What is spot price?
What the phrase usually means, what it leaves unspecified and why it is not a guaranteed retail transaction.
Read the guide →Gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium
Metal price, purity and selling guides
Shorter task-focused explanations complement the research library and help readers compare prices, convert units and evaluate a transaction.
Core concepts
Start with price mechanics
These concepts apply across several metals and prevent the most common comparison errors.
Bullion premiums and spreads
Why a coin or bar costs more than contained metal and sells back at a different price.
Read the guide →Troy ounces and grams
Convert precious-metal units without confusing a troy ounce with an ordinary ounce.
Use the guide and converter →Where to find a price source
Start with a primary market-reference source, then capture its unit, currency, quote type and timestamp.
Find price sources →By metal
Identification, units and value
Gold purity and karat
Understand 375, 417, 585, 750, 916 and 999 fineness and their approximate karat equivalents.
Read the gold purity guide →Sterling silver value
Separate 925 silver's fine-metal content from craftsmanship, condition, provenance and selling costs.
Read the sterling guide →Copper price conventions
Understand cents per pound, dollars per tonne, refined cathode and why scrap grades receive different offers.
Read the copper price guide →Metal-price methodology
The source, unit, timing, conversion and correction fields every future data point must carry.
Read the methodology →Gold price per gram
Convert a stated troy-ounce reference into a per-gram figure, then keep purity and real offers separate.
Read the gold-per-gram guide →Copper scrap grades
Separate wire, tubing, insulated cable, alloys and uncertain material before requesting comparable quotes.
Use the sorting checklist →Selling checklists
Prepare before requesting offers
Sorting, documenting and comparing like-for-like bids can matter as much as the arithmetic.
How to sell gold
Protect collectible value, document weight and purity assumptions, understand testing, and compare itemized offers.
Read the gold selling checklist →How to sell silver
Sort sterling, coins, flatware and plated pieces before estimating fine-metal value and contacting buyers.
Read the silver selling checklist →How to sell platinum
Document form, fineness and net weight; protect resale value before treating an item as melt material.
Read the platinum selling checklist →How to sell palladium
Separate known-fineness items from industrial material that requires specialist identification or assay.
Read the palladium selling checklist →Work from the item in front of you
Identify, route, then compare
These practical paths separate identification, contained-metal arithmetic and a real buyer offer so one uncertain step does not become a confident-looking number.
1. Identify
Silver-plated or sterling?
Use marks and construction clues safely before deciding whether a silver-content calculation applies.
Identify silver first →2. Choose a value route
Melt value or resale value?
Keep an item's identity, collectible features and components in view before treating it as recoverable metal.
Choose the right value route →3. Prepare a sale
How to sell copper
Sort a lot, document weight and make buyers quote the same material before comparing a rate.
Prepare copper for sale →4. Compare
What do you retain?
Subtract documented deductions and route costs from two offers in the same currency.
Compare net offers →