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. Your label is good for 30 days. If it runs out, just ask and we'll send a new one. Sending only a small lot (jewellery or 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
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.
When in doubt, send it in. We test and sort every piece, so you do not have to work out what is what. Keep home only pieces you are not ready to part with: you can have items back if you change your mind, but the return trip is at your shipping cost. Email photos of anything you are unsure about to contact@silverplatecanada.ca and we will tell you honestly what you have. We pay metal value only, so if you think a piece is worth more whole than melted, keep it or sell it elsewhere before you ship.
Step 3: Ship it
Tape the label on and drop the box at a drop-off location near you; we send you the closest ones when you request your label. Have 50 lb or more within a 2 hour drive of us? We can pick it up instead. 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. If you ship on your own account, you can add declared-value coverage with your carrier. 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 gold are tested with a professional XRF analyzer. Where plating could hide what is underneath, we may make a scratch, which is industry standard to ensure accurate testing.
Your payment goes out by Interac e-Transfer, together with an itemized receipt: every category, every weight, every rate, every dollar, at the rates published on the what we pay page.
Sterling and gold have live prices. Sterling is paid by the silver in it and gold by the gram, at rates that follow the metal market and are published on the what we pay page. We are a metal buyer: everything is paid for its metal and melted or shredded for recycling, so if you think a piece is worth more than its metal, keep it out of the box.
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, sterling and gold are tested with the XRF, published categories are paid at the published rates with an itemized receipt, and gold is paid at its live published rate too.
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 and we will book it for you.