There's a business called Vintage & Collectables Roadshow who want to buy your unwanted jewellery and vintage items.
The most likely way you'll become aware of a Vintage & Collectables Roadshow in your area is via the glossy 20-page brochure that's hand-delivered to properties in the locality of an upcoming event. There's no denying that the brochure looks impressive and goes into extensive detail as to what items they're interested in buying at their upcoming event.
This type of business model in not uncommon. With the steep rise in gold prices, vintage buying events have become commonplace and for many people, a convenient service. For minimal effort, you could be walking away with cash in your pocket within minutes of popping over to your local church hall.
Be a Savvy Seller
This article takes a look at the service offered, the positives and potential negatives you may encounter.
Page 3 of their glossy brochure includes an endorsement from antiques expert and TV personality, David Hakeney:
The Vintage Collectables Roadshow is the simple way for people to unlock the true value of their unwanted goods.
Come see us at a roadshow near you.
Unlock the True Value of your Items
That's the statement repeated twice on page 3 of their brochure - something any potential seller wants to read and hear.
The process is simple. You turn up to an event (no appointment necessary), an expert appraises your item(s), an offer is made, and it's up to you to determine whether to accept or decline. There's no pressure, no hard sell.
Let's pause for a moment and ponder...
If you're offered £600 for a gold chain, how do you know if this is a fair price or not?
With gold prices at record highs, it's easy for a buyer to quote a seemingly attractive price, but what if, in fact, you could get double the price offered? The key to unlocking the true value of your gold is to be as informed as possible. With gold prices at record highs, offers that often seem attractive can actually fall well short of what you could achieve.
Gold Values - Be Informed!
It's very common at gold-buying events to be simply given an offer price for gold jewellery, without any sort of breakdown or explanation as to how the figure was arrived at. In doing so, it's very hard for the seller to judge if they're being offered a fair price. In fairness, it's not really the job of a buyer to furnish the seller with all the necessary information required. Therefore, if you want to avoid selling something for below market value, it's up to you to get clued-up!
Back in March, we put the Vintage & Collectables team to the test when they visited a location near us. We took a fully hallmarked 18ct gold albert chain to be valued. On the day of the valuation, Gold Traders would have paid £1,273. The Vintage & Collectables Roadshow team offered just £660.
So let's return to that original question...
If you were offered a price for an item, how would you know if you're being offered a fair deal?
When talking about many antique items, it's very difficult for the seller to judge if the offer is fair. Be it cameras, bronzes, paintings or antiques, the buyer will often have an intimate knowledge of the market, thus knowing what to offer. With jewellery however, the average seller has more leverage because values can be calculated.
With today's high gold price, the simple truth around the value of an item of gold jewellery is that it's more than likely simply worth its weight in gold. This is sometimes referred to as its 'melt value' or 'scrap value'. To ensure you get a fair deal, you need to understand scrap gold prices and know what your items are worth.
Here are our top tips to ensure you get a fair price for your gold...
Identify the purity of your gold
It can seem daunting, but we cannot stress how important it is to know the purity of your gold. With the help of a magnifying glass or even the zoom camera on your phone, working out those tiny marks on your gold isn't as tricky as you might think.
- Read our simple gold hallmark guide to learn what to look for.
- If you want to dive a little deeper into your hallmarks, use our gold hallmark wizard, which can help you date your item, as well as confirm its purity.
Know the weight of your gold
Does your gold weigh 10g or 100g? Again, it's critical you know this information. Using digital scales, weigh your jewellery in grams, ideally to 1/10th of a gram. It's likely you'll be using your kitchen scales for this, which aren't the most accurate, but at least you'll gain a reasonable understanding of the weight of your jewellery.
Fact: On an item of 18ct gold jewellery, for every 0.1g variation in weight, it's value will change by a whopping £9.13.
Know the price of gold per gram
At Gold Traders, we believe transparency is key to a fair transaction. That's why we publish the live bullion market rates, alongside the rates we pay. Before you sell gold, you need to know:
- The price per gram gold is trading at on the live bullion market
- The price per gram you're being offered for your unwanted jewellery
You'll almost always be offered a lower rate than the live bullion market rate. Every business has its overheads and ultimately, needs to make a profit.
Professional buyers should be offering you more than 90% of the live bullion market rate for your gold.
Here are the rates we're paying right now:
| Purity | Live Rate | We're Paying |
|---|---|---|
| 9ct Gold | £45.65/g | £41.87/g |
| 14ct Gold | £71.22/g | £65.32/g |
| 18ct Gold | £91.30/g | £83.74/g |
| 22ct Gold | £111.51/g | £102.28/g |
| Sovereigns | £889.88 | £869.42 |
All prices correct, as of 22nd February 2026.
Calculate the value of your gold
Once you know the weight and the purity of your gold, it's just bit of simple maths to calculate the value of your gold.
Weight in grams x gold price per gram
To make this even easier, we've got our own scrap gold calculator that will help you calculate the true, market value of your gold, along with the price we'd pay. The calculator is always up-to-date and if you're using it during the working day and you're within driving distance of one of our offices, it's the price you'll be paid if you turn up at the counter.
Silver Prices
Whilst their brochure goes into great detail as to the items they're interested in buying, very little information is given as to what prices they pay. One exception is for pre '47 silver coins, which they state will pay 10x face value for.
Whilst the price of silver hasn't seen the meteoric rise that gold has enjoyed, a seller can achieve far better rates for their pre '47 silver coins.
At the time of writing, Gold Traders is paying:
- 36 x face value for silver coins dated between 1920 and 1946
- 67 x face value for silver coins dated before 1920
To get an accurate, up-front valuation on pre-47 silver coins, see our predecimal silver coin calculator.
If you have unwanted silver and would like a comparison valuation, see our scrap silver prices.
Informed Decisions
Following the advice above can provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision about whether the price you're offered is fair. In our opinion, this is the way you unlock the true value of your items.
