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

Wis. Stat. 134.71 defines a secondhand jewelry dealer as anyone who "engages in the business of any transaction consisting of purchasing, selling, receiving or exchanging secondhand jewelry" and says no one may operate as one without a license, with no "in this state" limit in either place. The rest of the statute is built around a Wisconsin location: a dealer with "a principal place of business in a municipality" applies to that municipality's clerk, and records are open to police when that place of business is open. The definition also leaves out any transaction entered into by a business that smelts, refines, assays or manufactures precious metals "if the person has no retail operation open to the public" (134.71(1)(h)3). Section 134.71 does not mention buyers outside the state or purchases by mail, and gold and silver coins and bullion are outside the holding period. We have no Wisconsin 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.**

Wisconsin regulates walk-in buyers under Wis. Stat. 134.71. Anyone in the business of buying secondhand jewelry needs a secondhand jewelry dealer license, silverware and flatware fall under the secondhand article dealer license, and pawnshops need a pawnbroker license from their municipality. Applicants are checked by local police for related convictions in the past ten years, and licenses run January 1 to December 31.

Before buying, the dealer must see an accepted ID, such as a Wisconsin or other state photo driver's license, a state ID card, a passport or a military ID; a government ID without a photo works only if the dealer takes your right index fingerprint. You complete and sign a state form in ink for each sale, the dealer keeps it at least a year and makes it available to police within 24 hours. A dealer may not buy from anyone under 18 unless a parent or guardian is there or has given written consent.

Jewelry and other secondhand items then stay with a jewelry or article dealer for 21 days and with a pawnbroker for 30 days, unaltered and open to police inspection; where a report must be filed electronically, the hold is 7 days after the report. Police can extend the hold on an item they believe was stolen. U.S. coins, any gold or silver coin and gold or silver bullion are exempt from the hold, and the statute sets no cash limit or check-only rule.

Since March 2024, Wis. Stat. 77.54(74) has exempted precious metal bullion, meaning coins, bars, rounds or sheets that contain at least 35% gold, silver, copper, platinum or palladium and are marked with weight, purity and content or were minted by a government on that basis. Jewelry, works of art and scrap are expressly left out and are taxed at the 5% state rate plus any county tax (0.5% in most counties, 0.9% in Milwaukee County) and the 2% City of Milwaukee tax.

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

Wisconsin taxes individual income at 3.5% to 7.65% (Wis. Stat. 71.06). Under Wis. Stat. 71.05(6)(b)9, you subtract 30% of the capital gain on assets held more than one year and on all assets acquired from a decedent, with gains and losses netted first; the statute makes no exception for coins, bullion or jewelry. Gains on metal held a year or less are taxed in full.

Federal rules still apply: 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 metal generally uses its value on the date of death as its cost basis. We are not tax advisers, so check with yours before you file.

No Wisconsin statute makes gold or silver coin legal tender; the 2024 change was a sales-tax exemption for bullion, not a legal-tender law. It changes nothing about selling: buyers price your metal off the live market, not face value.