Sell Pandora Jewellery and Charms — What Sterling Silver Charms Are Actually Worth

Genuine Pandora sterling carries the maker mark ALE (the initials of the founder's father, Algot Enevoldsen) together with a fineness mark: ALE 925 or S925 ALE means sterling silver, 92.5 per cent. On a Moments bracelet the stamp sits on or beside the clasp; on charms it is around the threaded core; on rings it is inside the band. The UK silver hallmarks guide covers how these marks sit alongside British assay marks on pieces sold here.

Three variants matter to the value. ALE 585 is solid 14ct gold, a different category entirely and worth considerably more per gram — tell us if you see it. Pandora Shine is 18ct gold plating over sterling, and Pandora Rose is 14ct rose gold plating over a silver-copper blend: both are valued as the silver underneath, because a plated layer holds no recoverable gold. Counterfeit Pandora is common on marketplace sites, and the XRF assay settles it either way — a fake reads as base metal or thin plate, and it is returned to you free of charge with no offer made against it.

The arithmetic is simple enough to do at your kitchen table. A bare Moments snake-chain bracelet weighs roughly 13 to 16 grams of sterling depending on length. A typical solid silver charm weighs 2 to 4 grams, and a clip around 2 grams. Murano glass charms hold only around a gram of silver in the core — the glass itself has no metal value — and enamel, cubic zirconia, resin and leather straps add weight but no silver. So a loaded bracelet that feels heavy in the hand often assays to noticeably less silver than its gross weight suggests.

Silver is priced in pence per gram, not pounds — the silver price today page shows the current rate. Run the numbers and a full bracelet with a dozen charms comes to a scrap figure in the tens of pounds. The same bracelet intact, genuine and presentable commonly changes hands second-hand for a multiple of that, and retired or discontinued charms carry collector premiums that no scrap buyer can pay — including us. If your Pandora is complete, genuine and in good condition, listing it on eBay, Vinted or a specialist resale site will usually pay you more, and we would rather tell you that before you post it than melt value you could have kept.

The second-hand route is not always worth the effort. Common charms in worn condition sell slowly and cheaply once listing fees, postage and returns are counted. A snapped bracelet, a single earring, a tangle of tarnished pieces, or Pandora mixed into a wider drawer clear-out of gold and silver is often better handled as one parcel, one assay and one payment. Certainty has a value of its own, and some sellers simply do not want weeks of listings and messages from strangers.

What we can do: weigh and XRF-assay every piece individually, itemise each on the written offer, pay the assayed sterling weight at the rate on the day, value any ALE 585 solid gold piece at its gold rate, and look at your WhatsApp photos first and say honestly whether the resale route looks better for what you have. What we cannot do: pay for the brand name, for retired-charm collector value, for glass, enamel or stones, or for boxes and packaging. Offers depend on inspection, weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, condition and the market rate on the day.