Where to Sell (or Buy) Gold, Silver & Platinum in Alaska

AS 08.76.010 and 08.76.020 require "a person engaged in the business of buying and selling secondhand articles" to keep a book recording each purchase: the date, the customer's name, age and address, a description of the item, the price paid and the customer's signature, open to a peace officer at reasonable times. The text says nothing about a place of business in Alaska; only the section heading mentions a book "kept at place of business," and Alaska law states that headings are not part of the statutes (AS 01.05.006). Alaska's pawnbroker license covers "a person who lends money in exchange for a pledge of property," and we make no loans. We have no Alaska premises; your items travel to our refinery in Oregon and the purchase happens there.

After you accept, you complete a simple online verification before we pay. Send only items that are yours to sell.

You get an itemized offer listing each piece with its weight and purity. Turn it down and we mail everything back with free return postage.* Accept and payment goes out the same day.**

Any Alaska business that buys and sells secondhand articles, other than a bank or a licensed pawnbroker, must write each purchase into a permanent book at the time of the sale: the date, who handled it, your name, age and address, a description of what was bought, the price and your signature. Entries go in ink or indelible pencil in date order with no blank lines or erasures, and a peace officer can inspect the book at reasonable times. Breaking these rules is a misdemeanor. The statute does not call for a copy of your ID, a police report or a waiting period.

Pawnbrokers are licensed by the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, and their rules cover outright purchases too. The register records the type of government photo ID you showed, who issued it and its number, and is kept for one year. The shop sends police a weekly report describing everything it bought or took in pawn, with a full description of any item containing precious metals or gemstones, and gives you a written agreement showing the purchase price. A pawnbroker cannot knowingly deal with anyone under 18, anyone visibly under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or anyone using another person's name, and cannot do business between midnight and 6 a.m. or through a drive-through window.

There is no routine holding period for what a pawnbroker buys. Police can order a specific item held for 30 days, with up to two 30-day extensions, when they have probable cause to think it was stolen.

Alaska is the only state without a statewide sales tax that lets local governments levy a general sales tax, and some boroughs and cities do. A 2026 law, HB 1 (chapter 6, SLA 2026), added AS 29.45.650(m) and 29.45.700(i), which bar any borough or city from taxing "the value of the gold or silver contained within specie" when it is sold or exchanged. Specie means gold or silver valued mainly for its metal content, in the form of a coin or of bullion stamped with its weight and purity.

The protection covers the metal value only. A dealer premium above that value, jewelry, and platinum or palladium can still carry local sales tax wherever a borough or city charges one. When you sell, none of this applies to you: sales tax is the buyer's cost, whether you sell to a shop in Anchorage or to us by mail.

Alaska's income tax chapter applies to corporations; AS 43.20.012 states that the tax does not apply to an individual, so there is no Alaska return on which to report a profit from gold, silver or platinum. Federally, the IRS taxes physical precious metals as collectibles: gains on metal held more than a year are taxed at up to 28%, and metal held a year or less is taxed as ordinary income. Inherited pieces generally use the value on the date of death as their cost basis.

HB 1 added AS 44.12.400, which makes specie legal tender in Alaska to the fullest extent the U.S. Constitution allows. It covers gold and silver coins and stamped bullion issued by the federal government when the federal government treats them as legal tender, and by qualifying foreign governments that treat them as legal tender; state-issued specie counts only after a final court ruling. The same section says no person or government has to accept gold or silver as payment, and it asks the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee to study other forms of legal tender. Buyers still price your metal off the spot market, not face value.