---
title: "Where to sell inherited jewellery and silver: auction, dealer, jeweller, marketplace or metal buyer"
description: "Auction, specialist dealer, jeweller, marketplace or metal buyer: which route suits which inherited piece, what each takes off, and what to ask first."
canonical: "https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/where-to-sell-inherited-jewellery-and-silver"
published: "2026-09-26"
modified: "2026-09-26"
language: "en-GB"
publisher: "Assaypost"
---

# Where to sell inherited jewellery and silver: auction, dealer, jeweller, marketplace or metal buyer

Written at the Assaypost bench, checked before publication. Published 26 September 2026.

**The short answer:** Match the route to the piece rather than sending the whole box one way. Anything that may be worth more as an object than as metal, such as a signed piece, a watch that runs, a medal group, a scarce coin or early silver, goes to an auction house or a specialist dealer first. Plain gold and sterling that is worth its metal and nothing more suits a precious-metal buyer. Plate and costume jewellery suit a marketplace or a saleroom's general sale. Whichever you use, ask the same four questions first: what comes off, how long it takes, what happens if it does not sell, and who carries the risk while it is away.

## Five routes, and the piece each one suits

A box left by a parent rarely belongs in one place. The same drawer can hold a ring a collector would bid for, a canteen that is plate, a snapped chain that is worth its gold and a medal group that should never be treated as metal. Each of the routes below is good at some of that and poor at the rest, and the people who run each one will naturally tell you theirs is the answer.

**The five usual routes for inherited jewellery and silver. No figures are given for charges because they differ from one seller to the next; ask for them in writing**

| Route | Suits | What comes off | If it does not sell, or you say no |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Auction house | Signed jewellery, antique silver, collected coins, medal groups, watches by known makers | The seller's commission, taken from the hammer price, and any other charges in the house's terms | The lot may be offered again or returned, and some houses charge for a lot that does not sell |
| Specialist dealer | Pieces in the dealer's own field: coins, watches, medals, antique silver | The dealer's margin, which sits inside the offer | You keep the piece and can ask another dealer |
| Jeweller | Modern gold jewellery, a ring or a chain someone could wear again | The jeweller's margin, inside the offer | You keep the piece |
| Online marketplace | Plate, costume jewellery and small collectables with a following | Platform and payment fees, postage, and your own time | You relist it, lower the asking figure, or keep it |
| Precious-metal buyer, in person or by post | Plain gold, sterling, platinum and palladium that is worth its metal and no more | The buyer's margin, inside the offer | On this site, a declined lot comes back by tracked post at the business's cost |

Most boxes end up using two or three of these. That is not indecision; it is the box being sorted. The [guide to what to keep back](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/what-to-have-looked-at-before-you-sell) shows how to pick out the pieces for the first two rows before anything else happens.

## Auction: where competition helps

An auction works when more than one person wants the piece for what it is. The house gives an estimate, agrees a reserve with you, which is the lowest figure it may be sold for, and puts it in a sale. What you receive is the hammer price less the house's commission. HMRC describes it in the same terms in its guidance to auctioneers: the purchase price from the seller is the hammer price less any commission charged to the seller. The buyer pays a premium on top of the hammer price, and that premium goes to the house, not to you.

Before you consign, ask for every charge in writing: the commission, whether VAT is added to it, and any charges for photography, insurance, cataloguing or a lot that does not sell. Ask when the next suitable sale is, and when you would be paid after it. A general sale may be weeks away and a specialist one months away.

Auction is poor value for a piece that only a metal buyer wants. A snapped 9ct chain will not attract bidders for what it is, so commission and waiting come off a figure that competition was never going to raise.

## Specialist dealers and jewellers: a figure on the day

A coin dealer, a watch dealer, a medal dealer or a silver dealer buys to sell on to people who collect, so a scarce date, a running movement, a named group or a full set of early marks is worth something to them. They will usually make an offer on the spot, which spares you the wait of a sale. Their margin is inside that offer, so ask two dealers in the same field rather than one if the answer matters.

