre-owned dealer, even though it means we do not buy the piece. You should hear that before you post rather than after.

How to tell what metal your piece is

A genuine piece normally carries three things together, the signature, a unique serial number and a metal mark, on the inner band of a ring, the inside of a bangle, the case back of a watch or the base of a lighter. Photograph all three and we can work with them.

• 750, 18K or 18ct. 18 carat gold, 75% pure. Most Cartier fine jewellery and every solid gold watch case sits here
• An eagle head punch. The French assay mark for 18ct gold, often struck beside the serial with a maker mark inside a lozenge
• 925, or a helmeted head punch. Sterling or French first-standard silver, and the body metal underneath a vermeil piece
• Vermeil or plated markings. Vermeil is gold over solid silver and carries a real if modest metal value. Gold plating over brass carries effectively none, because the layer is microns thick
• No mark at all. Neither proof nor disproof of anything. The assay settles the metal question without a mark

Lighters are misread most often. The great majority are plated or lacquered over brass, marked on the base with the name and a serial, and hold no recoverable metal value whatever the finish looks like. A minority were made in solid gold or silver. Weight in the hand is the first clue and the assay is the answer, so photograph the base before posting. The same caution applies to the pens. For the British marks you may find alongside the French ones, see the UK gold hallmark guide.

What the figure actually depends on

• Measured purity and weight, established by assay rather than assumed from the mark
• Whether the piece is solid or hollow. A hollow bangle can look substantial and weigh very little
• Non-precious components. Stones, steel links, movements, glass and lighter mechanisms are excluded from a metal figure
• Whether the item is better sold as a signed branded piece, which is a different market with different buyers
• Condition, completeness and paperwork, which matter to a branded buyer and almost nothing to a metal figure
• The live precious-metal market on the day the offer is written

No firm figure can be given before inspection. What arrives in writing after the assay is the weight, the measured purity, the rate used and the resulting figure, itemised piece by piece, with no obligation to accept it.

The full process, start to finish

1. Ask, then send photos. Message us on WhatsApp with a few clear photos of your Cartier jewellery, watches and lighters. Lay items flat, in daylight if you can, and include any hallmarks or carat stamps in shot. We reply with a quick indicative figure and answer anything you want to ask. There is no charge and no obligation.
2. Request the prepaid label. When you are ready, we email a free Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed label, tracked and signed for. No printer is needed: ask for a QR code and the Post Office counter prints it for you.
3. Pack and post, tracked. Wrap items in any padded envelope or a small box and attach the label. Hand the parcel in over the Post Office counter so you get a receipt with the tracking number. Keep that receipt. There is no deadline.
4. We weigh, test and value. On arrival each item is weighed and tested by XRF spectrometry to confirm purity. You receive a written, itemised offer showing the weight, the purity and the figure for each item, usually on the working day your parcel arrives.
5. Accept or decline. Accept and you are paid by bank transfer via Faster Payments. Decline and everything is returned to you free of charge by tracked, signed-for post. The choice is entirely yours, and you do not need to give a reason.

New to posting valuables? Read the flagship guide on selling gold by post in the UK for a fuller walk-through of every step.

Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and XRF-tested before the written offer is prepared.

How the offer is worked out

GoldPaid buys watches as timepieces, not only for their metal, so the maker, model and condition count as well as any gold or silver in the case. Any precious-metal case is weighed and XRF-tested, and the written offer shows the figure for each watch before you decide anything.

A Cartier item sold for its metal is weighed and XRF-assayed, with stones, movements, steel components and plated parts excluded. Where a piece looks worth more as a signed branded item than as metal, that is flagged in writing before any offer is made rather than absorbed quietly into a weight-based number.

One parcel gets one written figure, itemised piece by piece. Any gold or silver jewellery in it is priced on the weight and purity we measure and the live precious-metal market, with our margin already inside the figure.

How your parcel travels

Your items travel on Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, fully tracked and signed for on delivery. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post. If your items may be worth more, message us first and we can split them across more than one prepaid label at no charge. See postage and cover for the full picture. If a parcel is lost on its way to us, the compensation claim goes to Royal Mail from you, the sender, using your Post Office receipt, and we give you our tracking records and help you make it. Lost parcels, step by step.

No obligation, ever

You are free to walk away at any point before you accept. Decline the offer and everything is repacked and returned to you free of charge, fully tracked and signed for. There is no assessment fee and no sales pressure afterwards. The detail is on what happens if I decline the offer.

The written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses before you decide, we re-run it against the live precious-metal market on the day, at no charge. You can also accept part of a parcel and decline the rest, with no minimum and no penalty for splitting it.

Identification and ownership

Cartier items are high in value and heavily counterfeited, so the checks are firmer than on a bag of scrap chain. Every seller confirms in writing that the item is theirs to sell, and photo identification is required on every transaction, Cartier or otherwise. We cannot buy anything without clear ownership.

If the piece was inherited or came from an estate, mention it at the photo stage. It is an ordinary situation with an ordinary route through it, set out on our probate and inherited jewellery page.

Who this helps

This page is for people with one good piece rather than a bag of scrap. A Love bracelet from a marriage that ended, an inherited Tank that has not run in years, a lighter found during a house clearance, a Trinity ring that no longer fits. The uncertainty is usually threefold: what the metal is, whether the piece is genuine, and whether selling it for gold is the right idea at all. Ask first and you get a straight answer on all three.

Being paid

If you accept, we aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance, directly to your bank account. It is the last step, and a simple one.

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