How to Sell Gold Bullion in Toronto: Bars, Coins and What to Expect

Selling gold bullion is a very different transaction from selling scrap jewellery. Jewellery has to be tested and sorted before anyone knows what it is. Bullion is already a known quantity: a one ounce Maple Leaf is one ounce of gold, and the only real questions are whether it is genuine and what spread the dealer applies. That makes the whole thing simpler, faster, and much easier to compare between buyers.

Understand how bullion is priced

Every honest bullion price starts from spot: the global market price for one troy ounce of gold, quoted here in Canadian dollars. Dealers buy below spot and sell above it, and the gap between the two is the spread. That spread is how a bullion desk covers verification, storage, insurance and the risk of holding metal while the market moves.

At AGN we publish both our buy and sell prices on the bullion pages of this site, refreshed hourly against the live market. You can check the number before you leave home, and it is the same figure whether you bring one ounce or fifty.

Know what you actually own before you go

• A 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf is .9999 fine and weighs 31.10 g — one full ounce of gold
• A 1 oz Krugerrand or American Eagle is 22 karat and weighs 33.93 g — still exactly one ounce of gold, alloyed for hardness
• A full British sovereign contains 7.3224 g of fine gold, not the 7.98 g it weighs
• A 10 oz bar is where counterfeiting effort concentrates, so expect it to be tested more thoroughly

You do not need to work any of this out yourself. But knowing roughly how much fine gold you are carrying means you can sanity-check an offer against spot on your phone before you accept it.

What verification should look like

A dealer who takes your bar into a back room is asking you to trust a process you cannot see. Verification should happen in front of you and should take more than a glance.

1. Weight to 0.01 g on a calibrated scale you can read
2. Diameter and thickness measured with digital callipers against the mint's published specification
3. Ultrasound or conductivity testing, which reads the interior rather than the surface
4. Serial numbers matched to assay packaging where the bar is still sealed

Tungsten-cored fakes exist and they defeat weight-only checks, because tungsten has almost the same density as gold. That is exactly why ultrasound matters on larger bars, and why a buyer who skips it is either careless or pricing that risk into your offer.

Local settlement versus mailing it away

Online bullion dealers will quote a tighter spread than most walk-in shops. What that quote does not include is insured shipping, the days your metal spends in someone else's hands, the possibility of a dispute about what arrived, and the wait for funds to clear. Selling locally means the metal never leaves the desk, you watch every test, and you are paid the same visit.

Red flags when selling bullion

• A buyer who will not tell you their spread, only a final number
• An offer quoted per gram when everything in bullion trades per troy ounce, which makes comparison harder
• Pressure to sell immediately because 'the price is dropping'
• Deductions appearing after the metal has been weighed
• Anyone who wants to take your bar out of sight

What to bring

Bring the metal exactly as it is stored — sealed assay cards, tubes, flips or envelopes. Do not clean or polish anything; original surfaces help authentication and scratches do not reduce gold content. Bring government photo ID, because Ontario's second-hand dealer rules require identification for the transaction. If you have original receipts or bank paperwork, they speed things up but are never required.

Selling bullion at AGN

We are at 1646 Victoria Park Avenue in North York, open Monday to Friday 12pm to 7pm and Saturday 12pm to 5pm. No appointment is needed for ordinary transactions, though a call ahead on (416) 551-6400 helps if you are bringing a large position so we can set aside the time.