---
title: "Sell gold and silver online, without going anywhere"
description: "Sell gold and silver online in the UK: photographs first, a prepaid tracked label, one written offer, and nothing sold until you say yes. No shop visit."
canonical: "https://assaypost.co.uk/sell-online"
published: "2026-09-07"
modified: "2026-09-25"
language: "en-GB"
publisher: "Assaypost"
---

# Sell gold and silver online, without going anywhere

Updated 25 September 2026.

Selling online to Assaypost means the whole thing happens from your kitchen table: no shop, no appointment, no stranger at the door. Six steps, from a free look at your photographs to payment or a free return. Nothing is sold until you say yes, and silence is never taken as a yes.

**In short:** Selling gold or silver online in the UK means doing it by post, and you never have to meet anybody. You send photographs first and get a rough idea back, free. If you go ahead, a prepaid tracked label comes to you. Your parcel is photographed unopened, then every piece is listed, weighed and tested, and one written offer covers the lot. Accept and you are paid by bank transfer; decline and everything comes back tracked at our cost.

**At a glance**

- **Shop to visit:** none; all of it by post
- **Step one:** photographs, before anything moves
- **Your label:** prepaid and tracked, sent to you
- **On arrival:** photographed sealed, then listed
- **Saying nothing:** never counts as a yes

## Ask before you post anything

The hard part of selling by post is not the price. It is the morning you hand a padded box of your mother's rings across a Post Office counter and walk out without them. This page is written for that morning: every stage in order, what is recorded at each one, and the two points where the decision is yours and nobody else's.

Nobody should post a box of valuables to find out whether it was worth posting. Send photographs first, on WhatsApp. A person looks at them and writes back with what the marks suggest, what is probably not precious metal at all, and whether the lot justifies the trip to the counter. It is free, it commits you to nothing, and sometimes the answer saves you the trip altogether.

This is also the point to mention anything unusual. Say if the lot came out of an estate, if one piece matters to you and should be flagged rather than bought, or if there are forty items and you have photographed six. The reply is in writing, so you can read it again, or show it to somebody else, before you decide.

## The whole thing, in six steps

1. **Ask**: You send photographs and get a rough idea back, free and with no obligation. If the answer is that it is not worth sending, that is the end of it and nothing has left your house.
2. **Label**: If you want to go ahead, you request a prepaid tracked label. It comes to you with a reference number that follows the parcel, and a printed pack with a numbered tamper-evident bag can be sent instead if you would rather seal your items into one.
3. **Post**: You pack it, take it to a Post Office counter and keep the receipt. Tell us roughly what is in it first, so the right service is used ([clause 7.4](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-7-4)). There is no deadline, and a label you never use costs you nothing.
4. **Test**: The parcel is photographed unopened, then booked in against your reference. Every piece is separated, numbered, photographed, weighed on a calibrated balance and tested.
5. **Offer**: One written offer for the lot comes to you, with the list of everything that arrived beside it. The list shows what is being bought, what is not, and what has been set aside as worth more whole.
6. **Decide**: Accept and you are paid by bank transfer to an account in your own name. Decline and the lot is posted back, tracked, at our cost; ask for part of it back and a fresh written offer is made for the rest. Say nothing and nothing is sold.

The same six steps run whether you are sending one ring or a house's worth of cutlery. [How it works](https://assaypost.co.uk/how-it-works) covers the same ground with the paperwork alongside it, and what is bought, metal by metal, is on [selling gold](https://assaypost.co.uk/sell-gold) and [selling silver](https://assaypost.co.uk/sell-silver).

## Getting it there, and what protects it on the way

Your label arrives by email with the service it uses and the level of cover that applies to your parcel stated in writing beside it. No carrier figure of ours appears anywhere on this site, because no carrier account has been opened yet, and inventing one would be exactly the sort of reassurance that is worth nothing when something goes missing.

