Good places to sell silver....?

I have a friend who is preparing to move and has two sterling flatware large sets. She wants to sell but probably doesn't have the time or willingness to sell online. I suggested local auction but already know that she'll likely get less than melt. Where are good types of places to suggest for her to get the best price in a short period of time?

I usually only buy sterling when I find it at less than melt so I don't feel that making her a lowball offer would be very friendly of me.

 

Sis, you can make a "silent offer" and seal it in an envelope and when she gets a price from a pawn shop or wherever, she can open your envelope and see if she wants to take your offer instead.

 

Note that I'm not a silver dealer, but I imagine it depends a lot on how desirable the patterns may be. She could be best off with a flatware seller who is looking for a complete service, or needs fill ins if the patterns warrant it. For some patterns, all you will get anywhere these days is melt. So find someone who sells for considerably more than scrap and can pay a little more. What do you silver dealers think?

 

PS: Unless she really has to sell, silver is down to half of what it was the last time I scrapped. Won't take too much room to move unless she needs the funds now.

 

The scrap buyers around here aren't even paying half of melt now. If she gets 3/4 of melt at a local auction, she's ahead of the scrappers.

Would she have been happy getting $10/oz when silver was at $7.00?

 

She is downsizing considerably, moving and getting rid of many things she doesn't use, her sterling being just one. I think she may see if someone else in her family shows any interest which of course would be best.

 

Wow 1/2 of melt? That's scary. It depends on who shows up at the auction as to what the price is, usually the price is below melt before the auction takes their percentage.

 

Where is your friend located? Sometimes, it could be worthwhile to take to a large decent antique show and check there. My scrapper at Scott's in Atlanta usually pays 80% of melt for example. And if the pattern is a good one, a silver dealer may be interested too. Just an option.

 

Located in VA semi-rural about 1 hr out of DC. There are shows from time to time that are fairly big but I don't know if she will wait for the next one to come along. Sounds like they're putting their house on the market in 2 weeks and are trying to wrap up pretty fast.

 

There is always the off-chance that Replacements dot com may want to buy her sets.

I THINK that is the name of it!

 

Replacements does buy china and silver and crystal. Sadly, at least with china, they pay about 10% of their listing asking prices for items. Don't know about silver. Did you/your friend check the pattern(s) for desirability?

 

I'll have to ask about the pattern, she just said that one is a simple pattern but I don't know what that means. I did find a place online giving a shorthand way to calculate the value of your pattern after finding it on Replacements though they didn't mention selling it there.
(I contacted them once about selling some china pieces that they were out of and they didn't want them.) Don't know if this works or not.

• Multiply the Replacements value by 60%. If you can sell to an individual who wants your set for personal use, that buyer is probably willing to pay the highest price and might pay somewhere near the price you just calculated (the 60% price).
• Multiply the Replacements value by 25%. If you have to sell to a dealer, the price you get will be somewhere near here (the 25% price).
• If you have to sell your set to a scrap metal dealer, expect less than the 25% price.

 

I'd point out the alternatives to the seller, and offer about the metal value and be equally happy sticking the stuff away for a rainy day or offering it at about a 30% markup at an antiques fair, as it would be a good eye-catching item that would probably sell reasonably easily, and would not matter if it did not. I don't see silver dropping much further so the risk is small.

 

Thanks all, af kind of along the lines of what I was thinking though an offer in an envelope might be a nice way to approach it.