Selling gold online is about as easy a process as buying gold bullion online.
Yet there are some additional steps and processes to understand and ensure gold selling safety success. We cover Do’s and Don'ts, including some sell gold online best practices here. Also mentioned is how to safely ship gold bullion in the USA as well as how to yield the best prices and find trustworthy counterparties.
Selling Gold Online: How To’s?
The majority of the US population lives near large urban city centers (about 70% of us in fact). For city dwellers, you will likely be able to find various options (both online and somewhat local) when it comes time for you sell gold (if of course you ever decide to).
When selling gold online, especially large lots of gold bullion, trusted online gold bullion dealers are likely the safest and best way to achieve the best combination between yielding the highest gold bid prices possible while also ensuring success and safety for your online gold selling.
In order to find the best gold buying and selling bullion dealers, is by using one of the best hard to rig bullion dealer review websites is Gold Dealer Reviews. Before ever risking any of you capital with any gold bullion dealer, be sure to confirm their latest customer reviews are high and the business is delivering on agreements made.
When selling small lots of bullion (less than $1k USD) trusted local bullion dealers in city centers may also be a solid option given the speed of payment and lack of shipping fees associated with such a quick, same day sale. The downsides on local gold selling is you will likely yield less currency than you might if you sell gold online and driving away privacy concerns.
To sell gold to online gold bullion dealers, the process generally involves a phone call and an explicit description of the exact gold bullion product(s) you are seeking to sell. Most gold bullion dealers will be able to give you an immediate bid price offer on the gold bullion products you are selling either over phone (or even in online chats sometimes during operational hours).
If you have already shopped around, and the gold sell price and process works, most often you can ‘lock in’ that bid price with a credit or debit card for collateral reasons (this is done in case for some reason you don’t deliver the gold bullion you are selling, check the details according to the online gold bullion dealer’s policy for further information).
Sell Gold Online then Ship: Fully Insured Shipping Process?
Before shipping your gold bullion products, be certain to document (take photographs) of all the contents of the package before sealing the parcel.
Yes, this means actually taking pictures of all the gold bullion products and specific packing slip documents you are packing into the parcel. You want to do this in case of the small chance someone steals and or breaks into the parcel in route to its destination. Or perhaps in the rare case there is some discrepancy upon delivery of the gold parcel to the gold bullion dealer you are selling and shipping to.
Now let us discuss the most safe, fully insurable method to ship bullion parcels domestically in the USA.
Hint, hint…
For individuals (most not using 3rd party logistics professionals + insurance policies) never use FedEx, UPS, DHL, or other private parcel delivery services to ship bullion within the USA.
Why?!
All these aforementioned private shippers explicitly prohibit precious metals and thus gold bullion from being shipped in their terms of service (e.g. FedEx, UPS, DHL psst, use your computer’s find command to search and you can find either ‘precious metals’ or ‘bullion’ restrictions in each respective terms of service document backlinked).
Of course many gold bullion dealers including us use these aforementioned private delivery parcel services but we use third party insurance policies. Most individuals involved in the process of gold bullion sold back to gold bullion dealers do not have access to these insurance policies due to limited volume and size of most shipments (there are some exceptions we will allude to later on).
How to Ship Gold Bullion you sell Safely?
Use USPS Registered Mail for Gold Bullion Shipments within the USA
When shipping gold bullion in the mail within the USA, the USPS Registered Mail service remains the best general shipment option in terms of overall price, safety, value, and potential insurance coverage.
USPS Registered Mail can be insured for up to $50,000 USD per parcel at your local USPS Post Office. In order to ship with USPS Registered Mail you will need a few items to make a safe and compliant shipment:
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Have a fully filled out USPS Form 3806 before engaging a USPS agent which you can get at your local USPS office.
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Use a minimum of 2 boxes to package the gold bullion shipment. One smaller box inside to contain and protect the gold bullion packed within, another Priority Mail box for the parcel’s exterior. Notice for example how heavily packaged this small gold bullion parcel was from us to the customer. We suggest you mimic this kind of packaging methodology when using USPS Registered Mail services.
