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

Business and Professions Code 21626 covers any business "whose business includes buying" secondhand tangible personal property, with no "in this state" limit, and AB 2633 adds that from January 1, 2027 "every entity acting as a secondhand dealer" must hold a valid California secondhand dealer's license and report to the state's CAPSS database. That license is granted by a local police chief or sheriff, and "the business shall be carried on only at the location designated on the license" (21642). Section 21628 lets a dealer verify a seller's identity remotely with cameras or software, but no California statute says whether a buyer outside the state needs the license, and coins, monetized bullion and marked bars of .99 fine or better fall outside these reporting rules entirely. We have no California 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. Under California Penal Code 484.1, knowingly giving a pawnbroker or secondhand dealer false information about your identity or your right to sell, and getting paid for it, is theft.

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.**

California licenses walk-in gold and jewelry buyers as secondhand dealers under Business and Professions Code 21625 and following, and operating without one can be charged as a misdemeanor. The rules cover items bearing a serial number, initials or an inscription, plus any class of goods that makes up more than 10% of property reported stolen in California the year before; the Department of Justice's reporting bulletin lists jewelry and precious metals as one of the classes it measures. For each sale the dealer verifies a government ID such as a passport, driver's license or state ID card (in person or remotely), records your certification that you own the items or may sell them, takes a legible fingerprint, keeps those records three years and reports the purchase to the state's CAPSS database by the next business day. No reportable purchase may be made from a minor.

The dealer then holds the item seven days from the report; the hold can end after five days if the shop resells it and records the buyer's name and contact details. Police can place a further hold of up to 90 days on property they believe is stolen. Coins, monetized bullion and marked bars of .99 fine or better are outside the reporting and hold rules, and cities and counties may not add their own ID, holding or reporting rules for them. State secondhand dealer law sets no cash limit or check-only rule for these purchases.

AB 2633, signed September 27, 2026, takes effect January 1, 2027. It ends the separate treatment of coin dealers, states that every business acting as a secondhand dealer needs a California license and must report to CAPSS, and bars local permits for anyone without that state license.

California's sales tax applies to gold and silver bullion and to coins sold as collector items or investments. CDTFA Regulation 1599 exempts "sales in bulk": bullion and coins totaling 2,000 dollars or more in market value in one transaction (Revenue and Taxation Code 6355 raises that figure in 500-dollar steps as inflation adds up), sold by or through a dealer that is registered under, or not required to register under, the federal Commodity Exchange Act. Jewelry is always taxed, and the exemption names only gold and silver bullion, so platinum and palladium bars do not qualify. Rates run from 7.25% to 11.75% depending on the city.

When you sell: sales tax is a buyer's cost, not yours. You pay no California sales tax when you sell your gold, silver or platinum, whether to a local shop or to us by mail.

The Franchise Tax Board states that California does not have a lower rate for capital gains and taxes all capital gains as ordinary income, so a profit on gold, silver or platinum is added to your other income on the state return.

Federal rules apply on top: the IRS taxes physical precious metals as collectibles, with gains on metal held more than a year capped at 28% and gains on metal held a year or less taxed as ordinary income. Inherited pieces generally use the value on the date of death as their cost basis, so they often carry little taxable gain. We are not tax advisers, so check with yours before you file.

California has no sound-money law making gold or silver coin legal tender in the state, and its tax code treats bullion and coins as taxable property outside the bulk-sale exemption. In practice that changes nothing about selling: every buyer prices your metal off the live spot market, not face value.