Selling Gold for Cash or Bitcoin

Cost of Selling Gold: Every Fee, Spread, and Hidden Charge Explained

By Michael Tanguma, Founder & CEO of Heirfolio. Reviewed by Diana Cruz, GIA Graduate Gemologist. Updated May 25, 2026.

TL;DR. When you sell gold, the buyer pays you spot price minus a spread — typically 15–40%. That spread is rarely one fee; it's seven, stacked. Most are legitimate, some are inflated, and a few are invented. This guide breaks down each one, names the typical range, and gives you a single number — your effective payout percent — that makes every quote comparable.

You ship your gold. You get an offer. The offer is for less than the spot price, less than the melt value, and less than what you expected. You don't know why. There is no line-item breakdown on the email.

The failure mode this article exists to name: the gold-buying industry deliberately presents its pricing as a single take-it-or-leave-it offer, not an itemized invoice, because a single number is harder to compare and harder to negotiate. Once you can see the fees the spread is hiding, you can compare any two quotes apples-to-apples, and you can identify the buyers whose spread is fair from the ones whose isn't.

There are seven fees baked into a typical gold-buyer quote. Here they are, in the order they show up in the buyer's accounting.

→ Paste any quote into our spread checker — see what's fair in 60 seconds

What "spread" actually means

Before the seven fees, the concept.

Spot price is the live wholesale price of pure gold, set by the London Bullion Market Association twice daily and tracked continuously by the futures market. As of May 25, 2026, gold spot is roughly $3,037 per troy ounce, or $97.65 per gram of pure gold.

Spot is what a refinery pays a bullion bank for a 400-ounce London Good Delivery bar. It is not what a refinery pays a private seller for a melted-down chain. The gap between those two numbers is the spread, and the spread covers everything that has to happen between your hand and that 400-ounce bar:

Verifying the metal is what you say it is
Refining the alloy into pure gold
Handling the logistics
Compensating the operators
Carrying the inventory risk while the gold moves through the chain

A 10% spread is excellent. A 20% spread is industry-normal. A 40% spread is the high end of legitimate. A 60% spread is a pawn shop. A 90% spread is a scam.

Here is what's inside that spread.

Fee 1: Refining cost — the only fee that's physically real

A refinery has to melt your 14k chain, separate the pure gold from the alloy metals (copper, silver, nickel), pour the pure gold into a verified bar, and assay it. This costs real money. The published industry range:

Refinery type	Refining cost per gram of gold processed
Major refinery, high volume (Asahi, Republic Metals, Metalor)	$0.30–$0.80
Mid-size refinery	$0.80–$1.50
Boutique or small-batch refining	$1.50–$3.00

For a 20-gram chain, that's $6–$60 in real refining cost. On a 100-gram lot, $30–$300. Refining is the only fee in this list that has a hard physical cost — the metal has to get processed, and someone has to be paid to do it.

What this means for you: any buyer selling at scale (mail-in operators, the larger platforms) is paying near the low end. Their refining cost is well under $1/gram. If a quote implies they're charging you the equivalent of $3+/gram for refining, the rest of the spread is doing other work.

Fee 2: Operator margin — the buyer's profit

Every legitimate gold buyer is a business. They keep something for the work. Healthy operating margins in this industry, based on the public filings of the larger publicly traded buyers:

Buyer scale	Typical operating margin (as % of payout)
Large-scale mail-in or platform	6–12%
Mid-size regional buyer	10–18%
Local jeweler	12–25%
Pawn shop	25–50%

Operator margin is where the spread starts diverging across channels. It's also the line item most likely to be buried — almost no buyer publishes their margin separately.

What this means for you: the largest operators by volume can afford the thinnest margin per transaction. Smaller operators need a wider margin to stay alive. There's nothing inherently wrong with paying for the latter — sometimes you want a local jeweler with a name and an address — but you should know you're paying for it.

Fee 3: Inventory and price-volatility risk

When a buyer accepts your gold today, they may not refine it for two to four weeks. During those weeks, the spot price of gold moves. If gold falls 5%, the buyer loses 5% on your lot. If it rises, they gain. Most buyers don't gamble on this — they hedge by selling gold futures, which costs roughly 0.5–1.5% of the value of the lot per month of hold.

What this means for you: a buyer who pays you today and processes in three weeks is paying 1–3% of the lot value in hedging cost. A buyer who pays you within 48 hours of receiving the gold (and refines fast) pays less. Faster pipelines have thinner spreads, all else equal.

