Where to sell, and what each buyer pays

Mail-in is where most household silver ends up, because the percentages beat the high street and the minimums are reachable. It also asks the most of you: the metal leaves your possession before you have agreed a price. These are the questions that separate a professional operation from one you should avoid.

Who insures the parcel, and for how much? This is the big one. Most carriers explicitly exclude bullion and precious metals from ordinary cover, so a standard insured label may be worthless for a box of silver. Ask what service they require, what it covers, and what happens if the parcel disappears. A serious buyer has a clear answer and usually a specific carrier and service.

Do they photograph and weigh on arrival, before valuing? The good ones document the lot as it comes out of the box and send you the images. It protects both sides and it makes a dispute about contents almost impossible.

How long is the offer held? A defined window, usually a day or three, tied to a stated spot price. Vague offers with no expiry are a bad sign.

What does declining cost? The correct answer is nothing: they return everything, insured, at their expense, promptly. Any friction here is deliberate. A buyer who makes it expensive or slow to say no is relying on you giving in.

Is there a minimum, or a fee below one? Small lots sometimes attract handling charges that quietly erase the advantage over a local shop.

Some links here earn a commission if you sell through them. That creates an obvious incentive problem, so here is how it is handled and how you can check.

Commission is paid as a percentage of the transaction, which means it rises when you are paid more. That aligns the interest better than a flat referral fee would, but it does not eliminate the conflict, and nobody should pretend otherwise.

The rule applied here is that a buyer is listed on what they pay and how they behave, never on what they pay this site. Where a buyer pays no commission at all and is still the right answer - a local dealer, a specialist auction house for a collectable piece - that is what the page says. The methodology page sets out the criteria in full, and the disclosure covers the commercial relationships.

If a recommendation here ever fails to match what you find, that is worth knowing about. The contact page exists for exactly that.

Most mail-in problems are not theft. They are disputes about what was in the box, and they are almost entirely preventable with twenty minutes of care before you seal it.

Photograph everything, laid out and counted. One wide shot of the whole lot, then close-ups of hallmarks and of anything unusual. Include a written inventory in the frame. If a count is ever questioned, this ends the argument immediately.

Weigh the lot yourself and write the figure down. Weigh knives separately from everything else, since that is the number most likely to be disputed.

Wrap so nothing rattles or rubs. Not for the metal's sake, which survives most things, but because a parcel that sounds like a parcel of metal is a parcel that attracts attention in transit.

Use a plain outer box with no branding. Nothing on the outside should suggest what is inside. Reputable buyers send prepaid labels that are deliberately unmarked for this reason.

Keep the tracking number and the insurance paperwork somewhere other than the parcel. Obvious, routinely forgotten.

None of this is paranoid. It is the same discipline any dealer uses when shipping to a refiner, and it takes less time than getting a second quote.