New silver valuation website

A new website has become available for readers to submit questions regarding the value of items made of silver. In fact, valuation questions can be submitted for many other categories of items. Here's the link to the silver page:

     Love to Know - What's it worth?

Selling Your Silver: A Guide to Finding a Buyer and Getting a Good Price

I receive tons of questions from people wanting to know how to sell their silver, especially since the world commodity silver price has skyrocketed. So, I've written a 28-page booklet that provides information about the process. For anyone interested, it can be downloaded here for a small fee: Selling Your Silver: A Guide to Finding a Buyer and Getting a Good Price. I think you have to sign up for a free membership at the publisher's site.

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Why can't I sell my sterling silver for higher than scrap value?

The wild commodity silver market has triggered many questions to me from blog readers who are thinking about selling their sterling flatware and hollowware pieces. Many have questioned why they could not get a better price. We've been watching sales on eBay lately and it seems that many sellers don't even get the scrap value for their sterling. Here's an article we wrote recently:

• Why can't I sell my sterling for higher than scrap value?

As a reminder, we don't think folks should ever sell their sterling unless they really need the money. In general, the price received will always be disappointing, especially if the seller expected to get somewhere close to retail or close to the prices charged by companies like Replacements, Ltd. We think the value of sterling as a personal family heirloom is much greater that its value on the used market and it should be handed down through generations.

If you must sell, be patient. Get offers from several buyers and try to find the buyer who wants sterling for personal use. Such a buyer often is willing to pay more.

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Appraising the Value of Your Sterling Silver

Many of the questions we receive relate to the value of a set of silver someone has, either sterling or silver plate. We've recently written a series of three articles on the appraising process. Two of the them focus on professional appraisers while the third discusses a cheaper approach. Here's a link to the third article if you're interested:

- Cheap approach to appraising your sterling flatware

In the article you will find links to the earlier two articles. The focus is on sterling but the discussion could apply to silver plate as well.

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How Much Can I Get for My Silver Plate Flatware?

I receive so many questions similar to the title of this post that I thought it was worth writing an article on this specific subject. Here's a link to that article:

What's the value of my silver plate flatware?

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New Links to Current Commodity Silver Price

We receive lots of questions about the market price of pure silver. So, we've added a couple of new features.

Firstly, in the right column of the screen, you will see a small graph containing the current day's pricing of commodity silver. This chart is provided by http://www.kitco.com/.

Secondly, we've added new links to "Our Favorite Links" in the right column of the screen. Clicking on "NYMEX Commodity Silver Prices" will take you to a web page of the New York Mercantile Exchange that displays more information about silver prices. The "Quotes" in the lower right of that screen gives you a snapshot of recent quote activity.

FYI, today, May 29, 2009, the ending price was $15.60 per Troy ounce. That means that the scrap value of a Chantilly place fork in terms of silver content is just under $25.00 today. If you had to sell your fork to a scrap dealer, you could probably get between $13.00 and $15.00 for it.

We also have added a link to a "Precious Metal Calculator". There are several calculators out there but we like this one because of its simplicity. Here are the items to be input:

• Enter the weight in grams
• Select "grams" as the units
• Select ".925 Silver" as the metal
• Enter "-40" in as the markup/discount
• Click "Calculate Value"

The displayed value is a rough idea of what a scrap dealer would be willing to pay you for your sterling.

By clicking on "Comments/Questions" below, you can see posted comments and add your own questions and comments. Or, you can send us an email by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" in the right column.

Are Pieces with Old Hallmarks More Valuable?

Sometimes my answers are frustrating to readers and this one is no exception because the answer is, "It depends!" Here are some questions I ask myself when I'm considering buying a piece of sterling flatware, comparing it to other pieces in the same pattern. The questions are in order of importance to me.

1. What is its condition?
2. Are there any monograms or other custom engraving?
3. What is its weight? (Some pieces have been made in different weights over the years.)
4. What is its age? (This is linked to the hallmarks question.)

To me, questions 1 and 2 are extremely important. Questions 3 and 4 are somewhat important. If the piece is in excellent condition with no custom engraving, I won't worry about answers to the last two questions very much.

There are situations where the manufacturing process for a particular pattern changed significantly at some point. I hear this from time to time regarding the purchase of an old line company by a conglomerate. I hear that the quality of some patterns deteriorated at this point. If this is the case, question 4 becomes more important.

Keep in mind that I am in the business of buying and selling sterling flatware. If I was a collector of antique pieces, question 4 might move to the top.

By clicking on "Comments/Questions" below, you can see posted comments and add your own questions and comments. Or, you can send us an email by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" in the right column.

Who Will Buy Sterling Silver for Scrap Value?

First, let me answer the question directly.

• Step 1: At the top of this screen is a Google ad window. Scroll to the right in that window and you should see a number of potential buyers. Gold buyers also buy silver. Also, look for ads from people who sell silver; most are also buyers. Google attempts to display ads from businesses near your location.
• Step 2: In the right column of this blog, enter "selling silver" in the Sterling Silver Web Search box and click the "Search" button. You might also add your city name to the search criteria.
• A new window will appear. Click on the ads you see at the top and on the right side of the new window.

Now, let me pose another question:

• What price should I expect if I sell sterling for scrap?

The reason I ask this question is because a potential seller of scrap often thinks that he or she will get the market price of commodity silver. Let's look at an example of what that might be. The commodity price of silver as of this date (Feb. 24, 2009) is about $13.85 per Troy ounce. Therefore, a Gorham Chantilly place fork weighing 51 grams has a scrap silver value today of about $21.00. If I take that fork to a scrap buyer, should I expect to be paid $21.00 for the fork? Of course not!

