Where do I sell gold ingots?

December 13, 2008 8:51 PM

Where do I go to sell some 1 oz gold ingots. They're bullion (i believe that's the term) and definitely have no value beyond that of the gold itself. To maybe complicate matters slightly, I'm in Vancouver, in Canada. Bonus question: Would I expect to get something close to the price per ounce when I sell these? Or is it like the currency exchange rate, where you actually get a small but significant % less than the going rate.
posted by Ziggurat to work & money (6 comments total)

Vancouver Bullion may be the people you are looking for.
posted by Kerasia at 10:05 PM on December 13, 2008

It looks like Vancouver Bullion pays the current price of gold. I would not accept less.
posted by exphysicist345 at 10:22 PM on December 13, 2008

Do you have lumps of yellow metal, or do you have something with serial numbers and fineness stamped in it (like this).

If you just have random metal, then you will need to have it assayed to determine its fineness. Lower quality gold will fetch a lower price.

For any commodity, there is a spread between the buy price and sell price. You should probably shop around before you accept a price.
posted by b1tr0t at 11:18 PM on December 13, 2008

You will not be able to sell the gold at the spot price. The spot price determines the market, but it is not what gold particularly at the level you are operating will be bought and sold at. There are several coin dealers in Vancouver. Coin dealers usually buy and sell bullion in some form as well since they deal in Gold Maple Leafs, Krueggerands etc. I would give one of them a call. They should also be able to tell you what % of spot they pay. Or it often works as Spot minus $15 and they would sell it back to you at Spot plus $15 just to throw a number out there.

If it is ingots made by Credit Suisse or some other well know producer (Johnson Mathey, Englehard, etc.) then those will circulate between dealers in precious metals, coin dealers and others at relatively fixed percentage relatively to Gold's spot price. If is is a bar that was stamped witha proof like finish and is now beat up, scratched or dented-- it is possible that could cause the buyer to discount the bars slightly.

If you forged the ingots yourself from scrap gold or if they are gold lumps you will not be able to get full value for them until your buyer has had them assayed to determine their purity. There's a big difference between 24 karat ingots (.999 pure) and a 10 karat ingot melded together from various sources (.417 purity).
posted by MasonDixon at 7:20 AM on December 14, 2008

Yeah, they're stamped with the purity and were bought as a commodity originally.
I'll try Vancouver Bullion and call a coin shop or two to make sure.

thanks everyone!
posted by Ziggurat at 10:42 AM on December 14, 2008

http://www.24hgold.com/english/buy_sell_gold_coins.aspx?co_id=0
posted by stratastar at 12:55 PM on December 14, 2008