Where to Sell Gold: Best Places and How to Get Paid Fairly
You can sell gold to a local coin or bullion dealer, a jeweler, a pawn shop, an online bullion dealer, a mail-in gold buyer, or a private buyer. For coins and bars, a bullion dealer (local or online) is usually the most direct buyer, because it resells the metal as it is. For jewelry, most buyers pay for the gold content — the melt value — minus their margin, so the place matters less than knowing your piece’s karat and weight and getting more than one offer. Whatever you sell, work out the melt value first with today’s gold price per gram, and never let a buyer melt your gold before you have accepted a price.
Where to sell gold: the options compared
| Where | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Local coin or bullion dealer | Bullion coins and bars; also scrap jewelry | Ask the buy price per ounce or gram before showing the piece |
| Jeweler | Jewelry, especially signed or vintage pieces worth more than their gold | Many buy only for scrap; some don’t buy at all |
| Pawn shop | Fast cash, any form | A pawn loan is not a sale: read which one you’re signing |
| Online bullion dealer | Coins and bars, with a published buyback price | Shipping, insurance and payment timing |
| Mail-in gold buyer | Convenience for small scrap pieces | Offers you can’t check until the gold is gone (see below) |
| Private sale | Well-known bullion coins | Fraud, safety, and no way to verify the buyer |
There is no single “best place to sell gold” that holds for every piece. The best place is the buyer whose written offer is closest to the melt value of what you are selling, on terms that let you say no.
Step 1: Know what your gold is worth
Every gold buyer starts from the same three facts. Know them before you walk in:
- Karat. Look for the stamp: 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K or 24K (or the European marks 417, 585, 750, 916, 999). The karat is the share of pure gold out of 24 parts, so 14K is 14/24 = 58.3% gold and 18K is 75%. Under the FTC’s jewelry guides, a piece marked with a karat should contain at least that much gold.
- Weight. Buyers weigh in grams, pennyweight (dwt, 1.555 g) or troy ounces (31.103 g). Weigh pieces of different karats separately, and know which unit the buyer is quoting: a price “per pennyweight” and a price “per gram” are not comparable without converting.
- The spot price. It is “the cash price for immediate delivery of physical metal,” quoted per troy ounce, in the words of the CFTC and FINRA.
Melt value = weight × purity × spot price. Example at the spot price of $4,132.60 an ounce (October 21, 2026): 10 grams of 14K gold contain 5.83 g of pure gold, worth about $775. That is the ceiling; no buyer pays all of it, because it has to test, refine and resell the metal. Today’s figures for every karat, per gram and per pennyweight, are on our gold price per gram page, updated daily.
“Gold plated” and “gold filled” pieces are not solid gold, and buyers pay little or nothing for them.
Step 2: Get more than one offer
“A dealer will always sell metal above the spot price and buy it back below the spot price,” the CFTC and FINRA explain. The gap is the spread, and it varies widely: “Some fraudulent dealers have charged spreads of more than 300 percent while other dealers may charge less than 20 percent.” The same applies when you sell. So:
- Ask for the price first, per gram or per ounce for your karat, before handing anything over.
- Have the piece weighed and tested in front of you.
- Get the offer in writing, then compare it with your melt value and with at least one other buyer.
- Check the buyer: the regulators suggest starting “in your local community with well-established dealers” and checking with “your state’s attorney general” whether a dealer “has a history of complaints.”
For coins and bars you bought from a dealer, ask that dealer for its buyback price. The CFTC and FINRA tell buyers to ask “how much you would receive if you had to sell back the metal tomorrow” — the same number you need now.
The risk with mail-in gold buyers
Mail-in buyers send you an envelope and pay after they assess your gold. The FTC told Congress about the problem with that model in 2010: “Consumers complain that some online jewelry buyers provide a price quote only if asked,” and some sellers “receive payment only after buyers have melted their items into their raw form. Once that happens, dissatisfied consumers have limited recourse,” said Jim Kohm, of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
If you use one anyway:
- Read the terms: can you reject the offer and get your items back, who pays return shipping, and how many days you have.
- Photograph and weigh every piece before mailing it, and insure the package.
- Prefer a buyer that holds your items until you accept.
Selling coins and bars vs. jewelry
- Bullion coins and bars have a known weight and purity, so they are the easiest to price and to sell. Bullion dealers compete on the buy price, which makes comparing quotes quick.
- Jewelry is usually bought as scrap, for its gold content. Only signed, antique or designer pieces may be worth more than melt value; for those, ask a jeweler or an appraiser before selling them for scrap.
- Collectible coins can be worth more than their gold; a coin dealer can tell you whether yours is.
Taxes when you sell gold
In the U.S., gold coins and bars are collectibles for tax purposes. “Net capital gains from selling collectibles (such as coins or art) are taxed at a maximum 28% rate,” per the IRS. Whether a gain is long-term depends on how long you held it: “if you hold the asset for more than one year before you dispose of it, your capital gain or loss is long-term.” Selling jewelry for less than you paid is generally a personal loss you can’t deduct; check with a tax professional.
Some precious metal sales are reported to the IRS by the dealer on Form 1099-B, but most small sales are not: under the IRS instructions, a sale isn’t reportable if the quantity is less than the minimum a CFTC-approved futures contract calls for — for gold coins, that minimum is currently 25 coins. Sales to the same customer within 24 hours are added together, and splitting a sale to avoid reporting doesn’t work. Your tax obligation is the same whether or not a form is filed.
What this page can’t tell you
- Prices change every minute, and each buyer sets its own margin; we don’t publish buyers’ offers.
- Rules vary by state: many states license precious-metal buyers, require ID and hold periods, or regulate scales. Ask your state’s attorney general or consumer protection office.
- This is not tax or investment advice. If you are selling for an investment reason, see how to invest in gold; for retirement accounts, see gold IRA.