Whatever the service, the risk in the post is ours in both directions: from the moment the counter accepts your parcel, and on any return until it is delivered to you ([clause 7.2](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-7-2)). If something is lost, what you are owed is what the items were worth, and it is not capped at whatever the carrier pays us ([clause 12.4](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-12-4)).

- Pack it so nothing rattles. A rigid inner box, padding on all six sides, and a plain outer with nothing on it that says what is inside.
- Nothing on the outside should name a metal, a buyer or a value. A parcel that announces itself is a parcel worth stealing.
- Hand it over at the counter and keep the receipt with its tracking number. It is how a parcel is traced, though losing it costs you nothing you are owed ([clause 7.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-7-3)).
- Photograph the contents and the sealed parcel yourself before you go. It takes a minute, and if anything is ever disputed your photograph counts as evidence alongside ours ([clause 8.5](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-8-5)).
- If the lot is worth more than one parcel should sensibly carry, ask first and a split is arranged. Separate parcels are separate lots unless you ask in writing for the first to be held until the second arrives ([clause 3.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-3-3)).

The packing rules in full, what to do if a parcel is delayed or turns up damaged, and how a claim is made are on the [security and insurance](https://assaypost.co.uk/security-and-insurance) page. The guide to [posting gold and silver safely](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/posting-gold-and-silver-safely) walks through the packing itself, box by box.

## When it arrives: photographed first, opened second

Your parcel is photographed before anybody touches the tape: the outer packaging as it came off the van, the label, the tracking number and any seal, all still intact. That photograph is our record of the state the parcel was in when it reached us. It is taken whether the box looks perfect or looks as though it has been kicked across a depot.

Only then is it opened, and the contents are laid out and gone through piece by piece. Everything is separated and given a number. Each item is photographed on its own and weighed on a calibrated balance, and its marks are read under magnification before any test is run. Stones, steel blades and springs, glass liners and wooden handles are identified and left out of the weight, by estimate where they are still attached, rather than quietly weighed along with the rest.

The result is a list of what arrived, in plain language, and you get it whatever happens next. It answers the question that makes people nervous about posting: how do I know what you actually received? It is written down, item by item, with photographs, before anyone puts a figure on any of it. If it does not match what you sent, we stop and write to you before anything else is done ([clause 8.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-8-3)).

## One offer, for the lot, in writing

We price the lot, not the gram. What reaches you is a single figure for everything being bought, in writing, next to the list of what it covers and the list of what is coming home regardless. There is nothing to work out and nothing to check against a moving number; the offer is a decision you can take at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.

It names the things that are not being bought, and why: the gilt brooch that is not gold, the electroplated servers, the ring you asked to have flagged rather than sold. Anything held back as worth more whole is named too. A question about any line goes to the person who had your things in their hands.

No period has been set for how long an offer stands, so no figure for it appears here or on the [offers, returns and payment](https://assaypost.co.uk/offers-returns-and-payment) page. Nothing on this site tells you to decide by a particular day. If you need longer, say so and the offer is held open, with no reason asked for ([clause 10.2](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-10-2)).

## Yes, no, or nothing at all

Accept an offer and payment goes by bank transfer to an account in your own name, never to anybody else's. Decline it and the lot is repacked and posted back to the address it came from, tracked, at our cost. Do nothing and nothing is sold, and no email arrives to say the offer has been taken as accepted ([clause 6.2](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-6-2)). If it lapses, your things stay here untouched until you ask for a fresh offer or for them back.

You can also keep part of it. Say you want your grandmother's ring back and a fresh written offer comes for the broken chains and the rest. It is a new offer rather than a share of the first, so it can be lower than you would expect, and the first stays open for you to go back to ([clause 6.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-6-3)). The ring comes home as it arrived, and nothing is melted, altered or sold on while a decision is outstanding.

No number of working days has been set for sending a declined lot back out, so none is quoted here. What will not happen is a phone call trying to change your mind, a second improved offer to keep you talking, or any suggestion that declining has cost you something. See [declined offers and returns](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/declined-offers-and-returns).

