Compare
Selling It Yourself Online vs. Selling to Us
You will get a higher headline price online. Whether you keep it is a different question — and we sell on eBay ourselves, so this is not a guess.
No appointment needed. No obligation to sell.
Live metal market
This is the market your offer is calculated against — not a chart printed last week. Your items are tested and weighed at the counter, and the arithmetic is done in front of you.
Fort Lauderdale
3562 N Ocean Blvd, Suite B
Galt Ocean Mile
Walk in
Mon–Fri 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
No appointment needed
Side by side
| Category | Selling to us | Selling It Yourself Online |
|---|---|---|
| Headline price | A buyer's price | Retail. Online wins here |
| Fees | None | Platform and payment fees off the top |
| Shipping and insurance | None | Yours to arrange and pay for |
| Time | Twenty minutes | Listing, questions, packing, waiting |
| Chargeback risk | None | Real, and precious metals are a known target |
| Certainty | Cash today | It might not sell |
| Best for | Scrap, mixed lots, anything valued by weight | Collectible or branded pieces. Online wins here |
Every row marked “wins here” is a genuine advantage of the alternative. A comparison table that gives the other side nothing is not a comparison, it is an advertisement.
Their case
When selling it yourself online is the right call
Where they genuinely win
Selling it yourself is genuinely right when a piece is worth more than its metal. A signed designer item, a collectible watch or a good period piece can reach a collector who will pay well above scrap, and no metals buyer will ever match that number.
Where it goes wrong
It stops making sense for plain scrap. Fees, shipping, insurance and your own time eat the margin, and gold attracts a disproportionate share of payment disputes and non-delivery claims. For broken chain and odd earrings the effort is rarely repaid.
The mechanics
How the money actually works
Selling privately is the only route on this list where you can capture the retail margin yourself, and for the right item it genuinely wins. The mechanics are simply different work. You are the photographer, the describer, the packer and the shipper, and you carry the risks a dealer normally absorbs — platform and payment fees, shipping and insurance, returns, and chargeback disputes on a high-value item you have already posted. Gold is also among the most targeted categories for buyer-side fraud precisely because it is compact and untraceable. For a desirable, photogenic, clearly identifiable piece the return can be worth all of that. For broken, unsigned or mixed scrap it very rarely is.
FAQ
Questions about selling it yourself online
- When is selling privately genuinely the better option?
- When the piece is intact, identifiable, in good condition and desirable to a collector or wearer — a signed designer item, a recognizable watch, an unusual antique. Those sell above metal value to someone who wants that specific thing, and no metal buyer including us can match that.
- When is it not worth it?
- Broken chain, single earrings, dental gold, unsigned worn pieces and mixed lots. There is no retail buyer for those, so you are selling metal to someone who will melt it, with fees and shipping risk added on top. That is strictly worse than selling metal to a metal buyer.
Our view
The honest verdict
For a collectible coin or a branded piece with a following, selling it yourself will usually net more and we would tell you so — we have sold 87,000 items on eBay and know exactly what it takes. For scrap and mixed metal valued by weight, the fees and the hours will eat the difference.
Other comparisons
Selling to Us vs. a Pawn Shop
Different businesses that happen to buy the same thing. A pawn shop makes its money on loans and resale; we make ours on metal volume.
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Selling Locally vs. Mailing It Away
The mail-in model works. The problem is what happens to your negotiating position the moment the package leaves your hands.
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Us vs. a Kiosk or a Hotel Buying Event
The difference is not the testing equipment. It is whether the buyer will still be there next month.
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Us vs. a Local Jeweler
Jewelers buy things they can put back in the case. That makes them the right buyer for some pieces and the wrong one for most.
Explore →
Get a number
Find out what it is actually worth.
Bring it in, or email a few photos first. Either way you get a real figure and no pressure to take it.
Bring valid government-issued photo ID. Florida law requires it for every purchase.