Sell gold by post, starting with a photograph

Start with a few photographs

A drawer of old gold might hold a snapped 9ct chain, one earring whose twin went years ago, a signet ring nobody wore and a few things with no mark at all. You do not have to work out what any of it is. Photograph it, send us the pictures, and a person will tell you what can be seen.

Asking costs nothing and ties you to nothing. Tip everything out on a plain table in daylight. Take one picture of it all together and a few close ones of any marks you can find, then send them on WhatsApp (no WhatsApp? ring or text 07369 296063, or email messinabenni@gmail.com). A person reads them and writes back with a rough idea: what the marks suggest, what may not be gold at all, and whether it is worth posting.

If it is not worth posting, we will say so, and your things stay at home. If the chain turns out to be rolled gold and the earrings gilt brass, you have spent twenty minutes finding that out.

• One picture of everything together, so we can see how much there is.
• A close, steady picture of any mark: inside a ring shank, on a clasp, on the stem of a chain, on the back of a pendant.
• Both sides of anything with a stone in it.
• A plain ruler beside any piece whose size is hard to judge.
• Keep bank cards, letters with your address on them and people's faces out of the pictures.
• Anything you already know: who it belonged to, where it came from, whether it was ever mended.

If you are unsure what to photograph, the page on sending photographs first sets out what a picture can and cannot settle. The reply is in writing, so you can read it twice or show it to someone else before you decide anything.

What a drawer of old gold can hold

Very little of it may look like jewellery any more, and for the gold in it, that does not matter. A bent piece weighs what it weighs, and a snapped chain holds as much gold as it did when it was whole. Nothing is turned away for being broken, tangled, scratched, out of fashion or missing its partner.

• Chains that snapped at the clasp and were put in a drawer to be mended one day.
• Single earrings, none of them matching.
• A signet ring with worn initials and a hallmark you can just about feel with a thumbnail.
• Wedding and engagement rings, sometimes still in their box.
• A bangle bent out of round, and a charm bracelet with half its charms gone.
• Cufflinks, collar studs, a tie pin, a pocket watch chain with no watch.
• Pieces with no mark anywhere on them, which is common on older and imported gold.
• A few things that look like gold and are not.

Photograph everything first. The reply says which pieces to post as they are and which to keep back for a specialist. There is nothing to clean or untangle, and a jumbled lot is treated no differently from one in tidy bags. Odd bits of silver and a white ring that might be platinum can go in too. Scrap and broken gold jewellery goes through a drawer like this piece by piece, and platinum, palladium or white gold explains the white rings.

Unmarked pieces, and the things that only look like gold

The hallmark is the first thing we look for. The UK's approved finenesses for gold are 375, 585, 750, 916, 990 and 999, and gold of a gram or more sold in this country should normally carry one. Older British pieces may carry the earlier 15ct and 12ct standards instead. A lot of older, imported and very light gold was never marked, and a modern lasered mark can all but vanish on a worn shank. A missing mark means more checking; it does not count against the piece. What 375, 585, 750 and 916 mean on gold explains each figure and the plating stamps that imitate them. If you want to try something yourself first, testing gold at home separates the checks that tell you something from the ones that can damage it.

We do not use an X-ray (XRF) analyser. Every piece is weighed and checked for its metal before an offer is made; the methods used depend on the piece and are listed on the offer. Plating is the main trap: gold on the surface and brass underneath looks like gold, so worn edges and the inside of a shank are looked at closely, and no single check is relied on alone.

• A magnet. Solid gold is not pulled by one. A firm pull means steel, usually a core or a clasp spring.
• A weighing in air and again in water, which can show up a plated or hollow piece. It works on solid pieces, is less reliable on chains, hollow work and anything with a stone, and is never decisive on its own.
• An acid touchstone test, which can leave a small mark, only with your written consent under clause 4.2 of the terms, where the marks and the other checks still disagree.

Where the checks still do not settle a piece, it is either priced cautiously, with the limits written on your offer, or left out and returned at our cost, and you are told which (clause 4.4). If you would rather have it back than accept a cautious price, say so.

What each check can and cannot show is set out on how items are tested. If you suspect a piece is plated, the guide to plated, rolled gold, gold-filled and vermeil describes what the marks on each of them look like.

What decides what gold is worth

What the gold is worth depends on four things, and what we offer depends on those four and one more.

• Carat. 9ct is 375 parts gold in a thousand and 22ct is 916. Of two rings that weigh the same, the 22ct one holds nearly two and a half times the gold of the 9ct one.
• Weight, of the gold alone. Steel springs, watch movements, stones and anything else that is not gold are identified and left out of the weight, by estimate where they are still in place. A heavy piece can hold very little gold.
• Whether it is gold at all. Plated and rolled gold pieces carry only a thin layer of gold, and we do not buy them; gold-filled is not bought in household quantities (ask first about a large quantity). Some, such as old rolled-gold Albert chains, can still sell as objects through a dealer or an auction. Checking settles which is which; a mark on its own does not always.
• The gold price on the day it is weighed. It moves daily, so any figure has a date attached whether or not anybody says so.
• What it is worth to us as a buyer. Every buyer's offer allows for the cost of testing, refining or reselling, and a margin. Ours does too, and it comes as one figure for everything we buy.

