If you’re looking for a place to sell your silverware, Houston Gold Merchants can help you. That’s right. We’re gold buyers – but we do silverware. Crazy, huh? I know…
So here’s the deal. Before you do anything, look for the word “STERLING” on the silverware you want to sell. Somewhere on the stem of one of the pieces silverware, it’s got to say sterling. You can find it on almost any piece. But the word sterling MUST be on it…otherwise, you’re wasting your time.
Don’t think that because it’s says International Silver that it’s good. It’s not. That’s silver plated silverware. If it says Community Silver, that’s not good silverware to sell, either. Both of these are examples of silverware that’s not actually pure silver. It’s silver plate. Plating is a process by which a thin layer (microscopically thin) of silver gets deposited on a base metal (often copper).
Silver plate isn’t worth anything right now…although a couple years ago, people were actually beginning to buy silver plate. For now, though…look for the word “STERLING” – otherwise, you’ll be hauling silver plated silverware around with no place to sell it.
In general, you can expect (when prices are around $23/ounce) to get about $30 for a dinner fork, maybe $20 or so for a spoon…knives are mostly stainless steel blades, so they don’t bring much, $12 maybe, but big serving spoons do…even a salad fork is worth about $20 or more…
Remember, it’s all about mass. The more your set weighs, the more you can expect to get for it. If you have a 72-piece set, that’s about $700-900 dollars. If the set contains lots of larger serving pieces, it might be even more.
But remember, you can’t make money if it doesn’t have the word STERLING clearly marked on the stem of every item.
If it says IS, that stands for International Silver – again no bueno. So look for sterling…that’s the key.
Since silver sells for about 57 cents a gram, you have to have a bunch of it, but even if you only have a spoon and two forks, tha could be lunch for the day!! So call us and ask questions…832-259-7225 or you can prowl around on the website…there’s always something to learn…
Good luck!!
Selling Silverware