## Anything worth more whole is stopped before it is touched

The easiest money in this trade is a sovereign bought as scrap gold from somebody who did not know what a sovereign was. So coins, early hallmarks, signed work, running watches, certificated stones and complete sets are pulled out of a lot first. You are told which and why before anything is priced. If an auction, a coin dealer or a specialist looks likely to do better for you, that is what the offer says, and you can take the piece back to try it.

This costs us the pieces that would otherwise be the most profitable part of a parcel, which is precisely why it is worth writing down. The pages on [gold coins and sovereigns](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/gold-coins-and-sovereigns), [gold watches](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/gold-watches) and [silver tea sets and hollowware](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/silver-tea-sets-and-hollowware) go through what gets stopped in each. The guide to [antique silver against scrap](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/silverware-antique-or-scrap) shows how that judgement is made.

## Who handles it, and why you are asked for identification

One person takes your parcel from the moment it is booked in to the moment you are paid or your things are back on the doormat. They open it, list it, test it, write the offer and reply when you ask a question about it. Nobody here can pass the lot to a colleague who has never seen it, because there is no queue to pass it into.

Before a first payment you will be asked to prove who you are and that the bank account is yours. That is not suspicion of you; it is what stops somebody else selling your things, and it is part of the anti-money-laundering and stolen-goods obligations set out on the [responsible sourcing and AML](https://assaypost.co.uk/responsible-sourcing-and-aml) page.

- A photograph of one government-issued photo identity document, checked against the name on the bank account and deleted on the schedule in the privacy notice.
- Payment only into an account in the seller's own name, so proceeds cannot be routed to a third party.
- Plain questions about where an unusual item came from, and for inherited pieces something showing you are entitled to sell them, such as a grant of probate or a letter from the executor.
- Cooperation with the police where an item is reported stolen, which is a good reason to keep your own receipts and photographs of anything valuable.

Which documents are accepted, and why each one is asked for, is set out in the guide to [identity and provenance checks](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/identity-and-provenance-checks).

## If something goes wrong

- **The parcel is late, or stops moving**: We check the tracking, raise it with the carrier and keep it open until it is resolved. The risk in the post is ours, so any claim is ours to make, and you are told what is happening rather than left to chase it ([clause 7.2](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-7-2)).
- **Something you sent is not in the box**: The photograph of the unopened parcel and the list made on opening are compared with what you said you sent. If they differ, we stop and write to you before any offer is written ([clause 8.3](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-8-3)), and your own photograph counts as evidence alongside ours.
- **A weight does not match yours**: Kitchen and luggage scales are rarely reliable on small weights. Your list shows the weight from a calibrated balance and a photograph of the item on it, so the two can be compared rather than argued about.
- **It turns out not to be precious metal**: The list says so and names the test that showed it. The item is posted back with anything else you decline, or on its own, and there is nothing to pay either way.
- **You change your mind**: Ask for everything back at any point before you accept, even before the offer is made, and it comes home tracked at our cost ([clause 6.4](https://assaypost.co.uk/terms#clause-6-4)). No reason is needed and none is asked for.
- **You are unhappy with how it was handled**: The [complaints](https://assaypost.co.uk/complaints) page sets out three stages and who owns each. Because Assaypost is one person, it also says plainly when an independent valuation at our cost is open to you instead.

## What we buy, and what we leave out

### We buy

- Gold jewellery of any carat, hallmarked or not, whole or broken
- [Gold coins and sovereigns](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/gold-coins-and-sovereigns), bars and [dental gold](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/dental-gold)
- Sterling, Britannia and continental silver, including [cutlery](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/silver-cutlery-and-flatware), hollowware and jewellery
- Silver coins struck before 1947, and silver bars
- [Platinum and palladium](https://assaypost.co.uk/what-we-buy/platinum-and-palladium) jewellery and scrap
- Gold watches, assessed as watches before their cases are weighed
- Mixed, unsorted boxes where nobody knows what is in them