A jeweller is the natural buyer for modern pieces in good condition that someone could wear again. Some buy outright, some only take pieces in part-exchange, and some pass older gold straight on for its metal. Ask which of those you are being offered.

For the three commonest cases there are guides of their own: [sovereigns and gold coins](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/selling-sovereigns-without-losing-premium), [medal groups](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/war-medals-badges-and-regimental-silver) and [antique silverware](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/silverware-antique-or-scrap).

## Selling it yourself online

A marketplace suits the things no metal buyer takes and no saleroom wants on its own: silver plate, costume jewellery, a boxed plated canteen someone might use. It asks the most of you. You photograph, describe, answer questions, pack and post, and until the buyer has the parcel the risk of it going missing is usually yours.

Online platforms now report sellers to HMRC. GOV.UK says a platform does not need to report a seller who makes fewer than 30 sales of goods in a year and receives 2,000 euros or less; above that, your details are passed on. HMRC has said the rules create no new tax, and whether any is due is decided by the ordinary tests, which the [reporting guide](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/how-much-gold-can-you-sell-without-it-being-reported) sets out.

## A precious-metal buyer, and where this site fits

Assaypost is one of the five routes, and only the last row of the table. It buys gold, silver, platinum and palladium by post and makes one written offer for a lot after every piece has been listed, weighed and tested. That suits the plain metal in a box: odd earrings, broken chains, a sterling cruet nobody wants. It does not suit the pieces in the first two rows, and it says so. Anything that looks worth more whole is flagged to you before it is treated as metal, and nothing is sold until you say yes.

An offer is not a valuation. If an estate needs a figure for HMRC, that comes from a probate valuer before anything is sold, as the [guide to valuations and offers](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/valuation-appraisal-or-offer) explains.

## Four questions to ask any route

1. **What comes off?**: Commission, fees, VAT, postage, and anything charged for a piece that does not sell. A margin inside an offer is normal; a charge you find out about afterwards is not.
2. **How long does it take?**: From handing it over to money in your account, including the wait for a suitable sale and the time a payment takes to clear.
3. **What happens if it does not sell, or you say no?**: Whether the piece comes back, who pays for that, and whether saying nothing could ever count as saying yes.
4. **Who carries the risk while it is away?**: In the post, in a saleroom's stores, or in a dealer's safe. Ask who pays if it is lost or damaged, and up to what amount.

Get the answers in writing. A route that will not put its charges on paper has told you something useful.

## If you are the executor

An executor sells for the beneficiaries, not for themselves. That makes the reason a route was chosen worth writing down: two opinions on a signed brooch, a note of why the plain gold went to a metal buyer, the itemised list and the payment record. GOV.UK's guidance is to wait for the grant before putting estate property on the market, and the [guide to selling before probate](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/selling-jewellery-before-probate-is-granted) covers what can usefully be done while you wait.

Tax does not usually decide the route. An inherited piece counts as acquired at its value on the date of death, and most personal possessions sold for six thousand pounds or less are exempt from Capital Gains Tax. The [tax guide](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/tax-when-you-sell-inherited-gold-and-coins) covers sets, sovereigns and the exceptions.

## Seller risks and exceptions

- Sending the whole box one way. The commonest loss is a piece with collector value sold as metal because it travelled with everything else.
- Treating an estimate as a promise. An auction estimate is a guide, and a lot can sell below it or not at all.
- Forgetting the charges on the unsold. A lot that fails to sell can still cost you, and a piece bought back at auction may carry a fee.
- Posting to a private buyer before payment has cleared. On a marketplace, wait for cleared funds and use a tracked service.
- Splitting a set or a medal group between routes. A canteen or a group is often worth more together than in parts, and once split it rarely goes back together.
- Cleaning before anyone has looked. Polish takes off the surface a collector values and softens the marks that identify a piece.

