Is selling gold scrap on eBay more profitable
than selling it for less money per gram to a
local gold scrap buyer?
eBay Charges & Costs
- Listing Fees
- Final Value Fees
- Paypal Fees
- Postage
- Insurance
Listing Fees: The cheapest way to list
your gold scrap on eBay is to start your listing
at 99p. This will result in you being charged the lowest
listing fee for gold scrap, which is 10p. With the
amount of people buying gold scrap on eBay, there
is no need to start your gold off at a higher price as this
will cost you a higher listing fee and your gold
is going to reach that price anyway.
Final Value Fees: This is the amount of
commission that eBay charges you when your item sells and
depends entirely on the final value of the gold
scrap you've just sold.
Paypal Fees: Paypal will have to be
offered as a method of payment when you list your gold
scrap and is the quickest way for your buyers to pay
you and is also the quickest way for you to receive your
payment. There are charges levied by Paypal on the
payments you receive from your buyers and they vary,
depending on the value of the gold scrap you've just
sold.
You can offer alternative methods of payment such as
Postal Orders & Cheques, but then you'll have to wait
until they arrive and then clear in your bank, before you
send your gold scrap to your buyers. Your Bank or
Building Society may charge you for any cheques you deposit
and can also charge you an unreasonable fee for any cheques
from your buyers that "bounce".
Postage: You will have to post
your gold scrap to the successful bidder and
you'll need to protect yourself by sending it recorded (at
the very least) so that you have some chance of being
compensated by Royal Mail if your item goes missing in the
post or if your buyer claims not to have received it. The
cost of the postage will obviously depend on the weight and
value of the gold scrap you are sending.
The cost of posting your gold will be paid for by your
buyers and won't make any difference when making a
comparison between selling your gold scrap on
eBay and selling it to a local gold
scrap dealer, unless you're offering free
postage!!
Make sure that when you state on eBay what your postal
charges are, that you take into account not only what the
Post Office will charge you to send the gold, but also the
cost to you of the packaging that you'll be using and the
cost of travelling to and from your Post Office to send
your gold on it's way.
Your buyers will usually take into consideration the
postage costs of your gold when making their bids as they
are part of the total amount they'll have to pay for buying
your gold scrap.
Insurance: Insurance is what you should
pay, or have your buyer pay for, if you sell
enough gold scrap to take you over the amount of
insurance cover that's offered with Recorded Delivery and
Special Delivery postings. It's absolutely pointless to
sell your gold on eBay and then send it through the post
without any compensation scheme or insurance cover in
place. If it "goes missing" you will be worse off than if
you had given it away to some passer-by in the
street.
You won't have your gold scrap, you won't have any
money because Paypal will refund your buyer if you can't
prove they received their gold and you will have paid your
eBay listing and final value fees.
Your Paypal fees will be returned to you if any of your
buyers are ever refunded by Paypal.
Selling Gold Scrap to a Local
Buyer
When you sell your gold scrap to a local
buyer, you simply turn up at their premises or some of them
will come to you, they'll weigh your gold, tell you what
it's worth and pay you immediately in cash if the price is
acceptable to you.
The only risk is if they offer to pay you by
cheque, tell them you don't have the means to
cash any cheques and that you need to be paid in
cash.
They may be reputable and their cheques may even be
guaranteed, but when you bank your cheque, the taxman may
consider it as earnings and you will be taxed on it. This
results in less cash in your hand for your gold
scrap.
I was offered £50 for 9g of 9ct gold
scrap by a local gold dealer for bits and
pieces of gold that I took to him for a price.
£50 divide by the 9g of gold I had, meant that
I was being offered approximately £5.56 per gram and
that was for immediate cash in my hand with no risks or
complications involved.
I took my gold and left because I needed to compare his
offer with what I would receive for the same amount on eBay
after I'd taken into account all the costs with
selling gold scrap on eBay. This means that my example
is real and that the comparison is genuine.
I listed my gold scrap on eBay for 3 days with a
starting price of 99p and it sold to the successful bidder
for £61.56p.
- My Listing Fee was 10p
- My eBay Final Value Fee was £4.28p
- My Paypal charges were £2.40p
- My postal charges were paid for by the buyer
Even though the postage costs and any insurance costs
are usually paid for by the buyer, the buyer still
pays me for them through Paypal and these amounts cost me a
small increase in the fees charged
by Paypal.
My total cost to list this small amount of gold
scrap on eBay and have it paid for through Paypal
was £6.78p.
I also had to supply a secure 32p Jiffy Bag envelope to
put the gold scrap into and travel to the Post
Office in my car to send the gold to my buyer and then I
still had to drive home again. Don't get me started about
the time I had to spend in the queue at the Post
Office.
Leaving aside the travel costs, to and from the Post
Office, this left me a total cost of £7.10p, to sell
my gold scrap through eBay and send it to the
successful bidder.
If you take away the £7.10p costs of selling my
gold on eBay, from the final £61.56 value of the gold I
sold, this left me a profit of £54.46p which works out at
£4.46p more, than if I had simply sold it to the
local gold scrap dealer for £50.
I still have to wait and see if the gold I've sent to
the buyer arrives safely in the post. What a headache I'll
have, sorting things out with the buyer and the Post
Office, if it goes missing!
Selling Gold Scrap on eBay
Summary:
When you take into account the time, costs,
inconvenience and numerous risks involved when
selling gold scrap on eBay, it's far more
convenient, quicker and much safer to sell your gold
scrap to a local gold scrap dealer when you
consider the difference in the amounts of cash in your hand
that you'll end up with from each of them.