Five kinds of buyer, wanting quite different things. The right one depends less on who advertises hardest and more on how coarse your gold is.
Refiners want metal and melt everything. Specimen dealers want showpiece nuggets and rarely want fines. Pawn shops and some jewelers buy occasionally, usually priced against scrap. General mail-in buyers accept placer but melt it, so nuggets earn nothing extra. Specialist placer buyers take the whole lot and grade it by size.
Where to sell placer gold
We would rather you know the whole field before you ship anything to anyone, including us.
| Where | Typically pays | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Pawn shop | 40–60% of melt | Most will not take raw placer, black sand or concentrates at all |
| Mail-in gold buyer | Up to 85% of refined value | Shipping often insured only to $5,000 — about 1.4 troy ounces — and everything gets melted, so nuggets earn no premium |
| Scrap refiner | Up to 95% of gold content | Minimum lot fees of $100–500, and small lots get estimated rather than assayed |
| Selling it yourself | Retail, minus fees | Marketplace fees near 13%, plus photography, shipping and buyer disputes |
| Nugget specialist | 90–100% of gross weight | Great for showpiece nuggets, not interested in your fines |
| Placer Gold Buyers | 85–115% of gold content | We take the whole lot, fines included, grade it by size, and pay above melt on the coarse gold because we sell those pieces whole |
Rates above are what these buyers publish or are commonly reported to pay; they change, and yours depends on your material. The point is the shape of the market, not a promise about any one competitor.
This is the part most guides skip, and it is the part that decides the number.
A buyer who assumes 75% purity on gold that assays 89% has taken 16% off the top before the headline rate is even applied.
That is why the purity question matters more than the percentage on the banner. Ask what figure is being applied and whether it was tested. How placer gold purity is measured →
Pull the magnetite and dry the lot completely. Wet or sandy material adds weight nobody pays for and turns the sale into an argument about the scale.
Separating coarse from fine lets each fraction earn its own rate instead of averaging everything down to the lowest one.
In grams or troy ounces, not kitchen-scale ounces. Keep your own record before it leaves your hands.
Ask what the shipment is insured to, and what happens if you decline the offer. Some buyers insure only to $5,000 and charge for return shipping.
Full cleaning guide → · Weight converter → · How our process works →
Five kinds of buyer, and they want different things. Refiners buy it for metal content and melt everything. Nugget and specimen dealers buy coarse pieces whole but rarely want fines. Local jewelers and pawn shops buy occasionally and usually price against scrap. General mail-in gold buyers accept it but melt it. Specialist placer buyers take the whole lot and grade it by size. Which one suits you depends almost entirely on how coarse your gold is.
If your lot is mostly fine material, a buyer paying on tested gold content will beat a pawn shop by a wide margin. If you have standout nuggets, a specimen dealer may beat everyone on those specific pieces — and a buyer worth trusting will tell you so rather than quietly melting them.
You can, and for exceptional single nuggets it sometimes wins. Against that: marketplace fees near 13%, payment holds, shipping insurance on high-value gold, photography, and buyer disputes you carry yourself. For fines and mixed lots the overhead usually eats the difference.
Some do, many do not. Raw placer is harder to value than a coin or a chain, and shops that cannot test it in-house tend to either decline it or apply a heavy discount to cover their uncertainty. It is worth calling first rather than driving over with a vial.
Ask one question: what purity figure are you applying, and was it tested or assumed? Placer gold commonly runs 80–93% depending on where it came from. A buyer who assumes 75% on gold that assays 89% has taken 16% before any headline rate is applied, and you will never see it happen.
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