A bullion sale moves through four stages: a preliminary quote based on weight and spot price, physical testing to confirm purity, a final offer calculated against the day’s market, and payment. Most sellers only see the last step, which is why the middle of the process feels opaque and, for many first-timers, mildly stressful.
The first contact sets expectations, not the price
A phone call or online form gets you a range, not a number, because no dealer can price metal they haven’t held. What they can tell you is the current spot price for gold, silver, platinum or palladium, and roughly what percentage of that spot price they typically pay for the type of item you describe. A generic 1-ounce gold bar and a set of scrap jewelry chains get very different treatment even at the same spot price, because one requires almost no verification work and the other requires melting or assay.
This stage exists mostly to filter out mismatches. If someone describes gold-plated costume jewelry as bullion, a five-minute conversation saves everyone a wasted trip. Dealers who skip this step and insist on an in-person visit for everything are usually optimizing for foot traffic, not for your time.
Testing decides what the metal actually is
Testing is the part sellers worry about most, and it usually takes minutes, not hours. A dealer will typically check weight on a calibrated scale, look for hallmarks or mint stamps, and run an XRF (X-ray fluorescence) scan or acid test on anything without a clear, trusted stamp. Recognized government-mint coins and bars from major refiners rarely need destructive testing because their weight and purity are already certified by the mint or refiner itself.
Where it gets slower is unmarked or suspect material: old dental gold, mixed scrap, or bars from refiners nobody recognizes. Here the dealer has to establish purity before they can even begin pricing, and that can mean sending a sample out or using more than one testing method to cross-check the result. A seller who understands this in advance stops reading delay as suspicion.
The math behind the offer is not a secret, just unfamiliar
The final offer is spot price times weight times purity, minus a margin the dealer needs to cover refining, testing and resale risk. That margin is the actual business of buying bullion, and it varies by item type, current market volatility and how liquid that specific product is for the dealer to resell. A widely traded coin like an American Eagle typically carries a tighter margin than an obscure foreign bar simply because the dealer can turn it over faster.
This is also where sellers should expect, and ask for, a written breakdown: weight, purity, spot price used, and the percentage applied. A dealer unwilling to show that math is asking you to trust a number you can’t check. Paradigm Experts walks through this breakdown as part of its process, and has published more on sell bullion pricing mechanics for readers who want the fuller version before they call anyone.
One point worth stating plainly: spot price alone is a poor way to judge whether an offer is fair. Two dealers can quote the identical spot price and still differ by several percentage points once their margin is applied, and that gap matters far more on a large sale than the daily spot fluctuation most sellers fixate on.
Payment happens after agreement, not before
Payment is the shortest step and the one with the least ambiguity: once you accept the final offer, funds move by wire, check or cash depending on the amount and the dealer’s policy, usually within the same business day for smaller transactions. Larger sales, particularly those crossing federal reporting thresholds, involve identification and paperwork that has nothing to do with the dealer’s discretion and everything to do with regulatory requirements every legitimate buyer follows.
The paperwork trail is a feature, not friction. A sale with no record is a sale you can’t easily dispute later if a weight or purity figure turns out to be wrong. Sellers who ask for copies of the test results and the pricing worksheet at the time of sale rarely regret it, and dealers who resist providing them are worth a second look before you sign anything.