## When not to use the metal route at all

> **Take these somewhere else first**
>
> A named medal group, a watch that runs or carries a known name on the dial, a coin with a scarce date or mint mark, jewellery signed by its maker, silver with a full row of early marks, and anything with ivory in it. The first five belong with a specialist or an auction house; the last usually cannot be sold at all, as the [ivory guide](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/ivory-and-the-pieces-you-cannot-sell) explains.

## Questions sellers ask

### What is the best way to sell inherited gold jewellery?

Sort it by piece rather than choosing one route for everything. Signed pieces, running watches, scarce coins, medals and early silver go to an auction house or specialist dealer first, because a collector may pay for the object. Plain gold that is worth its metal and no more suits a precious-metal buyer. Ask each route what comes off, how long it takes and what happens if you say no, and get the answers in writing.

### Is auction better than selling to a gold buyer?

For a piece more than one collector wants, auction is often the better route, because bidding can take it well past its metal. For plain gold that only a metal buyer wants, it usually is not: the commission comes off the hammer price and you wait for a sale, with nothing in the room likely to push the figure up. Many estates use both, one for the special pieces and one for the rest.

### How much commission does an auction house take?

No figure is given here, because it differs between houses and often with the value of the lot. What is fixed is the mechanism: the commission comes off the hammer price before you are paid, and the buyer's premium is paid by the buyer to the house. Ask for the commission, any VAT on it and every other charge, including for a lot that does not sell, in writing before you consign.

### Should I sell inherited jewellery online myself?

It suits plate, costume jewellery and small collectables that no metal buyer or saleroom wants. It takes your time, the posting risk is usually yours, and platforms report sellers who make 30 or more sales, or receive more than 2,000 euros, in a year to HMRC. Being reported creates no tax on its own. Keep valuable pieces off it unless you know exactly what they are.

### Can I use more than one route for the same box?

Yes, and most boxes should. Take out the pieces worth having looked at, show them to a specialist or an auction house, and send the plain metal to a precious-metal buyer. On this site, if you change your mind about a piece after the offer arrives, name it and it comes back while a fresh offer is made for the rest.

## Sources

1. [GOV.UK — Using the auctioneers' VAT margin scheme: working out the purchase and selling price](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-the-auctioneers-vat-margin-scheme) (accessed 26 September 2026)
2. [GOV.UK — Check if you need to tell HMRC about your income from online platforms](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-to-tell-hmrc-about-your-income-from-online-platforms) (accessed 26 September 2026)
3. [GOV.UK — No tax changes for online sellers (HMRC press release)](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/no-tax-changes-for-online-sellers) (accessed 26 September 2026)
4. [GOV.UK — Capital Gains Tax on personal possessions](https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax-personal-possessions) (accessed 26 September 2026)
5. [GOV.UK — Applying for probate](https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate) (accessed 26 September 2026)

## Related

- [What to keep back: the pieces worth having looked at properly first](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/what-to-have-looked-at-before-you-sell)
- [Valuation, appraisal or offer: which one you actually need](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/valuation-appraisal-or-offer)
- [Selling sovereigns without losing the premium](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/selling-sovereigns-without-losing-premium)
- [War medals, badges and regimental silver: why a medal group is not scrap](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/war-medals-badges-and-regimental-silver)
- [Selling inherited gold, silver and coins: the tax position in plain terms](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/tax-when-you-sell-inherited-gold-and-coins)
- [Inherited jewellery](https://assaypost.co.uk/inherited-jewellery)
- [Send photos first](https://assaypost.co.uk/photo-estimate)

## Start with photographs

- [Send a photo on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/447369296063?text=Hello.%20I've%20been%20reading%20your%20guides%20and%20I've%20got%20some%20pieces%20I%20can't%20identify.%20Sending%20photos%20now.)
- [Request a prepaid label](https://assaypost.co.uk/postal-pack)
- Telephone [07369 296063](tel:+447369296063), 6am to 10pm, seven days a week