What We Don’t Buy, and What to Do With It Instead

The list, straight up

This page exists to save you a wasted trip to the Post Office. GoldPaid buys gold, silver, platinum and palladium in almost any form and condition, along with diamonds, watches, coins, medals, medallions and stamps. The categories below are the ones we decline, with the honest reason each time.

• Gold-plated, gold-filled and rolled gold. A thin layer of gold over a brass, copper or steel core. The layer is measured in microns and cannot be recovered economically by any refiner, so no scrap buyer can pay a meaningful figure for it.
• Costume jewellery. No precious-metal content at all: base metal, glass, resin, paste stones. GoldPaid pays nothing for it as precious metal, whether it is one piece or a bag from your own jewellery box: it is listed at nil and returned free with the rest of your parcel. (Bulk costume jewellery is bought only from charity shops, through GoldPaid’s charity service, never from individual sellers.) Any real gold or silver hiding among it is found by XRF and paid on its own line.
• Silver plate. EPNS, A1, "silver on copper", hotel plate and most unmarked canteens. As with gold plate, the silver layer is too thin to refine. Sterling (925) and Britannia (958) silver are different, and we buy those readily.
• Anything without clear ownership. We ask about provenance as a matter of routine, particularly on church silver, medals, memorial pieces and estate items, and we cannot buy anything where the right to sell is not clear.
• Elephant ivory, tortoiseshell and other CITES Annex A materials. The Ivory Act 2018, in force from 6 June 2022, makes it an offence to deal in most elephant ivory, and CITES Annex A restricts trade in tortoiseshell, rhino horn and other protected materials. The exemptions (for example an item made before 3 March 1947 with less than 10% ivory by volume, or a musical instrument made before 1975 with less than 20%) need the item registered or certified first, and GoldPaid does not handle them. If a piece contains ivory or tortoiseshell, do not post it: read the GOV.UK guidance on dealing in ivory and speak to a specialist auction house.

How to check before you post

Most plated and costume pieces identify themselves if you know where to look. Check the marks first. GP, GEP and HGE mean gold-plated; RGP and "rolled gold" mean a thin layer of gold bonded over base metal; GF, 1/20 or 1/10 marks mean gold-filled; EP, EPNS, A1 and "plate" mean silver-plated. Solid precious metal carries fineness marks instead: 375, 585, 750, 916, 990 or 999 for gold; 800, 925, 958 or 999 for silver; 850, 900, 950 or 999 for platinum.

Beyond the marks: a strong pull to a magnet points to a steel core, though a failed magnet test proves nothing on its own, since many base metals are non-magnetic too. Brassy wear on high spots, edges and clasp backs shows plating wearing through. And a piece that feels light for its size is usually not solid.

"We don’t buy it" is not the same as "it is worthless"

We decline items on one narrow test: whether they contain refinable precious metal. Plenty of things fail that test and still have genuine value to the right buyer.

• Signed designer costume jewellery. Pieces by names such as Trifari, Miriam Haskell, Dior and Chanel sell well at auction and to specialist costume dealers, sometimes for more than a plain 9ct chain. Check the back for a signature before you assume a piece is worthless.
• Silver-plated canteens and trays. Little scrap value, but complete canteens by good makers such as Mappin & Webb or Walker & Hall sell steadily at general auction and on eBay.
• Vermeil. Gold-plated sterling silver, usually marked 925. The gold layer is unrecoverable, but the sterling core is real silver, so we can buy vermeil at its silver value. Worth a photo.
• Wearable fashion jewellery. Charity shops want it, and bulk lots sell on eBay and Vinted. It does more good there than in a drawer.

Where to take what we decline

If something we don’t buy arrives in your parcel

Mixed parcels are normal and nothing to apologise for. Real gold, real silver, plated pieces and costume all sit in the same jewellery box, and you are not expected to separate them before posting. Sorting them is our job: every piece is XRF-assayed on arrival. Here is exactly what happens to the pieces we cannot buy:

1. Identified, not guessed. Every item in your parcel is tested by XRF on arrival, so plated and costume pieces are confirmed rather than judged by eye.
2. Listed on your valuation. The written offer shows them separately as no-offer items, so you can see exactly which pieces carried value and which did not.
3. Returned free, never held or disposed of. They come back to you by tracked post at our cost, alongside payment for anything you accept an offer on, or with everything else if you decline. Nothing you send is ever kept back or thrown away.

When in doubt, send a photo before the Post Office

The whole point of the ask-first process is that you never need to guess. Send a clear photo of the piece and any marks on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth posting. "No, keep it" and "try an auction house" are answers we give whenever they are the honest ones. There is no charge and no obligation either way.

Common questions