Nothing on this site turns these into a number for you. An estimate made before a piece has been weighed and checked is a prediction about an object nobody has handled, and it can differ a long way from the offer that follows. That is how a seller ends up posting a parcel on one figure and being offered another.

The photograph does the useful part instead. Marks read from a clear picture tell you what carat you are probably looking at, what looks plated, and whether anything ought to be seen by a specialist before it is weighed at all. That rough idea is free, in writing, and comes before anything leaves your house. What a photograph can and cannot settle sets out the limits.

Everything is listed before anything is decided

Your parcel is photographed before anybody opens it, with its label and any seal still intact. Only then is it unpacked. Each piece is laid out on its own, given a number, photographed and weighed. Nobody forms a view about the parcel as a whole until every item in it is on the list.

That list opens your offer, and it describes what arrived plainly enough to check against what you remember putting in. For example: item four, a broken curb chain, 9ct, marked; item five, a single earring, unmarked, gold, carat unconfirmed; item six, a gilt brass brooch, not gold. If the parcel does not match what you told us was coming, we stop and write to you before any offer is made (clause 8.3).

• Every item numbered, photographed and weighed, including the ones that turn out to be worthless.
• The marks found on each piece, and where on the piece they were found.
• Which checks were used on each piece, and what they showed.
• Stones, springs, movements and other things that are not gold, identified and left out of the weight, by estimate while they are still in place.
• Anything held back for a closer look, with the reason written beside it.

One written offer, for the lot

We price the lot, not the gram. What comes back is a single figure for everything we are buying, in writing, with the list of what that figure covers and the list of what it does not. There is no arithmetic for you to do and no moving number to watch. It is one decision, taken once, at whatever hour suits you.

Pricing a drawer of mixed, broken, half-identified jewellery means many small judgements: what each piece is, which part of it is not metal, what ought never to be scrapped, and what the lot is worth to us as a whole. The offer is where that work ends, and the list of items is the evidence behind it; clause 5.1 of the terms sets out what that list must show.

Your offer states how long it stays open, and you will not be told to hurry. If it lapses, nothing is sold: everything waits until you ask for it back or for a fresh offer (clause 5.2). If you need longer, say so and the offer is held open (clause 10.2).

Nothing is sold until you say yes

You accept deliberately: by pressing the accept button on your offer, or by telling us in writing (clause 6.1). Opening the offer, or following its link, never accepts it. Silence is never agreement, and nothing is melted, sold on or changed while you think about it. If you want a week and a conversation with your family first, say so and the offer is held open.

If you say no, everything comes back by tracked, signed-for post at our cost. You can also keep part of it: say which pieces you want back, the ring for instance, and a fresh written offer comes for the rest. That fresh offer is worked out again for what remains, because the first was priced as a whole, and the first offer stays open for you to go back to (clause 6.3). The ring comes home as it arrived, stones and all, and nobody rings you to talk you round.

When a return will be sent is confirmed in writing with your offer. Declined items go back to the address they came from, tracked and signed for, at our cost. The guide to declined offers and returns covers the rest.

The pieces we stop and flag

Some things are worth more as themselves than as metal. They are taken out of the lot first, and before any offer you are told which ones and why (clause 4.4). If a piece may be worth more to a specialist, an auction house or a dealer, we flag it and tell you so before any offer, and it comes back to you at our cost so you can take it there.

• Sovereigns, half sovereigns, Britannias and other coins, which are checked as coins before anything else. See gold coins and sovereigns.
• Early date letters, marks from the smaller assay offices, and pieces plainly made by hand long ago, including unmarked antique jewellery.
• Signed and designer work, with its signature, serial number, box and papers photographed.
• Any watch by a known maker, running or not, and antique pocket watches. See gold watches.
• Larger or certificated stones, old-cut diamonds, coloured stones and pearls. We do not value stones, so we suggest a jeweller or a gem laboratory.
• Gold boxes, cases, seals and fobs, and enamel, cameo and mourning jewellery, which can sell as objects.
• Anything that arrived as a complete set, which is usually worth more kept together.

We are one buyer, not a valuer, and we may miss something a specialist would see. If you suspect a piece is special, have it seen before you post it.

A person handles it, and where to begin

Assaypost is run by Angelina Clayfield, a sole trader. One person deals with your parcel from the moment it arrives until you are paid or your things are on their way home: opening it, listing it, checking it, writing the offer and answering your questions about it.

Begin by sending photographs. If you already know what you have, say so and you can skip that step; the postage is still arranged with you, in writing, before anything is sent. If the gold came from a relative's house or an estate, say so: an inherited lot can be paused while the family decides (clause 10.3), and probate and estate jewellery explains how. What happens to your parcel once it is posted covers every stage, and for anything that does not fit, ask a question.

What we buy, and what we leave out

Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

• Sovereigns and other coins are checked as coins before they are ever treated as scrap
• Early hallmarks, date letters, period construction and unmarked antique pieces are flagged to you before anything is priced as metal
• Signed or designer pieces with serial numbers, boxes or papers are flagged, because they may do better sold as they are
• Gold watches by a known maker, running or not, and antique pocket watches are flagged as watches first
• Larger or certificated stones, old-cut diamonds and pearls are flagged; we do not value stones
• Complete sets and heavy handmade work are flagged before they are considered as metal