"Three Days Only": What to Know Before You Sell to a Travelling Gold Buyer

It shows up in your mailbox every few months. A big glossy two-page flyer, folded once, printed on heavy stock. Photos of coins and rings and a stack of bills. Bold type across the top: TOP DOLLAR PAID. THREE DAYS ONLY.

Then a hotel conference room here in Coquitlam, booked for a long weekend. A folding table, a velvet cloth, a scale, and two friendly people telling you they're only in town until Saturday.

There is nothing illegal about any of it. But the people who walk out of those rooms have often left a lot of money behind, and most of them never find out.

Here's how to make sure that isn't you.

Four Things to Do Before You Sell to Anyone

1. Sort your items by karat stamp at home — 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K, or the number versions, 417, 585, 750, 916. Keep each karat in its own pile so nothing gets weighed together and paid at the lowest rate.
2. Weigh everything in grams. A kitchen scale will get you close; a jeweller's scale that reads to 0.01 g costs about $20. Now you know roughly what you're carrying before anyone else does.
3. Ask every buyer the same two questions: what do you pay per gram, and for which karat. That's the only number that lets you compare one offer to another. Not a total, not a lump sum for the box.
4. Get at least two quotes, and get one of them in advance. Our buying prices are posted right on the What We Pay page and they update live every time you refresh it, so you can see our numbers from your kitchen table before you drive anywhere. Call 604-779-2755 if you'd rather talk it through. No appointment needed to ask, and no obligation either way.

That's the whole defence. The rest of this is why each step matters.

The Deadline Isn't About Gold Prices

The "three days only" framing does one job: it stops you from getting a second opinion. Gold doesn't expire on Sunday. If an offer is fair on Saturday, it's fair on Tuesday.

The same goes for the free appraisal. Getting your items onto their side of the table is most of the sale. Once your grandmother's jewellery is sorted into little piles and someone has stepped away to "check with my buyer," walking out feels rude. That feeling is the product.

The Expenses Speech

When you say the number seems low, you'll hear a version of this:

"I wish I could pay more, but look what it costs us to be here. The room, the advertising, the travel, staff, insurance, security. Then the refinery charges us to melt and assay it. We're working on a thin margin."

Every one of those costs is real. And none of them are your problem.

Nobody asked them to rent a ballroom. A permanent shop has rent and staff and insurance too, and still manages to quote a number that isn't insulting. Overhead explains why a business needs a margin. It doesn't explain a margin of fifty percent.

Notice what the speech actually does. It moves the conversation away from the one question that matters, which is what your gold is worth, and onto something you can't check and can't argue with.

What to Watch at the Table

1. Grams or Pennyweights

A pennyweight is 1.555 grams. "$X per pennyweight" sounds far better than it is if you're thinking in grams. Ask for the price per gram, and ask what karat it applies to.

2. Mixed Karats on One Scale

If your 18K rings go on the scale with a pile of 10K chain and the whole lot is paid at the 10K rate, you've donated the difference. Every karat should be weighed and priced separately, in front of you.

3. 22K and 24K Paid as if It Were Less

This one costs Lower Mainland families the most. South Asian gold is usually 22K, which is roughly 92% pure. 14K is roughly 58%. Pay 22K at a 14K rate and more than a third of the value quietly disappears, with nothing on the receipt to show where it went. Ask which karat rate is being applied to which pile, every time.

4. Your Items Leaving Your Sight

Nothing should go into a back room, and the scale display should face you. If either of those is a problem, that's your answer.

Some Things Are Worth More Than Their Weight

Travelling buyers price nearly everything as scrap. But a fair amount of what crosses that table is worth more than its metal:

• Pre-1968 Canadian and pre-1965 US silver coins, which carry real silver content well above face value
• Older or hallmarked pieces with genuine craftsmanship
• Watches, where the gold is often the least valuable part
• Pieces with quality stones that get "set aside" and not counted

If something in your box is old, signed, unusual, or simply beautiful, it deserves its own conversation before it gets weighed with the broken chain.

The Part That Matters Most: Who's Still Here Next Month

A permanent precious metals office in BC operates under federal, provincial, and municipal rules. Government-issued photo ID on every transaction, records kept, a real address, a business licence, a BBB file, and reviews written by neighbours who can come back and complain in person.

An operation built around being gone by Sunday is built around not having those consequences. If something feels wrong on Tuesday, your recourse is a phone number in another province.

This isn't about where someone is from. It's about whether their prices are published before you arrive, whether the math is shown to you step by step, and whether they'll still be reachable in March.

Five Star Gold Exchange is a BBB-accredited gold buyer at #230 – 1140 Austin Ave in Coquitlam, serving the entire Lower Mainland. Our buying prices are posted publicly and update live on every page refresh, every item is tested and weighed in front of you, and there's never any obligation to sell. Appointments: 604-779-2755 or info@fsge.ca.