Selling Gold Bars: 5 Things Every Investor Should Know
Selling gold bars can be a hassle, but it doesn’t have to be. Dealers like Hero Bullion offer competitive buyback rates for your favorite gold bars. Whether you’re sitting on a massive hoard of gold or just looking to part with a few ounces of bullion, our offers are always fair and can help you take some hard-earned profit from your investment.
Today, we’re taking a look at some basic tips every investor should know for selling gold bars. By the end of this guide, stackers should know the very basics about how to prepare gold bars for sale, how to find buyers for gold bars, and how to properly time their sale to maximize profit.
How to Sell Gold Bars
Stackers interested in selling gold bars should understand the market. There are multiple things you need to consider before selling gold bars of any size. Whether you’re sitting on several kilos of pure gold or you have only a couple ounces, the main advice is always the same.
To sell gold bars for profit, you need to work on finding a buyer, comparing offers, and taking care of your gold bars prior to sale.
Finding a Buyer
Your buyer is the single most important factor in how much money you’ll make from selling gold bars. Even if you’re not a gold stacker, it’s always important to find reputable buyers for your goods and services.
Some gold dealers with buyback programs offer horrible rates to customers who are selling gold bars. Especially if you do business locally, your buyer might underestimate you. If they think they can squeeze some free profit out of you, they will.
For this reason, we strongly recommend finding and selling gold bars to a reputable buyer. Online dealers like Hero Bullion can be a great option. We make selling gold bars easy. To find out how much Hero Bullion will pay for your gold bars, simply find the product’s page on our website.
For most products, we can get you a verified quote within a single phone call. That’s right – no need to go through a long, complicated process to find out how much we’ll pay for the gold bars you’re selling.
But even if you don’t choose to do business with Hero Bullion, it’s important that you search around for a buyer you can trust. After you’ve identified potential buyers, the next step in selling gold bars is to compare offers.
Comparing Offers
We always recommend shopping around at multiple dealers when buying gold. What about when you’re selling gold bars, though? The advice we like to give is pretty much the same. Different dealers might make different offers for your gold bullion bars.
There’s nothing wrong with checking out multiple offers before choosing to sell your gold bars to a buyer. Because most online dealers list their buyback prices on each product page, it’s never been easier to compare buyback offers across different buyers.
Your offer isn’t the only thing you need to consider when selling gold bars, though. We highly recommend trying to find a gold dealer who you plan to do business with for a long time. If you’re a seasoned gold stacker, forging these relationships with dealers can be critical to your future success.
Taking Care of Your Gold Bars
Before you even think about selling gold bars, you need to make sure that you’ve taken care of your investments. The type of care required for a gold bar varies depending on which specific product you choose to buy.
If you buy gold bars that arrive in their original Assay packaging, caring for your gold bar is as simple as keeping it inside of that package. Obviously, the last thing you want is to have your gold bars stolen or damaged. For this reason, keeping gold bars inside of a home safe is always a good idea.
Collectable gold bars should be kept away from liquids, and we recommend a temperature controlled safe for certain gold bar investments.
As a general rule, most gold bars are sold primarily for their gold content. Selling gold bars requires investors to make sure their products have been kept in the best condition possible. However, don’t think your situation is hopeless just because your .9999 fine gold bars have developed a few scratches.
Selling Gold Bars: 5 Things Every Investor Should Know
Regardless of which gold bars you’re selling, there are 5 things every investor should know about selling gold bars. If you take the time to look for trustworthy buyers, consider online dealers, keep your bars clean and secure, maintain the original Assay card for your bars, and professionally grade any collectable gold bars, selling gold bars should be an easy – and rewarding – experience.
1: Look for Trustworthy Buyers
A trustworthy buyer is everything. For investors who plan to make a consistent amount of money from buying and selling precious metals, you don’t just want a dealer who will pay a fair price for one gold bar. As a seasoned stacker, you need to establish relationships with buyers that you can trust.
Doing business with a company like Hero Bullion can provide you with more than just a fair price for the gold bars you’re selling. We offer fair prices, but that’s not all we do. Over time, we work with our customers to help them find the right gold for their portfolio – and to liquidate the stock they already have.
2: Consider Online Dealers
Online dealers are a fantastic option for selling gold bars for a few different reasons. First, online dealers often offer instant price estimates for their most popular gold bars and coins. This allows you to shop around and compare offers without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Additionally, the convenience of selling gold bars online has been a great thing for modern gold stackers. While you might have to pay to have your gold shipped to a dealer like Hero Bullion, selling gold is quite a bit easier when you don’t have to drive out of your way to take some profit from your investment.
