Settling an estate? This page is for you.
Silver Plate Canada turns the estate's metals drawer into one box, one itemized receipt, and one traceable payment for the estate’s records. Everything is handled on camera, and co-heirs can check every line against the published rates.
The executor's problem, honestly stated
When you clear a house, the metals are the one job with no good answer. The jeweller wants only the gold. Many buyers will not take the silverplate chest. Every stop is a separate trip, a separate stranger, and a separate verbal quote you cannot show the other heirs.
Our answer: send the whole box. We sort it on camera, pay each published category at its published rate, and itemize everything on one receipt.
Paper for the estate file
- An itemized receipt. Every category listed with its weight, rate and dollar amount. One document for the file, matched to rates anyone can check on this site.
- Video handling. Parcels are opened and processed on continuous video, so "what happened to the ladle" always has an answer.
- Published prices, no phone-quote drift. Silverplate, pewter and brass are paid at flat published prices, at the rate posted on the day your parcel is processed. Sterling and gold are paid at live published rates that follow the metal market.
- Traceable payment. Interac e-Transfer, payable to the estate, so every dollar is on the estate’s own record.
Before you box anything: the two rules
Keep the pieces with stories. No payout replaces the christening mug or the ring your parent actually wore. Walk the family through first and pull out what anyone genuinely wants.
When in doubt, send it in. We test and sort every piece. Keep back only pieces the family is not ready to part with: items can come back if the family changes its mind, but at your shipping cost, so the decision to sell is best made before you ship. Unsure about a piece? Email photos to contact@silverplatecanada.ca and we will tell you honestly what it is and whether it belongs in the box or at an auction house. That advice comes free, before anything ships.
Do not polish, and sort with the marks, not by looks. Polishing strips silver and can destroy collectible value. Families reliably mis-sort sterling into the plate pile, because plate was designed to look like sterling. Photos to contact@silverplatecanada.ca settle it before anything ships.
Larger estates and identity checks
Tell us roughly what you have when you request your label, or email contact@silverplatecanada.ca. As part of our anti-money-laundering (FINTRAC) compliance program we ask every seller for photo ID; for an estate, a photo of the front of the executor's driver's licence or other government-issued photo ID, emailed to us, is enough. A buyer who shrugs at identity checks is a red flag.
Signed pieces and sets: decide before you ship
We are a metal buyer: everything we buy is paid for its metal and melted or shredded for recycling. We do not pay collector value. If the family thinks a signed sterling piece or a complete set may be worth more than its metal, keep it out of the box and have an auction house look at it first.
No deadlines, ever
Metal prices move, but the metal keeps. The box can sit on a shelf for months before the family feels ready, and it costs nothing while it waits. Your label is good for 30 days. If it runs out, just ask and we'll send a new one.
Estate professionals: lawyers, liquidators, auction houses and senior move managers handle scrap-grade metals constantly. Ask about trade terms: contact@silverplatecanada.ca.
More reading: how to sell inherited silver without regrets.
Silver Plate Canada • silverplatecanada.ca/for-executors • contact@silverplatecanada.ca • (416) 799-7528 • Weekdays 9 to 5 Eastern