How GoldPaid values silver by post

Ask before you post, always

You never have to commit to anything to start. Message us on WhatsApp or call, tell us roughly what you have, and send a few clear photos for a quick indicative figure. Nothing leaves your hands until you decide it should, and there is no obligation even then.

GoldPaid is a UK-wide postal gold and silver buying service. Wherever you are, you sell silver by post with a free tracked Royal Mail label. There is no shop to visit and no counter pressure.

How a silver offer is worked out

A silver offer rests on three measured things, and none of them is hidden from you. The standard of the silver, confirmed by XRF assay rather than taken from the stamp. The payable silver weight, which is the weight of actual silver once everything that is not silver has been taken out of the reckoning. And the live precious-metal market on the day your items are assessed, since silver moves every trading day. Every one of those appears in the written breakdown you read before you decide anything.

Silver is worth far less per gram than gold, so quantity does more of the work than purity. That is why a single sterling chain rarely justifies the postage while a canteen of cutlery, a tea service or a few hundred grams of 925 jewellery usually does. If your silver is not worth posting, you are told so before you send it, not after.

What counts as payable silver weight

This is the part that catches silver sellers out, and it matters far more on silver than it does on gold. The number that sets your figure is not the number on the kitchen scales. It is the payable silver weight: the weight of actual silver, once everything that is not silver has been taken out of the reckoning.

• Weighted and loaded bases. Candlesticks, salt cellars, some trophies and many small stands are built on a silver shell filled with pitch, plaster of Paris, resin or sand for stability. The hallmark applies to the shell, not the filling. On a loaded candlestick the recoverable silver is commonly somewhere between a tenth and a third of the gross weight.
• Filled knife handles. A silver-handled table knife usually has a stainless or plated blade and a handle packed with resin or pitch. The blade and the filling are not payable. Sell silver cutlery and canteens goes through this set by set.
• Non-silver findings. Steel pins, springs, screw fittings, magnetic clasps, watch parts and base-metal hinges are separated out. If a clasp sticks to a magnet, it is not silver.
• Liners, felt and baize. Glass liners in salts and mustard pots, felt pads on the bases of trays and salvers, baize inside a canteen box and wooden or resin handles on teapots and coffee pots all come off the weight.
• Stones, enamel and non-metal decoration. Set stones, enamel panels, mother of pearl and tortoiseshell are not silver and are accounted for separately.

None of this is a reason to hold anything back, and none of it needs sorting or dismantling before you post. It is a reason to expect a written breakdown that shows gross weight and payable silver weight as two separate figures, which is what you get here. If a piece turns out to be plated rather than solid, we say so plainly and return it free rather than quietly discounting it. Tarnish, dents, missing pieces and old repairs change none of the metal content, so there is no need to clean or polish anything first.

Silver that is worth more than its metal

Not every piece of silver should be valued by weight, and a buyer who only knows how to weigh things is the wrong buyer for some of what comes out of a house. Where a piece is worth more as an object than as metal, it is assessed by hand and valued separately, above the metal figure.

• Early hallmarked pieces. Georgian and Victorian hallmarked silver, where the date letter, the assay office mark and the condition of the piece carry value in their own right. The hallmarking page explains the marks and what GoldPaid does and does not claim about them.
• Named makers. A recognised maker’s mark can lift a piece well clear of its metal value. Arts and Crafts, Liberty, Scandinavian and studio silver are all valued on the name and the design, not the gram.
• Complete canteens. A full canteen in one pattern, with matching date letters and its original box, is worth more intact than melted. A broken-up part set usually is not, which is exactly why it is worth sending the whole thing together.
• Coins. British silver coinage dated before 1920 is sterling, and 1920 to 1946 issues are 50 per cent silver. Ask about coins before you post, and see sell silver coins.
• Presentation and provenance pieces. Engraved trophies, regimental and presentation silver, and anything with documented history are considered on what they are before they are considered as weight.

Two commitments sit behind that. Nothing is melted before you have seen the offer and accepted it, so a decision is never taken out of your hands. And if a piece would do better with a specialist dealer or at auction than it would here, you are told so in writing rather than sold a metal price for it.

How selling works here

1. Start on WhatsApp. A couple of clear photos of your silver are enough for us to give you a quick indicative figure at no charge.
2. Claim your free postage. We issue a prepaid, tracked, signed-for Royal Mail Special Delivery label, or a QR code for the Post Office.
3. Post in your own time. Any padded envelope works, and there is no deadline to meet.
4. Get a written valuation. Each item is weighed and read by XRF spectrometry, and the itemised offer is sent to you in writing, usually on the working day your parcel arrives.
5. Accept or walk away. Acceptance means payment by Faster Payments; declining means a free, fully 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.

How we value what you send

Every offer is built from measured facts: confirmed purity, accurate weight, and the live precious-metal market on the day we test your items, with our margin already inside the figure. You see each figure in a written breakdown before you decide anything. See how we value gold and XRF testing explained for the full method.

Silver is worth far less per gram than gold, so a silver offer is driven by weight and by how much of that weight is actually silver. Each item is XRF-assayed to confirm the standard, weighed, and the offer is worked out on the payable silver weight, with weighted bases, filled handles and non-silver fittings taken out and shown as such in your breakdown.

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.

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.

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.

Comparing what silver buyers offer

A headline figure is only half the question, and often the misleading half. What you are actually paid is worked out on the payable silver weight, so the deductions set out above decide more silver outcomes than any advertised number does. Two buyers who look the same on paper can pay very differently once weighted bases, filled handles and non-silver fittings are taken out.

The fair comparison is the written, itemised offer: the payable silver weight it works from, whether the assay method is shown, whether anything is charged, and whether the return is free if you decline. A published figure is not an offer from any buyer, this one included, because no one can price an item they have not inspected. The same exercise for gold is on compare UK gold buyers.

Who you are dealing with

GoldPaid is a UK-wide postal gold and silver buying service with no shop, paying by bank transfer after an in-house XRF assay. GOLDPAID LTD is registered in England and Wales. ICO registration ZC214216 (data controller: Rocco Clayfield, trading as GoldPaid). There are no branches and there is no walk-in counter, wherever in the UK you are. Ask anything before you post by calling or messaging 07944 014111 on WhatsApp, read how it works for the full process, and use request a label when you are ready for the free prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label.

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