Alloy

Alloy review:

Alloy is an online marketplace for selling gold, silver, platinum and palladium to be melted down for use in industry.

How it works

If you have jewelry, coins, bars or other products made from these four precious metals, you can ask Alloy to send you a free test kit. Before sending the kit, the site will ask the type of product you’re selling — necklace, bracelet, ring or bars, for example. It also asks what metal your piece is made of and how you’d like to get paid.

You’ll also give the site a few details on how to reach you and where to send your kit. By submitting your request for this kit, you’ll be assigned to a specialist, who can answer your questions about the process.

You then pack up your items in the insured, postage-paid package, and send them in.

Video appraisal

When Alloy receives your package, you’ll get an invitation to attend a video appraisal. With this, sellers can see Alloy appraisers open their bag, remove their items, test them for purity, and weigh them.

At that point, the site will provide an offer for your item, based on its weight, purity and the spot price for that precious metal. The site says it always provides at least 70% of the spot price, but may offer up to 99% of the spot price, if the metal is unusually pure.

However, realize that they’re paying for the metal content. So, if your gold item is, say, 18 carat, it’s only 75% gold. Thus, the value calculation would be the weight of your jewelry, multiplied by the gold content (in this case, 75%) x the spot price.

Gems

The site will also pay for gems that are part of your jewelry. However, this is not the ideal place to sell gems. Alloy’s interest is in melting down the metal and using it in industry.

They will pay for the stone, but say that stones of less than 1 carat weight have little value. It’s smarter to sell gem-heavy jewelry to one of the sites that specializes in remaking jewelry.

Payments

If you accept Alloy’s offer the site will pay you immediately, based on the payment method you chose. Sellers can be paid via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, direct deposit, wire transfer or check.

If you don’t accept the offer, the site returns your item to you at no cost, and insured to $5,000.

Insurance

Naturally, when you’re sending valuable items in the mail, you want insurance. Alloy provides up to $5,000 per package automatically. If you are sending something of greater value, call the site’s customer service line to get additional coverage.

Recommendations

If you have precious metals that you want to sell, this appears to be a very good place to do that. Check out Alloy here. You can also check out ExpressGoldCash, which offers a nearly identical service.

But, if you have vintage jewelry encrusted with precious stones, there are better sites to sell that, including Worthy and Circa Jewels. Alloy is all about metals, not gems.

What their users say (from TrustPilot)

I’ll admit I was nervous at first and thought a few times about selling a gold bracelet through my phone over the web. But I felt my local jeweler was lowballing me. Thankfully, Alloy’s team answered my questions quickly and throughly and I decided to take the plunge with them. I am glad I did as I received my appraisal that was valued much more than my local jeweler offered. It was so simple, straightforward, and didn’t require haggling—I just was given a very good offer, accepted and was paid the same day.

All around amazing experience. I’ve been holding on to so many pieces of jewelry that I haven’t touched in years. But I also knew they were valuable so didn’t want to let them go.

Easy and responsive

I checked out Alloy’s website because I had a gold ring that I hadn’t worn in 15 years. They made the process of selling it so easy, plus they were responsive and friendly the whole time. And, they paid me the same day they received my ring. I HIGHLY recommend using Alloy if you have gold or other other precious metal jewelry and want some quick cash!

After my grandmother passed away, my mom and I were looking at her jewelry and while we were excited about a lot of her pieces, we knew we’d want to sell some of the brooches and pins. I found Alloy after a quick google search and it was the most incredible experience from start to finish. Every person I interacted with on the app was friendly and helpful and I received a quote for my pieces and was paid the SAME day. I could not recommend Alloy more.

Alloy gave me cash for my mom’s old tangled gold jewelry. She was really happy and we didn’t even have to leave the house. I got a free shipping label and we gave the box to our mail man. We got what was quoted which was way more than we expected. Never been to a pawn shop and never will. I just wish I had more gold!

From the Apple App store:

This app made it easy to sell my old gold jewelry. I took a few pictures, got an estimate, and scheduled a pickup. The whole process was quick and transparent. I would definitely recommend this app to anyone who is looking to sell their gold jewelry.

10/16/2023