Fee 4: Insurance — real but smaller than you think

Gold in transit has to be insured. Lloyd's of London and similar carriers underwrite gold shipments at roughly 0.05–0.25% of the insured value per shipment, depending on volume and route.

For a $5,000 shipment, that's $2.50–$12.50 in real insurance cost. On a $50,000 shipment, $25–$125. Insurance is not the line item driving the spread. When a buyer cites "insurance fees" as 1%+ of your payout, they are either dramatically overpaying for coverage or marking it up.

What this means for you: insurance is a real cost but a small one. If a buyer's quote implies they're charging you 1%+ for insurance, they're using the line as cover for margin.

Fee 5: Shipping — usually included, sometimes weaponized

Mail-in gold buyers send you a prepaid insured envelope to ship your gold. The carrier (FedEx, USPS Registered, UPS) charges the buyer roughly $15–$45 per inbound shipment, depending on the carrier and the declared value cap.

Two patterns to know:

Inbound shipping is almost always included by the buyer. They want your gold; they pay to get it.
Return shipping — the one that matters if you reject the offer — is sometimes free and sometimes not. The bad actors charge $40–$80 to return your own property to you, banking on you accepting a low offer rather than pay $80 to get back $300 of gold.

What this means for you: before you ship to any mail-in buyer, find the return policy in writing. If return shipping isn't free, that's a structural pressure on you to accept a lowball offer. Walk.

Fee 6: Payment processing — the wire fee that adds up

The buyer pays you. The payment method has a cost:

Payment method	Cost to the buyer	What they typically charge you
ACH bank transfer	$0.50–$5	usually free to you
Domestic wire transfer	$15–$35	sometimes free, sometimes $15–$35 passed through
Check by mail	$1–$3	usually free, but adds 5–10 days to settlement
PayPal / Venmo	2.9% of the payout	typically passed through to you
Bitcoin or USDC	network fee, $1–$20	varies by buyer

The wire fee is the small one that hides in fine print. A $25 wire fee on a $5,000 payout is 0.5%. On a $500 payout, it's 5%. For small lots, payment method matters more than people think.

What this means for you: if you're selling a small lot, ask for ACH or check. If you're selling a large lot, the wire fee is rounding error — take the speed.

Fee 7: The "appraisal and handling" surcharge — almost always invented

This is the one to push back on.

Some buyers add a flat "appraisal fee," "handling fee," or "processing fee" — anywhere from $5 to $50 per item. Often it's only disclosed at the offer stage, not at the quote stage. Sometimes it's deducted silently from the payout.

The truth: a reputable buyer with a streamlined operation can appraise a gold lot in 5–15 minutes using an XRF scanner. The marginal cost is staff time, which is already in the operator margin (Fee 2). Adding a separate "appraisal fee" is double-counting.

What this means for you: any buyer who itemizes an appraisal or handling fee is either inexperienced or attempting to extract additional margin. Both are reasons to pick a different buyer.

Total spread by channel: the honest comparison

The seven fees add up to a single number — the spread, expressed as a percent of the melt value of the gold you sold. Here's what the typical totals look like across the legitimate channels:

Channel	Refining	Operator margin	Inventory risk	Insurance	Shipping	Payment	"Other"	Total spread
Direct platform with published spread	1–2%	6–10%	1–2%	0.1–0.3%	0–0.5%	0–0.5%	0%	8–15%
Mail-in gold buyer (volume)	1–2%	8–14%	1–3%	0.2–0.5%	0–1%	0–2%	0–3%	10–25%
Mail-in gold buyer (small operator)	2–4%	12–20%	1–3%	0.3–0.5%	0–1%	0–2%	0–5%	15–35%
Local jeweler buying for melt	2–4%	15–25%	1–2%	included	0%	0%	2–5%	20–35%
Local jeweler buying for resale (and reselling as-is)	0% (no refining)	10–25%	0–5%	included	0%	0%	0%	10–25%
Pawn shop	3–5%	30–50%	5–15%	included	0%	0%	0–5%	40–65%
Mail-in scam operator	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	60–95% (avoid)

The honest takeaway: the difference between a 10% spread and a 30% spread on a $5,000 lot is $1,000. The difference between 10% and 60% is $2,500. Which buyer you pick changes the payout more than any other decision in the process.

