Where to Sell — and What Each Buyer Really Pays
Every buyer's offer is some percentage of melt value. Once you've run your items through a calculator, this page tells you what percentage each type of buyer typically pays, and how to keep the spread small.
The payout ladder
| Buyer | Typical payout (% of melt) | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn shops | 40–60% | Same-day cash, small lots | Flat-dollar offers with no scale in sight |
| Local jewelers | 60–80% | Karat jewelry, quick and face-to-face | Deducting stone weight without itemizing |
| Coin & bullion dealers | 75–95% | Junk silver, bullion, coin lots | Buying collectible dates “as bullion” |
| Mail-in refiners | 85–95% | Larger scrap lots (100 g+) | Lowball post-assay revisions — use one with a return guarantee |
Five questions that protect you
1. “What percentage of melt do you pay?”
Any serious buyer answers instantly. A blank look or a flat-dollar answer is your cue to leave.
2. “Can you weigh it in front of me, in grams?”
Scales at the counter, visible display. Troy/avoirdupois games disappear when everything is in grams.
3. “Are you pricing any of these as collectible?”
Better-date coins and signed jewelry deserve more than metal price. If the buyer says everything is scrap, get a second opinion on anything old or unusual.
4. “What are your deductions?”
Stones, solder, steel springs, knife-handle cement: legitimate deductions, but they should be itemized, not hidden inside a low number.
5. “Is the quote locked to today's spot?”
Metal prices move. A quote should reference the spot price at the moment of sale, not last week's.
Getting more than melt
Three categories routinely beat scrap pricing: pre-1933 US gold (always carries a premium — see gold coin values), better-date silver coins (check dates before bulk-selling — see coin melt), and signed designer jewelry, which can sell on the secondary market for multiples of metal. When in doubt, a coin shop appraisal or a second offer costs you an hour and can change the price class entirely.
MeltCheck doesn't buy metal, and no buyer paid to be in the table above: those payout ranges describe categories, not companies. Where we link to a specific buyer and earn a commission, the link says so on the spot, and every such relationship is listed on the disclosure page. A partner that pays badly still gets described as paying badly.