Can I Easily Sell My Physical Precious Metals?

It is good practice to ask about the liquidity of any investment. Liquidity refers to how easy it is to buy or sell an asset quickly at a similar premium to what you paid. Physical precious metals are more liquid than many people expect.

Physical gold and silver prices are based on the floating “spot price” of the respective metals. Your physical precious metals should only cost a few percentage points above spot and sell for a few percentage points below spot. This is called the “spread.” A narrower spread means a more liquid product.

Generally speaking, the most commonly recognized products are the most liquid. That is, they are the easiest to sell at the best prices. These include products like the gold & silver American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs.

Often there is a correlation between premium and liquidity. In the case of an American Eagle, you may pay a little more upfront for the coin, but when you want to sell it, it will likely fetch a better price than a less well-known product. Privately minted products often have lower premiums, but in turn may be slightly less liquid. Think of liquidity like a used car: would you pay more for a recognized brand like Toyota or BMW, or an uncommon foreign sedan you’ve never seen on the highway?

SchiffGold is committed to only selling the most liquid products, which is why we don’t offer numismatics, proof sets, or special editions. We offer competitive buyback rates on the products we sell, and have some of the best prices in the industry.

Selling your gold or silver back to SchiffGold is very easy. Simply give us a call to lock in a price on your products. When you’re ready to proceed, we provide a shipping address to send your metal. We typically recommend using the United States Post Office, which has flat rate boxes that can be insured up to $25,000. Once we receive and verify the contents of your shipment, we send your payment via wire or check.

Some investors worry about liquidity in the case of a chaotic financial situation, such as a natural catastrophe, stock market collapse, or hyperinflation. However, history shows again and again that people embrace hard assets like precious metals during times of crisis. It is likely that in an emergency, a large variety of items would be available to exchange for your precious metals – from fuel, to food, to shelter. After all, that’s one of the main reasons investors hold physical gold and silver in the first place.