→ Get a real quote with the spread published up front

How to convert any quote into an effective payout percent

The math that makes every quote comparable.

Step 1. Find today's spot price of pure gold per gram.
        (As of May 25, 2026: ~$97.65/gram, but it moves — check the live ticker.)

Step 2. Find your gold's purity factor.
        10k = 0.417 | 14k = 0.585 | 18k = 0.750 | 22k = 0.917 | 24k = 0.999

Step 3. Compute the melt value of your lot.
        weight in grams × spot price × purity factor = melt value

Step 4. Compute the effective payout percent of any quote.
        quoted payout ÷ melt value = effective payout %

Step 5. The spread is what's left.
        1 − effective payout % = spread the buyer is keeping

A worked example. You have a 20-gram 14k chain. Spot today is $97.65/gram. Purity is 0.585. Melt value is:

20 × $97.65 × 0.585 = $1,142.51

You have three quotes:

Buyer	Quoted payout	Effective payout %	Spread
Heirfolio	$1,028	90%	10%
Mail-in operator A	$891	78%	22%
Mail-in operator B	$799	70%	30%
Local pawn shop	$571	50%	50%

You don't need the buyer to break out the seven fees individually. The single number — effective payout percent — tells you everything. Anything under 70% is below industry-fair for plain 14k. Anything over 85% is excellent.

→ Paste any quote into the spread checker

Hidden fees that aren't fees — the timing penalty

Two costs that don't show up as line items but affect what you take home.

1. Spot-price lock window

You receive a quote. By the time you accept, gold has moved. Most buyers re-price every 15–60 minutes. Some honor the original quote for 60 seconds; others for 24 hours; others not at all. A buyer who lets the quote stale and then re-prices downward when you accept is, effectively, taking the upside on a price move while leaving you the downside.

What to do: ask for the quote lock window in writing. A 60-second lock is industry-standard for direct platforms. Anything less than 15 minutes from a buyer who doesn't publish the window is a red flag.

2. Settlement delay

A buyer who pays you 14 days after receiving the gold is using your gold as a 14-day interest-free loan. At a 5% money-market rate, that's about 0.2% of the lot value per two weeks — not catastrophic, but a real cost. More importantly, settlement delay is correlated with operator quality. Fast operators have tight processes; slow operators often have spread-padding habits to match.

What to do: ask for the settlement timeline in writing — from "gold received" to "funds cleared." Industry-fair is 24–72 hours for ACH, same-day to 24 hours for wire. Anything over 7 days from a non-auction buyer is worth a second look.

Taxes are not a fee — but they're not nothing

A separate line in your accounting, not part of the spread.

Gold is taxed as a collectibles at the federal level, which means long-term capital gains on gold sales are taxed at up to 28% — meaningfully higher than the 15–20% rate for stocks. The IRS treats gold this way whether it's a bullion bar, a coin, or a piece of jewelry sold by an individual.

A few things to know:

Inherited gold carries a stepped-up basis — your cost is the fair market value on the prior owner's date of death, not what they paid. (See our Honest Guide to Selling Inherited Jewelry.)
Personal-use loss generally is not deductible. If you sell a piece for less than your basis, you typically can't write off the loss.
Buyers may issue a 1099-B on transactions above certain thresholds (typically lots of 25+ troy ounces of bullion-grade gold or 1+ kilogram of certain bars). For jewelry sales, the 1099-B is rarely triggered, but the income is still reportable.
Six states have an inheritance tax that may apply if you inherited the gold (Pennsylvania, Kentucky, New Jersey, Nebraska, Maryland, Iowa). The other 44 do not.

A CPA is the right person for the filing. The framework above is what they'll work from.

How to compare quotes the right way

Five rules.

Always get the live spot price first. Without it, no quote is interpretable.
Compute the effective payout percent. Quote ÷ melt value. One number.
Ask for the seven fees in writing. Reputable operators will provide it. Avoiders won't.
Confirm the quote lock window and the settlement timeline. Both should be in writing before you ship.
If a buyer won't itemize, won't lock, or won't commit to a settlement timeline, pick a different buyer. There are enough legitimate operators that you don't have to compromise on transparency.

The market is competitive enough that any single piece of gold has at least three legitimate channels available. The cost of getting a second and third quote is 15 minutes. The savings is often 10–25% of the payout.