The scrap buyer is in business to make a profit. My guess is that a scrap dealer might be expected to pay half the value of the silver. So, maybe we could sell our Chantilly place fork for around $10.00. How about a Chantilly teaspoon? Maybe we could get $5.00 or $6.00.

Now that we have set a more realistic expectation of a selling price, we can think about a potential buyer. I've not sold much sterling for scrap but I would start with jewelry stores, businesses that sell used sterling flatware and pawn shops.

I've seen listings on eBay for scrap sterling so that might be a place to start. http://www.craigslist.org/ has lots of ads posted by buyers of flatware, jewelry, etc. Now and then we receive a piece that has had an unfortunate encounter with a garbage disposal. In such cases, we have been successful selling them on eBay, clearly marked as "scrap".

Comments with other ideas are welcome.

Note Added 7/29/2009:
A blogger has added a comment regarding selling to silver refiners - please read it. The comment implies that you can get a better price for your scrap sterling by going directly to a refiner. We have verified this.

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What's a Fair Price to Pay?

We all like bargains. When we buy something at what we consider to be below market price, it makes us feel good! We're one up on the world!

So, when we go shopping for sterling silver flatware, we hunt and hunt for the best deal. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and, unless we're driving around hunting, it doesn't cost us anything. I recommend a more analytical approach. Before shopping around, I recommend developing a price at which you will feel like you have received proper value for the money you spend.


First, define what you're looking for, especially with respect to condition.

• Do you want something that is "nearly new" in terms of condition or are you willing to live with abrasions and nicks from years of use?


• Will the piece be a gift or for your personal use?


• If it's for personal use, what's the condition of the pieces you already own?

Then, you might investigate the retail price at department stores or other retail sellers. In your mind, what percentage of the retail price would constitute a reasonable price for a used piece?

After you've considered these points, start your search. For this article, we performed a test search for a very popular piece, a Gorham Chantilly place fork. We made sure the seller indicated that the fork had the "diamond-P" hallmark on the back to so we knew we were comparing apples-to-apples.

This hallmark is Gorham's indicator for "place" size. Here's what we found:

• The retail price in December 2008 appears to be $115.00. We verified this at several seller web sites on the Internet, including department stores.


• We checked the web sites of three popular, reliable sellers of used sterling flatware. We have found that they can be depended upon to sell only "excellent condition" used pieces. These are the prices we found-
  - Seller 1 (very large mail order seller) - $49.99
  - Seller 2 (large mail order seller) - $51.00
  - Seller 3 (smaller mail order seller that also has a shop in a major city) - $59.00
  The average price of these three was $53.33 or 46% of the retail price


• We checked eBay and found actual completed sales st these prices:
  - $38.95
  - $33.99
  - $32.00
  - $25.00
  The description of the cheapest fork indicated more wear so we dropped it from consideration. The average price of the remaining three forks was $34.98 or 30% of the retail price. The fork that sold for $32.00 was sold via the eBay "auction" format whereas the other two were sold via the "Buy It Now" format. The seller of the $32.00 fork had an eBay feedback rating below 100 whereas the other two sellers had very high feedback ratings.

Based upon this cursory research, a reasonable target price to set for a used piece in excellent condition would be between 30% and 50% of the retail price. Expect to pay toward the higher end to a seller with a very good reputation and an acceptable return policy. If you are willing to settle for a piece in less than excellent condition, a target of 20% to 25% of the retail price is probably appropriate.

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Is Used Sterling Flatware a Proper Gift?

I hope comments will be added to this post. I'll give my opinion but I'm sure there are those who will have different opinions.

My opinion is that it is OK for used sterling silver flatware to be a gift. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must say that I buy and sell used sterling flatware so I could be biased! Here are a few "talking points":

1. Sterling pieces given as a gift should "blend" well with the recipient's existing set of flatware. If the set is new, gifts should be in at least "nearly new" condition. If the set is old, "gently used" pieces are OK.
2. If the recipient is a stickler for specific hallmarks on the pieces, used pieces may be the only choice.
3. If the giver is on a budget, he or she may be able to give two or more used pieces for the price of a single brand new piece.
4. Recycling is a big deal these days. Manufacturing new pieces consumes precious energy.
5. Make the recipient a collaborator - tell him or her where great pieces can be bought at great prices.

Before I got into this business, my mother-in-law purchased a used piece of sterling flatware for my wife and one for me every Christmas. It became somewhat of a tradition, much better than adding a new tree ornament each year. She lived to be 94 so we accumulated quite a set! All the pieces fit nicely into what we already had and the set looked as if it had been purchased at one time. This collaboration worked fine for us.

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bride, bridal, registry

Price: Commodity Silver vs. Sterling Flatware

Here's a question we hear from time to time, "How much is the price of sterling flatware affected by the commodity silver market?"

Obviously, commodity silver prices have a long run impact on sterling silver flatware retail prices since commodity silver is the primary raw material for sterling flatware. On the other hand, when considering the secondary market for used sterling flatware, short term fluctuations in the commodity silver price may not impact the prices that much. Consider the chart below from SilverSeek.com that depicts the price of raw silver for twelve months:
Raw silver dropped in price by over 50% during the period from the March 2008 to October 2008. I know for a fact that the market price of a Buttercup teaspoon or a Chantilly fork did not fall by 50% during the same time period. In my opinion, the price for these pieces stayed roughly the same.

So, if you are thinking of buying, or selling, some sterling flatware pieces, my suggestion is not to worry too much about the current price of raw silver. Other economic conditions may have a greater impact.

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