Rough estimates where possible; your final offer follows inspection.
No obligation. Free tracked return if you decline. We aim to pay within one working hour of acceptance.
GoldPaid is a UK-wide postal gold and silver buying service, and you sell from Harrogate by post: no shop visit, no pressure. Ask your questions first, send photos on WhatsApp, post with a free tracked Royal Mail Special Delivery label when you are ready, and decide only after you have seen a written offer.
Send a photo on WhatsApp for a rough estimate where possible, or arrange to post your items for assessment. We confirm our purchase offer after inspection, and you decide whether to accept. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Free Special Delivery label, usually within 30 minutesPurity tested in-house by X-ray (XRF)
Checked against the sources listed on this page on .
Do I need to visit a shop in Harrogate?There is nothing to visit in Harrogate. GoldPaid is fully postal: you receive the prepaid label by email, drop the parcel at any Post Office counter, and the whole exchange continues by WhatsApp or email from your own home.
Please send us photos on WhatsApp, and we will help you.
Send photos of your items and any hallmarks. We give a rough estimate where possible; your final offer follows inspection. You do not need to arrange postage to ask us a question.
We arrange postage with you after our conversation.
Before you post
The questions people ask before they send anything, answered here rather than at the end of the page.
Can I ask first?
Yes. WhatsApp a photo to 07944 014111, 8am to 9pm, every day, and we reply with an idea of what it is worth. Nothing is posted until you decide.
Is it safe to post?
Your parcel travels by Royal Mail Special Delivery, tracked and signed for. 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.
How is it tested?
Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and tested with an XRF analyser, an X-ray test that reads the metal without marking it. Your written offer lists each piece with its weight, purity and figure.
What if I say no?
We return everything by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. Saying no costs you nothing.
When am I paid?
Only if you accept the written offer. We aim for the money to reach your bank within 24 hours of posting. We use Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, test your items promptly on receipt, and aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance. The 24-hour target is an aim, not a guarantee: it depends on posting before the local cut-off, the applicable working-day delivery service, prompt acceptance, completed identity checks and bank processing.
How long does an offer last?
Each written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses, we re-run it at that day’s rate.
Who am I dealing with?
GOLDPAID LTD, registered in England and Wales, run by founder Rocco Clayfield. Our office is at Unit 217, Bristol Business Centre, 179 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG. We are postal only, so there is no counter to visit. Before we pay, we ask every seller for a photo of their passport or driving licence.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
The Viking silver found outside Harrogate in 2007
On 6 January 2007 two metal detectorists found a 10th-century Viking hoard in a field outside Harrogate. Known as the Vale of York Hoard, it held 617 silver coins and 65 other items, packed inside a gilt silver vessel lined with gold. Among them were a rare gold arm ring and hacksilver, fragments of cut metal sometimes used as currency.
At a court hearing in Harrogate that July the coroner classified the find as Treasure under the Treasure Act 1996. York Museums Trust and the British Museum bought it jointly, and in 2012 it was shown at the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate before touring. It went back on public display at the Yorkshire Museum in York in July 2025.
Hacksilver was valued for its metal, not its shape, and that is still true of damaged jewellery: a snapped chain or an odd earring keeps its gold or silver content.
How selling gold from Harrogate by post works
GoldPaid serves customers in Harrogate by post using a prepaid Royal Mail label. You do not need to visit a shop. We do not run a shop or branch in Harrogate, and we do not need to: you never have to travel, you are not committed to anything until a written offer is in front of you, and you are free to turn it down.
From an HG-postcode address, the sequence runs like this.
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.
Asking commits you to nothing. A WhatsApp message with a couple of photos of your gold or silver gets you a rough estimate 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.
Four moving parts, all visible
You ask, we steer. WhatsApp us photos of your gold or silver; you get a rough estimate and no pressure to go further.
We send the label. A free Royal Mail Special Delivery label arrives, tracked and signed for, with a QR-code option if you cannot print.
You post when ready. No countdown. Use whatever padded packaging you already have.
We test, you decide. We weigh and XRF-assay every item, then send you the written offer, usually on the working day your parcel arrives. Accept it for a Faster Payments transfer, or decline it for a free tracked return.
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.
Reading your items from photos
A clear set of photos of your gold or silver is enough for a useful first look. Lay items flat in good light and get close to any small stamps.