What Heirfolio's spread looks like, published

We publish ours, because we ask you to compare. As of May 25, 2026:

Cost line	Heirfolio rate
Refining (volume rate from major refinery)	~1.2%
Operator margin	6–8%
Inventory and hedging risk	~1.5%
Insurance (Lloyd's coverage, in transit and at vault)	included
Shipping (inbound, return if you decline)	included
Payment (ACH or wire)	included
"Other" / appraisal fees	none
Total typical spread	9–11%

Settlement: 24–48 hours after gold is received and assayed. Quote lock window: 60 seconds, with a one-time relock allowed if you need a moment. If you reject the offer, the gold ships back free and insured.

This is not a pitch. It is what the comparison looks like when you make the fees comparable. The point of the article is that you should be able to do this calculation for any buyer.

Frequently asked questions

What is "spread" in gold sales?

The spread is the gap between the live spot price of pure gold and what a buyer pays you for it. Spread covers refining, operator margin, inventory risk, insurance, shipping, payment processing, and (sometimes) padded fees. On legitimate channels, spread runs 10–35% of the melt value depending on the buyer. On pawn shops, spread runs 40–65%. On scams, spread runs 60% or higher and is often hidden behind "appraisal" or "processing" fees that are invented.

Why don't I get the spot price for my gold?

Spot price is the wholesale rate at which refineries trade 400-troy-ounce London Good Delivery bars. Private sellers ship jewelry, not bars — meaning the gold has to be verified, refined, recast, and assayed before it joins the wholesale market. The spread between spot and your payout covers that entire pipeline plus the buyer's margin. No private seller anywhere in the world gets the exact spot price for jewelry.

Who has the lowest spread on gold?

Direct platforms with published spreads (Heirfolio and a few others) typically offer the lowest spreads — 8–15%. Volume mail-in operators come next at 10–25%. Local jewelers buying for melt are typically 20–35%. Pawn shops are 40–65%. The lowest spread on any specific lot depends on the karat, the weight, the form (bullion vs. jewelry), and how easily the piece can be resold without melting.

Do gold buyers charge a refining fee?

Yes, but it's small. Major refineries charge $0.30–$0.80 per gram of pure gold processed. For a 20-gram 14k chain (about 12 grams of pure gold), that's $3.60–$9.60 of real refining cost. Buyers who itemize a refining fee well above $1.50 per gram are typically passing through markup, not actual refining cost.

Do gold buyers charge a shipping fee?

Inbound shipping (you to the buyer) is almost always included by the buyer in mail-in programs. Return shipping (back to you if you reject the offer) varies — some buyers cover it, others charge $40–$80. Before shipping any gold to a mail-in buyer, confirm the return-shipping policy in writing. A return-shipping fee creates structural pressure to accept a lowball offer.

Do gold buyers charge an insurance fee?

Real insurance on gold in transit costs 0.05–0.25% of the insured value, paid by the buyer. Most buyers absorb it; a few pass it through as a small line item. Any buyer claiming 1% or more in insurance fees is using the line as cover for margin — actual insurance costs are nowhere close to that.

Do gold buyers charge wire transfer fees?

Sometimes. A domestic wire transfer costs the buyer $15–$35; some buyers eat it, some pass it through. For small payouts (under $1,000), the wire fee can be meaningful — 1–3% of the payout. For larger payouts, it's rounding error. If you're selling a small lot, ask the buyer to pay via ACH instead, which is almost always free.

Are taxes withheld when I sell gold?

For most jewelry sales by individuals, no. The IRS requires a 1099-B from buyers only on transactions above certain thresholds (typically lots of 25+ troy ounces of certain bullion forms or 1+ kilogram of certain bars). Jewelry sales rarely trigger the 1099-B, but the income is still reportable on your federal return. Gold is taxed at the collectibles long-term capital gains rate (up to 28%), not the standard 15–20% rate for stocks. State capital gains tax applies on top, and six states have inheritance taxes that may apply to inherited gold separately.

What to do next

If you have a quote and you don't know if it's fair: paste it into the spread checker. One input, one number out. Takes 60 seconds.

If you want a quote with the spread published up front: submit a photo of what you have. You'll see the effective payout percent before you ship.

If you're not selling but you're documenting what you have: add it to your Heirfolio. The free tier covers up to five items.

The market is fair when you can see what the buyer is keeping. The point of this article is to make that visible — for every quote, every channel, every time.

→ Document what you own before you sell anything — for what's worth keeping