So I’m considering selling some of my old silver scrap lying around for a bit of extra cash, but I don’t want to get ripped off or gouged. I know anyone who buys precious metals go by the market spot price on any given metal so I checked the spot price on silver when the market closed today and it was going for $30.40 per ounce. I know that metal weights are different in that they use troy ounces (31.1 grams) and I did the math and sterling silver is going for $0.98 cents per gram. So I decided to weigh my silver… turns out I have 981.6 grams of sterling silver which adds up to 31.56 troy ounces, which with a little math applied means it’s worth, based on the spot price which I know can change hourly, about $961.95. That’s a nice chunk of change. So now my actual and very important question: how much or what percentage or what cut (however you want to phrase it) do the buyers usually take? It seems to be a closely guarded secret and varies significantly from place to place. I know that the buyer has to pay for the refining if the metal has any extra allowing, like solder, but trying to offer me $40.00 for 6.07 troy ounces of silver (about $185.00) worth of refined sterling silver a few months ago when the spot price was roughly the same seems like an outright blasphemous rip off of more than 50% of it’s worth. I forgot to mention that I’m a jeweler so you can bet I didn’t sell my silver for $40 bucks. Scandalous. What’s the decent industry standard deduction for selling precious metals? Thanks in advance!
There is no “industry standard”. You can deal with a refiner directly if you want, but you have to wait to get your money. But that will probably get you the highest price. One that I know is honest is linked below. They will pay you 90% of the silver value on sterling but they do not accept silver-plated items and they do not accept WEIGHTED sterling items. Since you’re a jeweler you could strip the sterling out of the weighted items like knives, candle holders, etc.
Use that as your benchmark and then decide if you are comfortable taking less in order to sell it locally for a lower price but one that gives cash on the spot. I don’t know anyone else who pays 90% of silver value on sterling with zero added fees. In my town I would be offered 80% of silver value on sterling.