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Ensure there is no gold bullion content jingling by putting packed paper or styrofoam peanuts inside each gold coin tube’s top before securely taping them shut and against the interior box. For bullion bars, use tightly taped paper coverings or bubble wrapping between bars for secure silence.
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To make certain that gold bullion coin tube tops stay shut in transit, apply robust filament tape to secure each tube stays closed.
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All box USPS Registered Mail parcels should have 3″ wide gummed paper tape covering all corners of the outer box to ensure a tamper proof stamped seal on the outer edges of the parcel (e.g. like so and so).
As mentioned, most private shipment service providers like FedEx, DHL, and UPS explicitly prohibit individuals (not bullion businesses with direct operation agreements) from insuring precious metal bullion shipments. The main reason is due to potential theft.
USPS employees who are caught stealing Registered Mail parcels typically end up in Federal Prison and also forfeit their often coveted pension plans.
The US Postal Inspection Service even helps ensure that USPS Registered Mail will likely remain the safest best option for individuals shipping gold bullion fully insured through the domestic mail system.
Selling Gold Bullion Online Payment Process
Most online gold bullion dealers offer payments to individuals selling gold bullion to them via either mailed bank checks, bank wire transfers, even ACH. The payment options given by gold bullion dealers are typically dependant upon the size of gold bullion you sell to them.
The entire process from price ‘lock-in’, safe fully insured gold bullion shipping, secure gold bullion delivery, and final payment can be less than one week to a few weeks depending on logistics and market demand volumes.
Gold Bullion Selling Don’ts
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Do not simply take the first offer you get when you are looking to sell bullion.
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Do not sell your bullion on websites like Craigslist (dangerous and fraud riddled)
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Don’t sell your bullion to any dealer without performing proper due diligence on their business practices and organic customer reviews. Try using 3rd party review websites and even bullion forums ( reddit / facebook ) to hear and read as many new and mostly unbiased customer experiences as possible (many online gold bullion dealers monitor these forums as well, as always caveat emptor).
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Do not accept checks from any individual buyers as a bank check can be rescinded or cancelled only a few days after you have given your bullion to the buyer (potential fraud here is rampant).
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Do not simply sell based on the highest bid price you can find offered, consider your overall safety and the business track record of the potential counterparty you may be selling to.
Gold Bullion Selling Do’s
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Do shop around for the best bid prices for the bullion products you are selling.
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Do your research between both local and online bullion dealer bid prices.
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Do consider selling highly collectible bullion items on eBay but be sure to note that as of late 2017, eBay takes 10% or up to a maximum $750 USD of current bullion sales. Hence for example on a $10k bullion sale, eBay would take $750 USD meaning you would get back $9,250 USD barring all other listing upgrade fees. Of course these fee policies could change at any time so check and confirm for yourself before engaging such a gold bullion selling option.
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Do consider packaging and fully insuring shipping costs to the location where your bullion is being shipped and safely delivered to when sold.
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Do consider, during high demand, high bullion price premium bullion market surges to sell some high premium bullion items you own and quickly convert the proceeds into lower premium bullion products (thus acquiring more troy ounces) or divert the funds into other, more undervalued asset classes at the time.
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Do consider that often many high volume bullion dealers may have published live bid prices for the products they are bidding to buy. Yet note also these live bid price posting bullion dealers may have hidden tiered volume bid prices or minimum buyback thresholds. This means if you are only selling a small amount of bullion, you may not receive the bid price they have actively published on their website. Always inquire about additional fees potentially hidden (restocking, even assay fees, etc.).
If you want to know more about buying check our article on How to Buy Gold Bullion
If you are considering selling gold online (especially any gold bullion products you may own), please give our online gold bullion dealership a look. We have high legit customer reviews of our services and have successfully purchased millions of dollars of gold bullion from individual gold bullion owners since our company’s inception in 2012. We are a gold bullion industry leader, offering the highest buyback prices on the gold bullion products we sell.
Simply give our bullion team a call ( at 1.800.294.8732 ) to to discuss our current gold bullion buy back rates and procedures. For those selling gold bullion lots in large size, we can also possible provide you with convenient professional gold shipping options as well.
For more details on selling gold bullion to us here at SDBullion.com.
Thank you for visiting us here at SD Bullion.
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