I have several very heavy large silver serving trays, 55 pieces of silver plate and sterling silver utensils, and another 30 pieces of assorted sterling and silver on copper pieces. I have about 30 pounds of this stuff. Watched your videos and your website is very good. I need to either sell for scrap or melt to refine the various pieces. I am just tired of storing this stuff. What’s my next step? Thank you for your informative videos. From Matt in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Hi Matt,
Glad to hear that you watched the videos about valuing sterling silverware. Since you watched them, you now know that the pieces that are silver plated over copper have very little value and that some of your other items may be weighted or contain parts made from stainless steel. Based on this, we would recommend sending in only your items that are clearly marked 925 sterling silver, sterling, or 800 and holding out any plated items, and removing the weighting materials from any items.
For the benefit of all who read this, silver plated copper pieces are not good candidates for precious metal refining as they contain very little silver. If you have a lot of this material, you may be better off selling these to a scrap metal dealer. If you have pieces that are not marked sterling, you may have to conduct some research on your own to determine if they are in fact sterling. We would recommend first running a strong magnet over your items and if the magnet sticks to anything, they are not sterling. Our testing equipment would determine this, but we would hate to see people pay to ship in worthless items.
If you see any of the following markings on your pieces, chances are they are not sterling silver and you can take them out of the refining pile. These markings indicate something other than sterling such a plated or nickel silver.
Nickel Silver – or Alpaca
Silvertone
Plated Silver – Marked as EP or EPNS
G – German Silver
To get a rough estimate on what your sterling silver items are worth, make a pile of items that you know are sterling and that are not weighted. Weigh these items together and then you can use our silver value calculator to find the market value of these items. You can send all your items into our refinery and we will process and evaluate all the items. We typically pay 75% of the fine silver content by weight for your items. On your packing slip, please indicate the following options:
- If you would like us return any non sterling items back to you.
- If you would like us to call you before refining.
Otherwise, we will refine all the available sterling silver and recycle any metal that is not precious. If you would like more information on silver refining please visit the following resources:
Refining Sterling Silver Flatware Information
Finding the Value of Sterling Silver Video
4 comments
I have a set of 6 place settings to sell, it was made in Germany. Bader, Rosteri is on them i don’t know which is pattern and which is company. It is plated silver. Can you sell it for me?
Hi CM,
Sorry but selling items like this is not included in our business services. And as mentioned above, we don’t buy plated silver either.
You may be looking for some kind of consignment store that will sell your items and give you a percentage of the sale.
Good luck!
We have a 60 piece set of Wallace Sterling silver dinner ware, is there a value in that and what is the best way to sell it?
Thanks,
R.Hurley
Hi Richard. If it is all sterling than there is definite value in your set as it is 92.5% silver as sterling. We would recommend weighing all the spoons and forks — the pieces that are all sterling separately. Usually the knife blades on these sets are not sterling and the handles can even be weighted with something other than sterling. We wouldn’t recommend taking apart your items until you are 100% sure that you want them refined. Once you have an idea of how much actual sterling silver you have plug it into our silver calculator here http://www.archenterprises.com/silver-gold-calculator.html. You will be directed to find the daily price of silver here and plug that into the calculator as well. This will give you an idea of the market price of your items. Then when you are ready fill out our RFQ form with the weight of your items and we will get back to your with the refining value of your pieces. Get a few quotes in the area and go with the best one. http://www.archenterprises.com/contact-us.html. Thank you and good luck!
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