How selling by mail works
Four steps. The rates are published before you ship, everything is processed on camera, and your payment arrives with an itemized receipt. Here is exactly what happens at each step, with the numbers we hold ourselves to.
Step 1: Request your shipping label
You pack and ship your box with the carrier you prefer. Sending 20 lb or more, or sterling or gold? Ask us for a discounted shipping label: our commercial rate is well below counter prices, and the label cost is simply deducted from your payment.
The label form asks how many boxes you are sending (up to 10), their sizes and rough weights, in centimetres and kilograms or inches and pounds, whichever you think in. Your label arrives by email, and it does not expire. Sending only a small lot (jewellery, coins, a few pieces of sterling)? Pick that option on the form and the label is sized for a padded envelope instead.
Step 2: Pack your box and decide what stays home
Any sturdy box works. Wrap pieces so they do not shift, and do not polish anything: polishing strips silver and can reduce the value of pieces we would rather buy whole.
The one rule that matters: when in doubt, leave it out. You can have items back if you change your mind, but the return trip is at your shipping cost, so the cheap decision is the one made before you seal the box. Email photos of anything you are unsure about to contact@silverplatecanada.ca and we will tell you honestly what to send and what to keep. A signed piece or a complete set from a known maker can be worth more whole than melted; if you think you have one, we will say so plainly before you ship.
Step 3: Ship it
Tape the label on and drop the box at any courier location, or hand it to your own carrier. Shipping on your own account instead of using our label? Address the parcel to Silver Plate Canada, 2687 Slough St, Mississauga, ON L4T 1G2. Our labels are tracked door to door; keep the receipt slip with the tracking number. Add declared-value coverage if you wish. From the moment your parcel arrives here, it is documented on continuous video.
Step 4: We open it on camera and pay the published rates
Every parcel is opened on continuous video: the sealed exterior with the waybill visible, then every piece sorted by material and weighed. Sterling and coins are tested with a professional XRF analyzer, which reads the metal without damaging anything.
Within 4 business days of arrival, your payment goes out by Interac e-Transfer or cheque, together with an itemized receipt: every category, every weight, every rate, every dollar, at the rates published on the what we pay page.
Sterling silver, gold, dental gold, bullion and silver coins are the exception. Those categories have no published grid, so we contact you with a written quote before processing. Nothing in those categories is processed until you approve the quote, and a clearly rare coin date is priced individually in the quote instead of being valued as metal.
Want the machine-room detail, step by step from arrival photo to receipt? It has its own page: how we process your items.
Silver Plate Canada • silverplatecanada.ca • contact@silverplatecanada.ca • (416) 799-7528 • Weekdays 9 to 5 Eastern
Why mail-in beats driving around town
Walk-in buyers cluster in big cities, their counter quotes vary widely, and almost none of them will touch silverplate at all. Mailing to a buyer with published rates means you know the deal before you ship, and your itemized receipt shows exactly how every dollar was calculated. If you live in Northern Ontario, a small town, or anywhere the nearest buyer is a long drive away, mail-in is simply the practical option. That is who we built this for.
Or skip the shipping and drop it off
If you are in or near the Greater Toronto Area, you can bring everything to our Mississauga location yourself instead of mailing it. There is no shipping label, no box measuring and no courier cost deducted from your payment.
Everything after that is exactly the same as the four steps above: your items are sorted and weighed on camera, sterling and coins are tested with the XRF, published categories are paid at the published rates within 4 business days with an itemized receipt, and sterling silver, gold, dental gold, bullion and silver coins are still quoted to you in writing before anything is processed.
Book a time and a team member will be waiting for you: what you are bringing, a day, a time, and you are done. The form asks roughly how much is coming, so dealers, pawn shops and estate liquidators arriving with a large load get help and a pallet jack ready at the door. If you would rather not use the form, email contact@silverplatecanada.ca or call (416) 799-7528 and we will book it for you.