Selling Sterling for Scrap: Concrete Example

We have received lots of questions about selling sterling flatware for scrap value. We have responded with conjectures about how this might happen and how much you would receive.

In order to give readers more concrete information, we decided to actually sell some for scrap. We had some sterling flatware pieces that were bent or otherwise badly damaged. We sent them to a mail order buyer who advertises daily on their web site what they will pay.

The buyer received our pieces, called us to confirm the purchase price and paid us the same day via PayPal. The price we received was about 65% of the current spot price for silver. That seemed reasonable to us because the buyer has to make a profit. We paid the postage to send the pieces.

If you have specific questions, email us. We don't endorse any buyers but this one did follow through as he said he would.

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