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 St Helens 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 St Helens?No. GoldPaid serves customers in St Helens by post using a prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label. You do not need to visit a shop. The label is sent to you by email and you post your items from any UK Post Office.
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.
Watchmakers' tools, glass and the watch trade of Prescot
Glass defines St Helens in most accounts. The World of Glass, opened in 2000, brought together the Pilkington Glass Museum and the St Helens Local Museum. A historical account quoted on the town's Wikipedia page also lists glass, watchmakers' tools and mineral waters among the goods made in the area.
Those tools served a trade centred in Prescot, now in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, which in the 18th and 19th centuries was at the centre of watch and clock making. The industry there ended with the failure of the Lancashire Watch Company in 1910. Prescot Museum covers the town's local industries, including watchmaking.
Old pocket watches deserve a careful look before they are sold. Open the case back and check the inside for hallmarks, since the case is where any gold or silver will be marked. A watch with a named local maker may interest a collector as much as a metal buyer, so it is worth checking with a museum or specialist before deciding.
How selling gold from St Helens by post works
GoldPaid serves customers in St Helens 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 St Helens, 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 a WA-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.
What a photo tells us, and what it cannot
Before your gold or silver is posted, a few clear pictures let us give you a rough estimate and point out anything you should know.
From a good photo we can usually read the hallmark and the mark of the assay office that tested the piece. We can spot purity stamps such as 375, 750, 916 and 925, which stand for 9ct, 18ct and 22ct gold and for sterling silver. We can judge approximate size and weight against a coin or ruler, and tell whether an item looks solid or plated. Marks like "GP", "rolled gold" or "EPNS", or base metal showing through worn edges, usually mean plating. Set stones, clasps and non-gold fittings are not precious metal, so we explain separately how they affect the value.
Photos guide an indicative figure only. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market. We confirm the firm offer after an XRF assay of your own items. See the gold hallmark guide and scrap gold value for more.
Where the figure comes from
We measure purity with XRF, weigh every item, and value it against the live precious-metal market on the day we test, with our margin already inside the figure. Every one of those numbers appears in the written breakdown you receive before deciding. The full method is on how we value gold.
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.
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 a WA postcode
The WA postcode area covers St Helens 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.
Postage and cover
Your parcel travels on Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed: tracked end to end 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, each with its own tracking number, at no charge. Full detail is on postage and cover, and is it safe to post gold? walks through posting valuables safely. 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.
The payment step
Acceptance starts payment: we aim to send a Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, to the account you give us. Nothing to bank and nothing to chase.
Who stands behind the offer
Owner-run, with founder Rocco Clayfield personally accountable for the service
Every item XRF-assayed, the result shown to you in writing
Free tracked postage both ways, so a valuation carries no obligation
Honest about its limits, including when a specialist would suit you better
No fabricated reviews and no invented numbers, anywhere on the site
Common questions
How long does it take from St Helens?
Posted from St Helens by Special Delivery, a parcel normally arrives with us the following working morning. We usually XRF-test and weigh it the same day, send the written offer by email, and aim to pay by Faster Payments within one working hour of your acceptance.
Can I ask questions before I post anything?
Yes. That is the whole idea. WhatsApp us a photo or phone us with whatever you want to know about the assay, the cover, the timing, or the decline process. Posting is the step after you are comfortable, never before.
How is the Royal Mail cover arranged?
The label we send you is Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed, fully 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. If your items may be worth more than £2,500, tell us first and we can split them across more than one prepaid label at no charge.
What happens if I do not accept the offer?
If the offer is not for you, the items are posted straight back to you, free of charge, tracked and signed for. There is no decline fee and no obligation at any stage.
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.
Drop us a WhatsApp message with a photo, or call. The whole sequence is opt-in step by step, and the written offer is the first moment any decision matters.
