How to sell silver?

[braumeister]

I have a considerable amount of silver (old coins, sterling silverware, jewelry, etc.).
With the current high spot prices, I would like to get rid of it, but can't find a good way.

I talked to a refiner with a local office, since that seems like a good avenue, but they said they are not buying now and won't until the spot price comes back down quite a bit.

I talked to a few local coin dealers, but none of them will only offer about a third to half of melt value on the coins and have no interest in anything else.

Never dealt with any of the online outfits that have you ship your stuff to them, so no knowledge there.

Does anyone have a suggestion beyond the places I mentioned?

 

[Koolau]

I have a considerable amount of silver (old coins, sterling silverware, jewelry, etc.).
With the current high spot prices, I would like to get rid of it, but can't find a good way.

I talked to a refiner with a local office, since that seems like a good avenue, but they said they are not buying now and won't until the spot price comes back down quite a bit.

I talked to a few local coin dealers, but none of them will only offer about a third to half of melt value on the coins and have no interest in anything else.

Never dealt with any of the online outfits that have you ship your stuff to them, so no knowledge there.

Does anyone have a suggestion beyond the places I mentioned?

If you know anyone who collects silver, they would likely be glad to buy at something under spot. Obviously, you don't want to advertise to the world that you have silver for sale.

This issue will likely be on-going until prices stabilize. No one wants to play "silver-musical-chairs" right now. Refiners are backed up. If they don't turn their stock and prices drop, they're possibly at a significant loss. SOME "popular" coin dealers ARE buying at something like a "fair price." As long as their buyers and sellers balance out over a couple of days time, they take less of a chance of being stuck with the "Old Maid."

Here is an example of a dealer who is both buying and selling. No idea about his spread but it may be in one of his recent YouTubes.

Because of the run-up, the value of my PMs are higher than I had planned in my AA. So I SHOULD sell. But just like the run up in equity prices, I've just let everything ride because I feel fairly secure that IF prices should return to "normal" I'll still be okay. Kinda nice to feed those inflated PM (and equity) numbers into my yearly NW spread sheet.

Were I on the "edge" financially or were I concerned about my stash (and its AA) I would diligently seek to lower my holdings. BUT at my age, I figure "I don't need the cash" and PMs aren't burning a hole in my lock box, so... Let it ride.

Best luck to you in dealing with a rather unique situation.

 

[athena53]

I had a good experience with Replacements, Ltd. a couple of years ago selling sterling silver flatware. You tell them what you have and they make an offer. It's been my experience with the "We Buy Gold" places that you get about 50% of the meltdown value of the gold- and of course if it's less than 24K you have to factor that in.

 

[braumeister]

I had a good experience with Replacements, Ltd. a couple of years ago selling sterling silver flatware. You tell them what you have and they make an offer. It's been my experience with the "We Buy Gold" places that you get about 50% of the meltdown value of the gold- and of course if it's less than 24K you have to factor that in.

I sold them some china a number of years ago, so I asked them about my silverware. They were not interested unless there were some special, rare items.

 

[GrayHare]

IRS tax reporting requirements for sales of silver change on March 15, 2026 so that might be causing more people to sell now.

 

[sengsational]

^ I wonder if that's really the case. Do you have a link or a way to get to the IRS description of the change?

 

[Sunset]

I think the big issue is people with Silver, see the nice record price and want to sell, but all the shops are basically full and after the last ~30% 1 day drop in price, nobody is going to offer spot price.

This points to a problem using PM as an investment, it can turn very illiquid at exactly the time a person wants to sell it when the price is high.

 

[djsander]

We recently sold gold and some silver jewelry. We did it at a jewelry store. We had it sitting in the safety deposit box for near 3 decades and decided we were never going to wear it and the kids wouldn't want it. The store would only buy jewelry. You might want to check with some local pawn shops as well. I’ve heard multiple times that many of the coin and gold/silver buyers are holding off due too much volatility in prices.

 

[AudiDudi]

Here's a video talking about the Mar 15 changes.

 

[Sunset]

^^^^^^^^ Funny this fellow suggests people structure their buying to avoid reporting....

 

[joesxm3]

Grok disagrees with what that AI video guy is saying.

 

[Slim11]

I had a good experience with Replacements, Ltd. a couple of years ago selling sterling silver flatware. You tell them what you have and they make an offer. It's been my experience with the "We Buy Gold" places that you get about 50% of the meltdown value of the gold- and of course if it's less than 24K you have to factor that in.

