Selling Your Bullion
Like any investment, trading in bullion involves two essential steps: buying and selling. Although it’s good to keep a portion of your investment portfolio in gold or silver, the reality is that you will sell your bullion at some point.
This guide walks you through selling your bullion on the open market. We hope you choose Silver.com as your partner in this transaction, but above all else, we want to ensure that you make the best-informed decision when you sell.
When to Sell Your Bullion
The first question about selling your bullion is when you should do so. The answer to that question depends on several factors, but ultimately, it boils down to your reasons for wanting or needing to sell.
You must first determine the time sensitivity of the sale. If you need currency to pay for other life expenses, you’ll be selling as soon as you can. In that case, there’s not much you can do about the market price you’ll accept, but that’s okay—the immediacies of life must come first.
However, if possible, try to sell online rather than in person. Online dealers generally offer better prices than retail stores because of reduced costs and the immediate competition in the market. If you can afford to wait a day or two to receive the proceeds, it will be to your benefit.
Similarly, if you’re selling because you perceive that your bullion is declining in value or is otherwise overinvested, you’ll probably want to move forward quickly. Though time is of the essence here, you can likely afford to shop around a little and find the best sales price.
However, if you are trying to sell to realize profits, then you should take your time and look for an apex in the market. Study the way that your metal(s)’ prices are moving and see if there are any patterns. Shop for the best deal you can find—it’s likely to be online, but turn over as many stones as you can before settling on a deal.
How to Get the Best Value for Your Bullion
If you’ve decided to sell your bullion, there are a couple of pieces of information you should gather. All metal products are not created equal, and you don’t want to make a costly mistake due to a lack of understanding.
The first thing to do is to know exactly what your bullion is. If you have ingots or casts of bullion, ensure they are as pure as you believe. Though there are home testing kits for different metals, the best way to complete this task is with a reputable jeweler or coin shop in your area, as these establishments have definitive tools to answer the question.
However, do not do this with coins. Shaving off a piece or drilling into them may harm their value as specific items. Instead, verify that your coins are authentic (if you haven’t already) and study the various forms of those coins to see if you have any rare versions in your collection. The last thing to do with a precious metal coin is to sell it without knowing exactly what it is. Your depth of research will pay dividends here.
The other related task before you move forward with the sale is to know if any of your pieces have risen or declined in popularity since you acquired them. For various reasons, different bullion pieces come into or fall out of vogue with investors, and you need to know where things stand.
How Buy-Back Pricing Works
No matter where, when, and how you choose to sell your bullion, you need to understand how buy-back pricing works.
The “price” of gold, silver, or other precious metals often discussed is the spot price. Though there are spot prices for both buying and selling (ask and bid), the spot price most commonly referenced is the amount that investors are willing to pay for a unit of that commodity at that very moment—the ask price.
For your purposes, the spot price is essentially the baseline figure for determining how much your metal will command from a dealer. On top of that, however, will be some amount of premium over the spot price—both for buying and selling. In other words, you are never going to be paying or receiving the spot price from any dealer—you are always dealing with larger numbers than that.
Where any dealer, online or retail, makes its money is within the spread between the price it will sell gold or silver to you and the price it will buy gold or silver from you. So, even though your sales price can, will, and should be higher than the spot price, it will never be as high as an equivalent purchase from the dealer of the same item(s).
That said, you definitely need to understand both current spot prices—ask (buying) and bid (selling)—before you enter negotiations to sell. You want to maximize your premium above those prices as much as you can. In fact, dealers like Silver.com may even offer “deals” on certain pieces at times.
How to Sell Your Bullion
Once you’ve settled on a price for your sale, the only thing left is the transfer of the bullion to the buyer and the transfer of the money to you.
If you’ve chosen to sell your bullion with a retailer, you’ll need to transport the bullion to the shop itself to complete the transaction. There is a downside to trading with an in-person shop—the security concern is both real and present. Likewise, you need to consider the physical toll of carrying your bullion. Be sure to take some precautions for both issues. If the retailer is reputable, they may be able to advise you in this regard.
If you’ve elected to sell to an online dealer like Silver.com, you won’t have the same concerns. Instead, you’ll receive private instructions on how to ship your gold, silver, or other bullion to the dealer’s secure storage facility. Follow the steps exactly as they are written to protect yourself. We understand that there may be some trepidation about mailing your metal away with a courier service, but with all the technology and procedures we offer, you will be able to get your money back in no more than 3 business days.
If you’re ready to get started or want more information about doing business with us on your bullion, head to our buyback page and give us a call. We’d love to help you achieve your goals.
