You stay in control
A photo on WhatsApp is enough for us to tell you which testing pack fits, what the report can and cannot tell you, and what it will cost. Only when you are comfortable do you order the pack.
No part of this involves a shop visit. The testing service is postal-only, anywhere in the UK, with the phone and WhatsApp answered 8am to 9pm, seven days a week.
The problem charity shops face every week
Donated jewellery is one of the highest-margin product lines a charity shop can stock. It is also the line a non-specialist branch manager is least equipped to assess. The acid test is dangerous, the magnet test is unreliable, and the chain-of-custody on a £200 ring being sold for £8 by accident is exactly the problem this account is built to solve.
A typical charity shop sees a handful of suspect items every month. At £5 per item, the cost of getting one wrong is more than a year of testing.
What the account includes
- £59 per month, first month free. Cancel any time with 30 days notice.
- £5 per item tested, billed monthly on a single invoice.
- Bulk prepaid envelope packs sent to the branch on signup.
- WhatsApp routing dedicated to the branch — branch manager photo first, indicative read inside an hour.
- 48-hour SLA from receipt to written report.
- Branch dashboard showing every job logged, with downloadable PDFs for the audit trail.
- Plain-English report on every item — solid, plated, alloy carat, indicative resale guidance, and the not-a-hallmark disclaimer.
How a typical week looks
Day 1: a member of the public donates a small jewellery box. Tuesday morning: branch manager photographs the suspect pieces and WhatsApps them. Tuesday afternoon: GoldPaid indicates which need posting. Wednesday morning: prepaid envelope posted with two or three items. Thursday morning: the report is in the branch inbox. Thursday afternoon: items are returned and re-priced for the shop floor.
No equipment to buy, no training course to run, no in-house specialist needed. The account turns a guess into a number.
The process, step by step
- Start with a photo. A clear WhatsApp photo of the item is enough for us to tell you which pack fits, what the report will show, and what the price will be.
- Pay and get your label. Once you order, a free Royal Mail Special Delivery label and a QR code for the counter are emailed straight back.
- Send it in your own time. Use any padded envelope. The label stays valid until used. There is no time pressure on you.
- Tested by handheld XRF. Each item is scanned at multiple points with a Thermo Scientific Niton XL2 precious-metal analyser. The full elemental table goes into the report.
- Report inside 24 to 48 hours. A written PDF report arrives by email, and your item is dispatched back on the same day, fully insured.
Insurance and tracking
Your parcel is insured up to £2,500 via Royal Mail Special Delivery. For higher cover we can arrange a tracked courier before you post, with the cover level agreed in writing first.
The label is Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm next working day, with full tracking and signature on receipt. The tracking link is emailed to you the moment the label is issued.
What you get back, and when
Your item is returned by Royal Mail Special Delivery on the same working day the report is issued. Return postage and insurance are included in the testing fee — there is no separate return charge.
If, for any reason, an item cannot be tested (badly damaged surface, non-metallic core, equipment misalignment), we tell you straight, refund the testing fee, and return the item the same day.
A test, not a sales pitch
The XRF testing service is paid-for and stands on its own. The report is what you bought. Nothing inside it is an offer, an invitation to sell, or a hidden valuation. The team running the test has no commission tied to whether you become a selling customer afterwards.
If you separately want a no-obligation offer for the item, you can ask. If you do not ask, nobody chases.
What this report is, and what it is not
The report identifies the elemental composition of an item to the accuracy of the analyser. It does not replace a UK hallmark, an Assay Office fire assay, or a written valuation from a qualified valuer for insurance reinstatement purposes. We say so in plain English on the front page of every report.
If a report leaves any doubt, we will tell you what the next step would be — typically a UK Assay Office fire assay (destructive but definitive) for high-value disputes, or a written insurance valuation from a qualified independent valuer for reinstatement cover.
Built to be trusted, not just believed
- Owner-run, with a named founder accountable for the service
- Every item XRF-assayed, the result shown to you in writing
- Free insured postage both ways, so a valuation is genuinely 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
Can our area manager or head office see the dashboard?
Yes. The dashboard supports multiple logins per account. Area managers and head-office finance can both see the audit log.
What if our shop only needs the service occasionally?
The £59 retainer covers up to 10 items per month free of the per-item charge, so an occasional-use branch can pause the per-item billing in quiet months. Heavy-use branches over 10 items pay the £5 per-item rate from item 11 onwards.
Can the account refer onward to the GoldPaid buying service?
Yes — and the choice belongs to the branch. The branch can sell the donated item itself on the shop floor, refer it to GoldPaid for a no-obligation offer, or send it on to a third party. The testing account does not push the branch toward any of those outcomes.
Do you train the branch manager on what XRF results mean?
A short PDF guide is included on signup, in plain English, explaining what each report tells the branch and what to do with the information. The dedicated WhatsApp routing covers any one-off question.