Hallmarks. Close shots of hallmarks reveal the assay office mark and fineness, which indicates the carat of gold or whether silver is sterling.
Carat stamps. Stamps such as 9ct, 18ct, 375, 750 or 925 confirm the likely metal before any testing.
Rough weight. Photographed beside a familiar object, items give us a fair sense of weight for the rough estimate.
Solid versus plated. Worn edges showing base metal, or marks such as "GP" or "EPNS", point to plating. We say so plainly rather than letting you post something of little value.
Stones and fittings. Stones, watch parts and base-metal clasps are valued apart from the precious metal, and a photo helps us explain that clearly.
Treat any figure from a photo as indicative. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market, and are confirmed only after an XRF assay. The gold hallmark guide covers what each mark means.
What the offer is built on
Every offer is measured: confirmed purity from an XRF assay, accurate weight, and the live precious-metal market on the day we test, with our margin already inside the figure. You read each figure in a written, itemised breakdown before you decide anything. For how the market moves and what it means for selling by post, see the gold price and selling by post and the silver price and selling by post.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market. Your written offer applies the weight and purity we measure to the live precious-metal market, with our margin already inside the figure. For scrap and broken items, scrap gold value explains how the figure is reached.
One parcel gets one written figure, itemised piece by piece. Your offer reflects the weight and purity we measure and the live precious-metal market on the day, with our margin already inside the figure, so nothing further is taken off. For coins, watches and signed or collectable pieces, send a photo on WhatsApp first and we will tell you how we would value them before you post anything.
Posting gold from an HG postcode
The HG postcode area covers Harrogate and the districts around it. A parcel handed in at any Post Office counter inside that area joins the same Royal Mail Special Delivery pipeline; Royal Mail does not run a different track based on where you post from.
Check your branch’s opening hours on the Post Office branch finder, and keep the counter receipt: it carries the tracking number.
Cover in transit
The prepaid label is Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed: full tracking and a signature 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. For higher-value items, please message us first so the parcel can be split across more than one prepaid label before it travels. Postage and cover explains it fully. 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.
If the offer is not for you
Then nothing happens except a free return. We send your items back by tracked, signed-for post at our cost, with no fee for declining and no follow-up. A valuation is only worth having if you can turn it down freely, so you can. See 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.
Payment, once you accept
When you say yes to the written offer, GoldPaid aims to pay by Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, to your nominated account. You give those details only at the point you accept, never as a condition of getting an offer.
Why sell by post with GoldPaid
Three differences from a counter sale. You see a measured valuation in writing, not a verbal estimate. You decide at home, with nobody waiting. And if you decline, the return is free, tracked and signed for, so obtaining the valuation costs you nothing.
Common questions
How long does it take from Harrogate?
Royal Mail Special Delivery from Harrogate is a next-working-day service to us. The assay, the weighing and the written offer normally all happen on the day of arrival, and if you accept the figure we aim to send your bank transfer by Faster Payments within one working hour of acceptance.
Can I ask questions before I post anything?
Yes, and we recommend it. Message us on WhatsApp or call, ask anything about the items, the cover, the testing process, or the return if you decline. Nothing needs to be posted until you are satisfied with the answers.
How is the Royal Mail cover arranged?
Special Delivery Guaranteed is the only postage we use. It is fully tracked and signed for. Your parcel travels on Royal Mail Special Delivery, and Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. If your items may be worth more than that, tell us first and we will confirm the appropriate postal option.
What happens if I do not accept the offer?
Decline and everything comes back free of charge, tracked and signed for. We do not charge an admin fee for it, and nobody rings you afterwards to talk you round.
How should I photograph my items before posting?
Lay each item flat on a plain surface in good daylight, then take one clear overall photo and a close-up of any hallmark or carat stamp. Photographing items next to a coin or a ruler helps show their size. From those photos we can usually read hallmarks, spot carat stamps and tell whether something looks solid or plated, which is enough for a rough estimate on WhatsApp.
Do I need to clean or polish my gold before sending it?
No. Please send items as they are. Value comes from the weight and purity of the precious metal, not the shine, and gentle wear, tarnish or small repairs make no difference to a postal valuation. There is no need to remove stones or dismantle anything either; set stones and non-gold parts are simply accounted for separately.
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.
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.
A photo on WhatsApp, or a phone call, whichever suits you. From Harrogate or anywhere else in the UK, the process moves at your pace and stops the moment you choose to stop it.
