Does the assay card need to be intact to sell a bar?

No. An intact assay card can speed up verification, but a bar with a broken seal or no card at all is still sellable — it just gets weighed and tested directly.

Why is the sell price lower than the current 'spot' price?

Spot is the wholesale market price for raw metal. Any buyer, including the one you originally bought from, works on a small margin above or below spot to cover their own costs and resale risk.

Can I sell bullion I bought online somewhere else?

Yes. Where you originally purchased it does not matter — what matters is the actual weight, purity and current spot price at the time you sell.

Do you buy large bullion collections in one visit?

Yes. Bring the full lot in for one appraisal and one consolidated cash payout rather than selling piece by piece.

Coins & Bullion

How to Sell Gold and Silver Bullion for the Best Price

Bullion is priced almost entirely off the live spot price, which makes selling it more straightforward than jewelry or rare coins — as long as you understand premiums and refiner recognition.

Published August 4, 2026 · Gold King, Houston TX

Stacked gold and silver bullion bars with assay cards

Bullion pricing starts with spot, not sentiment

Unlike jewelry or collectible coins, a bar or round of investment-grade bullion is valued almost entirely on its metal content. A 1 oz gold bar is priced off the live gold spot price times its stated weight and purity, and a 10 oz silver bar works the same way against silver spot. There is no karat guessing game and no design history to research — the weight and purity are stamped right on the piece.

That simplicity is exactly why bullion is one of the fastest transactions we handle. Once the weight and purity are confirmed and the spot price is checked, the math takes seconds.

Recognized refiners make a real difference

Bars and rounds from well-known refiners — names like PAMP Suisse, Credit Suisse, Engelhard, Sunshine Minting, Johnson Matthey and the major sovereign mints — trade easily because their weight and purity claims are trusted industry-wide. Buyers can verify these products quickly and pass that confidence straight into the offer.

Generic or unbranded bullion, or pieces from refiners nobody recognizes, usually still has real value based on its actual tested metal content, but it may need an extra verification step before a firm number can be given. That is not a red flag on your piece — it is simply due diligence any responsible buyer should do before paying cash.

Assay cards and tamper-proof packaging

Many smaller bars ship sealed in an assay card — a hard plastic card stamped with the bar's serial number, weight and purity, signed by an assayer. An intact, unopened assay card is proof the bar has not been tampered with since leaving the refinery, and it can speed up the verification process considerably.

If the seal is broken or the card is missing, the bar itself is still fully sellable — it simply gets weighed and tested the same way any loose bar would be, with the same care used on jewelry or scrap.

Understanding spot-plus and spot-minus

When you buy bullion at retail, you typically pay 'spot plus' a premium that covers minting, distribution and dealer margin. When you sell that same piece back, a buyer typically offers 'spot minus' a smaller margin, because the buyer now carries the cost and risk of holding and reselling the metal. That gap between buy and sell premiums is normal across the entire bullion industry, not something specific to any one buyer.

The size of that gap depends on the product. Widely produced, easily resold items like American Eagle coins or standard 1 oz bars tend to have a tighter spread than obscure or oddly sized pieces, simply because they are easier for a buyer to move.

Selling large lots and full collections

If you are liquidating a larger stack — multiple bars, a mixed box of rounds, or a long-held accumulation — bringing everything in for one appraisal is more efficient than selling piece by piece. Each item still gets weighed and verified individually, but you walk out with a single consolidated payout instead of multiple visits.

Large lots are also where working with an established local buyer pays off most. A buyer with the volume to move significant amounts of metal can typically offer sharper pricing on bulk transactions than one-off online sales, where shipping insurance and waiting periods eat into your return.

Why sell bullion in person in Houston

Mailing bullion to an online buyer means insuring it, shipping it, and waiting — often over a week — to find out what you'll actually be paid. Selling in person at Gold King means your bars and rounds are weighed and verified in front of you against the live spot price, and you walk out with cash the same day.

We're at 6809 Southwest Freeway in Houston, open daily from 10:00 AM to 8:45 PM, and every appraisal is free with no obligation to sell. Call 713-997-0875 with questions about a specific bar or round before you come in.

Ready to sell? Gold King buys these items in Houston every day — sell bullion in Houston, sell gold in Houston, sell silver in Houston and sell coins in Houston. Every appraisal is free, and payment is cash on the spot.

Keep reading

These Gold King guides cover the same subject from different angles:

Selling from outside central Houston? We buy from Houston, Katy and Cypress customers every week.

Start at the Gold King homepage for everything we buy, or contact our Houston store for a free appraisal and a same-day cash offer.

Questions about this guide

Does the assay card need to be intact to sell a bar?: No. An intact assay card can speed up verification, but a bar with a broken seal or no card at all is still sellable — it just gets weighed and tested directly.
Why is the sell price lower than the current 'spot' price?: Spot is the wholesale market price for raw metal. Any buyer, including the one you originally bought from, works on a small margin above or below spot to cover their own costs and resale risk.
Can I sell bullion I bought online somewhere else?: Yes. Where you originally purchased it does not matter — what matters is the actual weight, purity and current spot price at the time you sell.
Do you buy large bullion collections in one visit?: Yes. Bring the full lot in for one appraisal and one consolidated cash payout rather than selling piece by piece.