3: Keep Your Bars Clean and Secure
Another important thing to know when selling gold bars is how to keep them clean and secure. Like we mentioned before, strategies for keeping gold bars in peak condition vary based on the types of products you like to collect.
For most gold bars, we recommend a home safe at the minimum to keep your bars safe from theft or disaster. But if your gold bars are rare or numismatically valuable, maintaining their original Assay packaging is an important part of keeping care of your investment.
4: Don’t Throw Out the Assay Card!
Assay cards are a type of packaging that helps to verify the authenticity of a gold bar or coin. If you buy a BU bar from Hero Bullion, you’ll likely receive it in its original Assay certification card. Our customers love these cards; they serve two main purposes. First, an Assay card keeps your bar or coin safe from damage and exposure to the elements.
Second, Assay cards serve as proof that your gold bar actually came from the mint that it’s stamped with. When you finally decide to start selling gold bars, your buyers will want proof that your bar isn’t a fake. There are several ways to verify the legitimacy of a gold bar, but having that original Assay card can go a long way in building trust with your customers.
5: Have Collectable Gold Bars Graded
Not all gold bars are collectable. However, certain gold bars were minted in extremely limited numbers. Other bars are decorated with impressive designs on the obverse, making them especially valuable to collectors.
If this is the case for your gold bars, we recommend professional grading. Gold bars aren’t normally graded in the same way that gold coins are. After all, grading companies like the Professional Coin Grading Service make their money from carefully grading numismatic and historically valuable coins.
Still, a professional coin dealer or numismatist may be able to help you determine the condition of your gold bar. Like coins, gold bars can be bought – and sold – in a variety of conditions. If you want to get the most out of your new-in-assay gold bar, determining its precise condition can be a good choice.
How to Sell Gold Bars for Profit
Selling gold bars isn’t just about maintaining your investments and comparing prices. To make profit while liquidating your gold stack, you’ll need to learn at least a little bit about timing the market.
Timing the Market: Selling Gold Bars For the Right Price
No matter how you choose to invest, timing the market is important. And as far as this golden rule is concerned, the advice is always the same: buy low, sell high.
Reading news sites and consulting experts are two strategies you can use to time the market. No one can see into the future, and it’s nearly impossible to reliably predict the volatile price movements of gold bullion. But with a little bit of time and practice, you can make judgements about when gold has reached its peak – and when gold might be dipping before a big breakthrough.
Is It the Right Time to Sell Gold?
Is it the right time to sell gold bars right now? Yes and no. At the time of writing this article, gold is hovering near its all-year high. It’s tough to imagine that gold will go much higher than this, which is why so many people are trying to sell gold bars right now.
Still, it’s always possible that unforeseen circumstances could cause gold’s price to climb even higher. If this happens, you could be leaving potential profit on the table when you finally part with your gold bar collection.
Tracking Gold’s Spot Price
To make sure you’re getting the most money possible out of selling gold bars, we recommend tracking gold’s spot price. Dealers like Hero Bullion regularly track the spot price of gold on their websites, which can make it easier than ever for consumers to figure out if now is the right time to sell gold.
Pay attention to the trends – not just the numbers. If gold has been hovering at around the same price for a while, you might want to research to figure out why this might be the case. Sometimes, elaborate research might help you see things that other investors missed.
No matter what you do to prepare for selling gold bars, keeping gold’s price trends in mind is one of the most important steps in the seller’s process. While it’s always nice to take profit, you don’t want to sell your gold bars right before gold’s price skyrockets.
Tax Implications for Selling Gold Bars
When you sell gold bars, expect to pay a capital gains tax. The percentage of tax you pay depends both on your marginal tax bracket and the length of your investment.
You can use losses for gold bullion investments to offset capital gains made from other investments in your portfolio. For example, imagine that you sell a gold bar for $500 less than you bought it for. If you also profited selling silver jewelry by $700, you can use that $500 in losses to bring the amount of profit from your second investment down to $200.
We recommend consulting with a tax expert, especially if you’re someone who plans on selling gold bars frequently.
Final Thoughts: 5 Things to Remember About Selling Gold Bars
Selling gold bars might seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. As with everything in the complex world of investing, the best way to sell gold bars is to do your research. Compare prices, vet dealers for trustworthiness, and make sure you’re keeping your gold bars in the best condition possible.
Hero Bullion also buys gold, and our competitive offers might help you establish a lifelong business relationship with us.
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About The Author
Michael Roets
Michael Roets is a writer and journalist for Hero Bullion. His work explores precious metals news, guides, and commentary.