### We do not buy

- Gold-plated, rolled-gold and gold-filled items; vermeil is bought as the silver under it
- Electroplate marked [EPNS, EP, A1 and the like](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/silver-plate-epns-a1-and-sheffield-plate)
- Stainless steel, costume jewellery and base metal
- Loose stones sent without their settings
- Items you do not own or cannot account for

## Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

- Coins are looked at as coins before they are ever considered as metal
- Hallmarked antiques and early pieces go in front of someone who knows them
- Signed and designer work with its papers is assessed for resale as it stands
- Watches are valued as watches, movement and maker considered first
- Certificated or larger stones are considered in their own right

## Questions sellers ask

### Do I have to go anywhere or meet anyone?

No. The whole thing runs by post and in writing, and identification is done with documents rather than in person. There is no shop, no counter and no appointment to keep.

### How will I know my parcel got there?

You have the tracking from your own receipt, and you are told when it is booked in. The photograph taken of it unopened, with the label and any seal intact, is part of the record you are shown.

### Can I see what you received before there is any offer?

Yes, and that is the order things happen in deliberately. The list of items, with photographs and weights, is made before anybody puts a figure on the lot, so you can check it against your own memory of what you packed.

### What if I disagree with the offer?

Say so. Ask about any item on the list and the person who handled it will answer. If you still disagree, decline the whole lot and it comes back tracked at no charge. Or ask for just the pieces in question, and a fresh written offer is made for the rest with the first still open. Declining is free and it is not held against you.

### Why do you need my identification?

So that payment reaches the owner of the items and nobody else, and to meet anti-money-laundering and stolen-goods obligations. The documents are handled under the privacy notice and deleted on the schedule set out there.

### How long does the whole thing take?

No turnaround figures have been set, so this site gives none rather than quoting one it cannot hold to. What you get instead is being told where your parcel has got to and what is happening to it at each stage.

## Sources

1. [GOV.UK — CMA case: purchase of gold by post, unfair contract terms](https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/purchase-of-gold-by-post-unfair-contract-terms) (accessed 7 September 2026)
2. [GOV.UK — Money laundering regulations: high value dealer registration](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-high-value-dealer-registration) (accessed 7 September 2026)
3. [GOV.UK — Unfair commercial practices (CMA207)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unfair-commercial-practices-cma207/unfair-commercial-practices) (accessed 7 September 2026)

## Related

- [Send photos first](https://assaypost.co.uk/photo-estimate)
- [Request your postal pack](https://assaypost.co.uk/postal-pack)
- [How it works](https://assaypost.co.uk/how-it-works)
- [Sell gold](https://assaypost.co.uk/sell-gold)
- [Sell silver](https://assaypost.co.uk/sell-silver)
- [Inherited jewellery](https://assaypost.co.uk/inherited-jewellery)
- [House clearance](https://assaypost.co.uk/house-clearance-gold-and-silver)
- [Security and insurance](https://assaypost.co.uk/security-and-insurance)
- [Offers, returns and payment](https://assaypost.co.uk/offers-returns-and-payment)
- [Testing and XRF](https://assaypost.co.uk/testing-and-xrf)
- [Responsible sourcing and AML](https://assaypost.co.uk/responsible-sourcing-and-aml)
- [Complaints](https://assaypost.co.uk/complaints)
- [Posting gold and silver safely](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/posting-gold-and-silver-safely)
- [Declining an offer and getting your items back](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/declined-offers-and-returns)
- [Identity and provenance checks when you sell gold or silver](https://assaypost.co.uk/guides/identity-and-provenance-checks)

## Start with photographs

- [Send a photo on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/447369296063?text=Hello.%20I'd%20like%20to%20sell%20some%20gold%20and%20silver%20by%20post.%20Sending%20photos%20now.)
- [Request a prepaid label](https://assaypost.co.uk/postal-pack)
- Telephone [07369 296063](tel:07369296063), 6am to 10pm, seven days a week