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I have several very heavy large silver serving trays, 55 pieces of silver plate and sterling silver utensils, and another 30 pieces of assorted sterling and silver on copper pieces. I have about 30 pounds of this stuff. Watched your videos and your website is very good. I need to either sell for scrap or melt to refine the various pieces. I am just tired of storing this stuff. What’s my next step?  Thank you for your informative videos. From Matt in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Hi Matt,

Glad to hear that you watched the videos about valuing sterling silverware.  Since you watched them, you now know that the pieces that are silver plated over copper have very little value and that some of your other items may be weighted or contain parts made from stainless steel.  Based on this, we would recommend sending in only your items that are clearly marked 925 sterling silver, sterling, or 800 and holding out any plated items, and removing the weighting materials from any items.

For the benefit of all who read this, silver plated copper pieces are not good candidates for precious metal refining as they contain very little silver.  If you have a lot of this material, you may be better off selling these to a scrap metal dealer. If you have pieces that are not marked sterling, you may have to conduct some research on your own to determine if they are in fact sterling. We would recommend first running a strong magnet over your items and if the magnet sticks to anything, they are not sterling. Our testing equipment would determine this, but we would hate to see people pay to ship in worthless items.

If you see any of the following markings on your pieces, chances are they are not sterling silver and you can take them out of the refining pile. These markings indicate something other than sterling such a plated or nickel silver.

Nickel Silver – or Alpaca
Silvertone
Plated Silver – Marked as EP or EPNS
G – German Silver

To get a rough estimate on what your sterling silver items are worth, make a pile of items that you know are sterling and that are not weighted. Weigh these items together and then you can use our silver value calculator to find the market value of these items. You can send all your items into our refinery and we will process and evaluate all the items. We typically pay 75% of the fine silver content by weight for your items. On your packing slip, please indicate the following options:

• If you would like us return any non sterling items back to you.
• If you would like us to call you before refining.

Otherwise, we will refine all the available sterling silver and recycle any metal that is not precious. If you would like more information on silver refining please visit the following resources:

Refining Sterling Silver Flatware Information
Finding the Value of Sterling Silver Video

I have a good amount of 925 silver jewelry, as well as some 14k gold, and some 22k gold from India. I may be going into the gold buying business and I have a question. What you are paying per troy oz of each? I know it depends upon the daily precious metals market, but is there a standard percentage of that you pay? Please advise, Thanks! From Jack in Birmingham, Alabama.

Hi Jack,

We do work with many people and stores that run gold buying businesses so we may be able to help you. As you noted in your question, the market price of silver and gold will have a major influence on how much we can pay for gold and silver items. Because these prices fluctuate daily, we use the commodity price of the day that we receive the material at our refining facility.

On 925 sterling silver items we typically pay 75% of the fine silver content by weight because the value of silver is relatively low when compared to gold and yet the time and energy involved in refining the material and running the transaction through our system is similar. Since gold is trading for over $1,000 UDS per troy ounce all of this year, we can pay a higher percentage based on the amount you send and the purity of your items. Keep in mind that it takes about the same amount of energy to refine 1 ounce of gold as it does to refine 3 ounces, so it is more cost efficient for us to refine larger quantities at one time. For estimation purposes, we typically pay out according to the schedule below:

• 70% of the fine gold value by weight for less than 0.5 fine ounce of gold
• 80% for less than 1 fine ounce
• 85% for 1-2 fine ounces
• 90% for more than 2 fine ounce

We do offer slightly higher returns to many of our customers who run gold buying businesses and meet our frequency and volume minimums. Arch is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and maintains fast, professional service in an industry where ethical business practices are many times questionable. We are here for our customers to answer questions on our blog and are always just a phone call away.

Good luck in your new business.

If you’ve seen this morning’s financial news you probably saw that the market price of gold touched $1,300.00 U.S. dollars per troy ounce today and many of you have been asking me if it a good time to sell gold.  The answer to this question is that it’s a better time to sell than when it was at $1,200 per ounce, but realistically, one can only speculate as to where the price of gold or any commodity will go in the future.

As a general rule, investors turn to gold and other precious metals when there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the values of traditional currencies and investments.  There is currently a great deal of speculation that the U.S. Government is trying to keep the value of the dollar low in order to make U.S. exports more competitive in a global economy in the hopes that it will help its economy and create more jobs.

The general state of the economy, low interest rates and overall anxiety related to government debt lead people to consider safer, more tangible investments like gold and silver.  As a result, the spot price of gold has risen and some economists don’t see it stopping here.  David Rosenberg for one has been quoted as saying “Forget Gold $1300, It’s Going To $3000.” See Business Insider.

Other economists subscribe to the theory that gold tends to be an investment that people turn to in uncertain times and warn that if the world economy stabilizes, gold will pull back.

So back the question of whether it is a good time to sell gold?

Since we refine gold and try to not get involved in speculating on gold prices, I would say that compared to historical prices, it is a good time to sell, but if gold prices to continue to inch upward you may want to wait.  In other words…I don’t know.

Hello, I have been in the rare coin and paper money industry for some time and I have in the past few months started to buy scrap jewelry and other “unwanted” items from people all across Northeastern United States. I was wondering if I could have the scrap gold items melted down by a refining company and receive coins, bars, or a “brick” of the refined metal in return? Thanks so much. – Craig from Hershey, Pennsylvania

Hi Craig,

Because we are a gold refiner and not a gold mint, we typically pay for scrap gold with cash (technically a check…but you get the point). Unfortunately the raw gold generated during the refining process is not marked, stamped or hallmarked.

Given this, we sometimes return payments in the form of silver or gold minted coins or bars instead of cash, but there are additional fees involved. By using minted coins or bars, there will be no questions to the value of your gold or silver and you will be able to hold the items as investments.

I am a jewelry retailer and have about 20+ pounds of outdated styles of sterling silver jewelry that I would like to melt and sell for cash. Can you handle this quantity? Thanks! From Jack in Providence, Rhode Island

Hi Jack,

As one of the largest silver refineries in the United States, we have the capacity to handle truckloads full of material, so 20 pounds will not be an issue. We work with many jewelers who are clearing out tarnished silver and outdated styles to make room for new merchandise. Along with high returns, we send out fast payments, usually within 1 – 2 business days after receiving the material. With that large quantity we can pay you for 80% of the silver value, for less than 20 lbs we will pay 75% of the silver value.

Hope this information helps!