Where to Sell Gold in Singapore: Dealer or Pawnshop?
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If you want to sell gold in Singapore you have four realistic options: a bullion dealer, a pawnshop, a jeweller, or a private buyer. They will not offer you the same money, and the gap between them is larger than most people expect.
The reason comes down to one question: what does the buyer plan to do with your gold afterwards? Everything else follows from that.
Why the buyer's plan sets your price
A bullion dealer resells your gold as bullion. A 100g PAMP bar goes back into their inventory and out to the next buyer as the same 100g PAMP bar. Their margin is the spread between what they pay you and what they sell it for, and because bullion turns over quickly at thin margins, that spread can be small.
A pawnshop is pricing against a different exit. They may resell it in a retail case, or melt it, and they are carrying the risk of it sitting unsold. They also deal mostly in jewellery, where purity varies and pieces need testing. Their offer has to cover all of that, so it sits further below spot.
A jeweller buying scrap is usually pricing against melt value and their own refining cost, often with a trade-in structure that only pays properly if you buy something from them.
A private buyer can in theory pay closest to spot, because there is no business in the middle. In practice you take on the authentication problem, the payment risk and the safety question yourself.
What each is realistically good for
| You are selling | Best option |
|---|---|
| Bullion bars or coins | Bullion dealer, comfortably |
| 999 or 916 gold jewellery | Dealer or pawnshop, get both quotes |
| Gold with gemstones set in | Jeweller, or specialist |
| Something you need cash for today, and you want it back later | Pawnshop, because it is a loan not a sale |
That last row is worth separating out, because it is the one genuine advantage a pawnshop has. A pawnshop offers a pledge: you borrow against the gold and redeem it later with interest. A dealer only buys outright. If your problem is short-term cash and you want to keep the piece, a dealer cannot help you and a licensed pawnshop can.
If you are selling outright and never taking it back, that advantage does not apply.
Bullion is where the gap is widest
If what you are holding is an LBMA-accredited bar with its assay card and serial number, a bullion dealer should be your first call, and it is not close.
That bar is already in a form the dealer can resell without doing anything to it. No testing, no refining, no uncertainty about purity. It goes straight back on the shelf. Any buyer who prices it as scrap metal is pricing work they do not have to do, and you pay for that.
Bring the assay certificate. A sealed PAMP or Valcambi bar with intact packaging and matching serial is the easiest thing in the market to price, and it should be priced accordingly.
916 and jewellery are a different conversation
Much of the gold changing hands in Singapore is 916, which is 22 karat, 91.6 percent pure. A lot of it is jewellery bought at Mustafa or in Little India.
Two things to know before you sell it.
First, you are selling the gold content, not the piece. Whatever you paid for craftsmanship, design or a shop's markup does not come back. A buyer is paying for 91.6 percent of the weight at whatever gold is worth today. This is the single biggest source of disappointment when people sell jewellery, and it is better to know it going in.
Second, get more than one quote. Purity testing on jewellery is less standardised than on bullion, and offers vary more than they do on bars. Two or three quotes on the same afternoon is normal practice and costs you nothing.
What to check before you walk in anywhere
- Know the spot price that day. You cannot tell whether an offer is fair without it. Any offer should be quoted as a relationship to spot, not just as a number.
- Ask for the rate, not the total. "What are you paying per gram for 999 today" is a better question than "what will you give me for this". It is also how you compare two buyers quickly.
- Check they are licensed. Precious metals dealers in Singapore register with the Ministry of Law under the Precious Stones and Precious Metals Act. Pawnbrokers are separately licensed. Ask, or check the register.
- Watch how they test. Electronic testing and XRF are non-destructive. Acid testing marks the piece. For bullion, neither should be necessary if the assay card is intact.
- Bring ID. Licensed buyers are required to record it. A buyer who does not ask is not one you want.
- Do not accept a rushed close. Pressure to decide immediately is a signal in itself. A fair offer is still there in an hour.
The question almost nobody asks first
If you are also planning to buy gold at some point, ask about the buyback rate before you buy, not when you come to sell.
The premium you pay on the way in is visible and easy to compare. The rate you get on the way out is invisible at the point of purchase, and it is where the real cost of a round trip sits. A dealer who publishes their buyback rates openly is telling you something a dealer who quotes on the day is not.
If you are selling silver
Silver is harder to sell in Singapore than gold, and it catches people out.
Most pawnshops will either decline silver or offer well under spot for it, because the value per piece is low relative to the handling. That is not a conspiracy, it is just economics at their margins. Bullion dealers who actively trade silver are the practical route, and there are fewer of them.
If you hold silver and have been told it is not worth much, it is worth getting a quote from somewhere that deals in silver as bullion rather than as scrap.
FAZ Gold buys gold and silver at published rates, and we test on site so you see the result before you decide. We are a MinLaw-registered precious metals dealer, not a pawnshop, which means we price your metal against spot because we resell it as bullion. Bring it to the counter at 10 Jalan Besar, #B1-19/20, Sim Lim Tower, open daily 10.30am to 8pm, or call +65 6209 1448 for a rate before you travel.