How much does GoldSell pay per gram?
As is typical of many 'freepost' cash-for-gold companies, GoldSell doesn't publish a clear price per gram for each gold purity. Their website only says they 'pay a percentage of the live gold price', based on the amount of gold you send.
In our test, that percentage worked out at just £19.28 per gram for 9ct gold. Our rate for the same 9ct gold on the same day was £33.07 per gram.
Unlike GoldSell, we publish the prices we pay every day, alongside the live market rate. You can even check our 9ct gold price per gram right now. That way, you know exactly what you'll receive before you sell.
Does GoldSell really pay the highest prices?
GoldSell's literature describes them as 'The UK's Number One Online Gold Buyer'. It also promotes a 'Live Price Checker' which they say scans competitor gold prices across the UK twice daily, allowing them to "guarantee to always offer you the highest payout possible".
We publish our rates on this website every day, so any tool checking UK gold prices would find them easily. Yet when we tested GoldSell's service in July 2026, their offer was well below the price we were paying that day.
Their literature also says that refining gold in-house lets them pay "much closer to the actual gold spot price". In our test, their offer was 53.7% of the spot value of our gold. Ours was 92%.
We'll let you draw your own conclusions. Our advice is simple: never rely on a buyer's own claims about their prices. Get a written quote from more than one buyer and compare the actual numbers.
Watch out for GoldSell's return fees
If you reject GoldSell's valuation, their Terms and Conditions (last updated January 2025 when reviewed in July 2026) state that the following fees apply:
9.1 Rejecting Our Valuation
If you reject our valuation, the following fees apply: – £15 testing and handling fee – Actual Royal Mail Special Delivery return postage – Any additional insurance costs you paid (not refunded) – Fees must be paid within 14 days
In our test, that percentage worked out at just £19.28 per gram for 9ct gold. Our rate for the same 9ct gold on the same day was £33.07 per gram.
Their terms also say that if they can't reach you after a valuation, they'll make at least 3 contact attempts over 28 days. After that, payment is processed automatically and treated as accepted.
Their literature adds another fee: if your parcel contains less than 5 grams of gold, a £15 admin fee applies for its return.
Please check GoldSell's current terms before you send anything, as they may have changed. At Gold Traders, if you change your mind within 24 hours, we return your items free of charge. You can see exactly how our process works before you commit to anything.
Is GoldSell legit?
GoldSell is a trading name of GS Metals Ltd, a company registered in England (Companies House number 16077167). The company was incorporated in November 2024, and Companies House records its two directors as born in 1996 and 2001.
Their literature describes "a proud family business with over 50 years of combined experience". We'll leave you to do the maths.
Their registered office is a serviced office suite in Highgate, London, listed as visitable "by appointment only". Their printed literature gives a different address, using an EC1P postcode (a non-geographic postcode used for PO Boxes). There is no high street branch where you can sell your gold face-to-face.
Gold Traders has been buying gold since 2005, with branches in Royal Wootton Bassett and Bodmin. We were the first precious metals company in the UK to gain Trading Standards accreditation through their national 'Buy With Confidence' scheme. Here are more reasons to sell your gold to us.
GoldSell Reviews
GoldSell displays a strong Trustpilot score, and many customers have left positive reviews. That's worth noting, but it helps to understand what a review score does and doesn't tell you.
A happy review usually reflects a smooth process: a free pack that arrives quickly, fast testing, and speedy payment. Those things matter, and they're good to see.
What a review score can't tell you is whether each customer got a fair price for their gold. Most people selling gold have no simple way to know what their items were truly worth on the day. So a five-star review is often about speed and service, not the amount paid.
It's always worth reading the critical reviews, not just the average score. Among GoldSell's 1-star reviews on Trustpilot, a pattern comes up again and again, and it matches what we found.
Several reviewers say the offer they received was far lower than they expected, because GoldSell pays a percentage of the gold price rather than its full value. One reviewer described gold trading at around £38 a gram while they were paid just over £20 a gram, and said they had lost more than £1,000. Another called the company "deliberately opaque with their quotations".
Others report struggling to get their items back after turning down an offer, and being unable to reach anyone by phone, exactly as we found when we called.
We're not saying every GoldSell customer has a bad experience. Many are happy, and the reviews reflect that. But if you only read the five-star reviews, you're only seeing half the picture. Read the 1-star reviews too, then make up your own mind.
That's the whole reason we built this page. Before you judge any offer by someone else's review, get a written valuation from us using the free tool above, and compare the actual figures. A fast payment isn't a good deal if the amount is well below what your gold is worth.
GoldSell phone number
GoldSell publishes two phone numbers: 020 3355 4478 on their website and 0330 043 5507 in their literature. Both connect to the same line, with advertised hours of Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 6:00pm.
When we called in July 2026, both numbers played a recorded message saying the team was experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls, and directed us to email instead. There was no option to leave a message. You may have better luck emailing team@goldsell.co.uk.
If you'd like a breakdown of a GoldSell valuation, ask them for the weight, purity, and price per gram for each item. A reputable buyer should be happy to provide this. If they can't, we'd suggest asking for your items back.
Why we're campaigning for price transparency
Postal gold buyers are free to advertise 'top prices' without publishing the rates they actually pay. That's because the UK's precious metals buying market has no consumer protection rules at all.
We believe that's wrong, and we're doing something about it. Gold Traders is leading a campaign calling on Parliament to regulate the precious metals buying market.
Among our proposals is mandatory price transparency before any transaction takes place. We also want every postal buying service to give sellers a specific written indication of the rate they can realistically expect to be paid, before they're asked to send their items, and to guarantee the free return of all items if an offer is declined.
None of this would change how we operate, because we already do it. We simply believe every seller deserves the same honesty, whoever they sell to.
Get a written quote before you accept
Before accepting any offer from GoldSell, use the free tool above to get a written valuation from us. It takes less than a minute, and it could put a few hundred extra pounds in your pocket.
If you have scrap gold, coins, or any other precious metals to sell, we'll happily value those too.