Replacements gave me a lesser price then if I scrapped it.

 

[Slim11]

Call around to bigger jewelry stores. Mine buys anything gold and silver for a percentage under spot price. ( I forget if its t0 or 10 percent.) Then see what percent silver you have. Weigh it, and bring it in. Direct peices are diffrent percentages. If its jewelry, or higher quality, it will get sold as jewelry instead of scrap melt. So like designers, Tiffany, etc. Good luck. Or you can wait for it to go back up! I missed the boat on my silverware set. I just couldnt decide!

 

[Aerides]

I sell to a company that requires me to have a business (I do), Elemetal. They aren't buying either, they halted a month or so back. Rio Grande also stopped buying last year. I don't think many places want to touch it right now due to the volatility.

 

[Koolau]

Anyone recall the "scene" back when the Hunts tried to corner the silver market? The little places buying silver had lines out the door. People were selling anything silver they could lay their hands on including those 1ozt commemoratives that cost them 3X the silver price (at the time they bought). The buyers (literally) threw them into buckets along with the silver rounds and bars. It was wild!

 

[FIREd]

Historically, I used precious metal dealers to sell silver coins and bars and pawnshops to sell silverware. The dealers paid ~5-10% below spot and the pawnshops quite a bit less than that (silverware is hard to resell so they were sending it to be melted). I’ve no idea if they still buy silver at the moment.

 

[Winemaker]

DW sold some oddball silver ware pieces a few weeks ago a local jeweler, about $800 worth. She didn't sell at the peak, but pretty darn close.

 

[Koolau]

This Youtube video gives some info on why things are so complicated now. Briefly, the outstanding contracts on COMEX - though typically never delivered - now seem likely that they WILL stand for delivery, but there isn't enough physical silver to do so.

Liberty and Finance

Liberty and Finance LLC Founder and CEO, Dunagun Kaiser, built a 35+ year engineering career with Fortune 100 companies solving challenges in extreme material handling, industrial automation, and applied physical sciences. He has hosted the Liberty and Finance / Reluctant Preppers channels...

www.youtube.com

Here is the INVESTOPEDIA article on COMEX:

COMEX: Metals Trading, Market History & Key Futures Explained

Discover how COMEX serves as the leading metals trading market, its historic 1994 NYMEX merger, and key details about gold, silver, and copper futures contracts.

www.investopedia.com

 

[Spock]

You "should" be able to sell 99.9x silver at around spot-3 ... scruffy Eagles for spot-2. 90% Junk for spot-10. Although those premiums are dropping quickly. Coin shops are reporting 10 to 1 sellers to buyers right now.

Refineries don't want to touch anything less than 99+% stuff right now and they have started taking 4-6 weeks to payout, putting dealers in a cash flow bind as well as exposing them to the market volatility.

I'll still buy 90% Junk so long as it's the old designs... I can't read the dates so I stick to Franklin/walker halves and Mercury dimes. I like Morgan dollars but ebay fakes slow those down a bit.

 

[MichaelB]

Here's a video talking about the Mar 15 changes.

This link is misleading and a good example of why “naked links” with no explanation are not helpful.

There is no change in taxation of precious metals, but there is a change in IRS reporting requirements.

 

[AudiDudi]

This link is misleading and a good example of why “naked links” with no explanation are not helpful.

There is no change in taxation of precious metals, but there is a change in IRS reporting requirements.

Feel free to delete it. I was responding to another post.

 

[ransil]

I sold mine to some guy in a forum I was on for 20 plus years, I calculated the value of each coin in a spreadsheet and sent it to him, I cover shipping, he paid spot price on the day I sent the spreadsheet.
he is winning ....I sold last June ..we used Venmo for payment.

 

[Midpack]

I just sold my sisters valuable jewelry a couple weeks ago, mostly gold and silver. The antique store I went to buys gold and silver (prominently stated on their storefront), they gave me 80% of melt value. I'm OK with them making 20%. Guess I got lucky.

 

[RxMan]

I’m tempted to sell some silver. I plan to use the online dealer that I bought from multiple times. As of now, they are quoting prices close to spot. I will call them next week to confirm the sell price and to get details on how to complete the sale.

 

[steakis4closers]

IRS tax reporting requirements for sales of silver change on March 15, 2026 so that might be causing more people to sell now.

Is this the same for gold