Investigation ·
South African gold buyers:
We went and counted. Across 34 South African gold buyers and two review platforms we read 4 295 public reviews, sorted worst-first, and pulled out the 191 substantive one- and two-star accounts. Most of them, 157 of the 191, are about service: rudeness, waiting, stock. Those are irritating but they do not cost you money. 34 describe something that does, and those 34 share a shape. The dispute is almost never about the advertised rate. It is the weight on the scale, and deductions that allegedly appeared only once the seller was standing at the counter. That is good news, because both are things you can check for yourself before you go anywhere, and checking costs you nothing.
Weigh your own gold before you go. It costs you nothing and it might save you a great deal.
This is a precaution, not an accusation. We are not saying any particular buyer will weigh your gold wrongly, and most of the complaints we read were about service rather than about money. But weighing is the one number the whole payout is built on, and it is the one thing you can settle for yourself before you set foot anywhere. If everything is in order you have lost nothing by checking. If it is not, you will be the only person in the room who knows.
A jeweller's pocket scale accurate to 0.01 g costs roughly R150 to R300, less than one gram of 9ct gold, which is worth R853,34 today. Weigh every piece at home, separated by karat, write the figures down, photograph the scale with the gold on it, and take the scale with you. If you would rather not buy one, a jeweller or a pharmacy will usually weigh a piece for you, and a second opinion from anyone is better than none.
Then watch the weighing. Scales used to work out what you get paid are legal measuring instruments in South Africa and must be verified; ask to see the verification sticker. If their number and yours disagree by more than a rounding difference, say so and ask for a re-weigh on a second scale. A buyer with nothing to hide will not mind being asked.
Our method, so you can check our working
The data is published. The complaint distribution and the advertised-rate comparison are both downloadable as CSV, with a JSON summary carrying the method and the caveats: complaints by category, the full summary. Released under CC BY 4.0, so anyone may reuse or re-cut these figures with attribution. If you check our arithmetic and find it wrong, we want to know.
This is our own study. We are not aware of anyone else having published one for this market, which is part of why we did it. There is no trade body counting these complaints, no regulator publishing them, and no way for a seller to find out what actually goes wrong before it goes wrong to them. So we went and counted.
We searched Google Maps for gold buyers across Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha and Bloemfontein, which surfaced 81 businesses carrying at least 25 reviews. From those we took the 34 whose stated trade is buying gold or precious metal from the public, excluding general second-hand chains and jewellery retailers because their complaint profile is a different thing and would muddy the sample. We pulled their reviews sorted lowest-rated first, so that complaints surfaced rather than being buried under volume.
We then did the same on HelloPeter, South Africa's own consumer complaints platform, which matters because it is a completely separate population of reviewers: a HelloPeter complaint is written by someone who went looking for somewhere to complain, not by someone Google prompted after a visit. Five of the 34 have a HelloPeter presence, adding 2 124 reviews to the 2 171 from Google.
We also checked Trustpilot and Reddit. Trustpilot carries a few of these businesses, though far too thinly to build a third sample from. One of them has its Trustpilot rating withheld by the platform for a breach of its guidelines, which is the same warning about star averages this page makes below. Reddit searches surfaced coin-trading threads from other countries rather than South Africans describing selling gold locally, so there is no meaningful Reddit corpus here to report. We excluded one bullion investment company that does appear on HelloPeter, because its complaints concern investment contracts rather than counter transactions.
The combined corpus is 4 295 reviews spanning 2015 to 2026, of which 191 were one- or two-star accounts substantial enough to describe what actually happened.
One caveat about the shape of that corpus, because it matters and is not obvious. It is not evenly spread. One business alone accounts for about half of all 4 295 reviews, because it holds far more reviews than anyone else in the market and appears on both platforms. So the corpus is weighted toward the largest businesses, and a reader should not take the totals as a survey of the trade evenly sampled. Here is how the complaints break down.
Most of the businesses we looked at produced nothing relevant, and it would be unfair not to lead with that. Of the 34 in the sample, 21 produced no complaint of any kind about the mechanics of the deal, Their critical reviews concerned service, stock, hours and process instead: rudeness, waiting, opening times. A single complaint among hundreds of reviews is not a pattern on its own. What follows describes the shape of the complaints in aggregate. It is not a finding against anybody, and no business is identified anywhere on this page.
Two different kinds of thing appear below, and it matters which is which. The counting, the categories, the rate comparison and every calculation are ours, and we stand behind them: they were done from the raw capture, they are reproducible, and if any of them is wrong we want to hear about it. The customer accounts are not ours and are not findings. Each is a public statement by a customer, reproduced word for word with its date and the branch it names. We have not independently verified any individual account, we are not asserting that any of them is true, and every business named here also holds a large number of positive reviews. We publish them because the same handful of complaints recur across different businesses, different cities and different years, and because knowing what the recurring complaints are is exactly what lets you protect yourself against them.
| Complaint | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Weight or scale dispute | 14 | 7% |
| Offer far below an independent valuation | 12 | 6% |
| Advertised or quoted price not honoured | 4 | 2% |
| Review solicited or written by the business | 3 | 2% |
| Undisclosed or counter-side deduction | 1 | 1% |
| Service, stock, payment or process | 157 | 82% |
Each account is counted once, under the first category it matches. These reviews were pulled worst-first, so this is the shape of the complaints, not a complaint rate. It says nothing about how often anything happens, and it must not be read as a percentage of any business's customers: the businesses here hold tens of thousands of reviews between them and most are positive. The rest of this page is about the 34 accounts in the top five rows, because those are the ones that cost money and the ones you can do something about. We describe what they have in common. We do not reproduce them and we do not identify anyone.
Pattern one: the weight
Fourteen of the 191 accounts turn on the weight, making it the most common money complaint in the sample and the one that allegedly costs the most. They share a shape: the customer says they weighed the gold beforehand, that the buyer's scale then read lower, and that the gap closed once they produced their own figure. We have not tested anybody's scale and we make no finding about any business. We publish the count because the count is the point. This is the most common money complaint in the sample, and it is the one you can rule out for yourself before you go anywhere.
The same complaint shape appears on the second platform too, in accounts going back seven years. That it recurs across two separate populations of reviewers, over that span, is the reason it is worth a page. The mechanism the accounts describe is consistent: weighing done where the customer cannot see the reading.
Weigh it where you can see the scale. That is the whole lesson of this page in one line.
Across these accounts the thing the customer reached for was consistently the same, and it was a scale. That is why this pattern is worth writing about at all: unlike an argument about margin, it is settled in advance, for the price of a pocket scale, by anyone who bothers.
The correct arithmetic is the same calculation we publish: mass in grams, times the day's price for that karat, minus a stated percentage. That is all a gold payout is. Anything that cannot be written in those three lines is not a price, it is a negotiation.
Pattern two: deductions that appear at the counter
The second recurring complaint is of a charge reviewers say was not mentioned until they were already at the counter, and specifically of a fee taken off the weight rather than off the money. We make no finding about any business. It is worth knowing because the two are not equivalent, and only one of them is visible on the payout slip.
Pattern three: the rate you read is not always the rate on offer
Several reviewers allege that a figure quoted on the phone or published online did not survive contact with the counter. That part we cannot verify, and we do not name anyone. The general point stands on its own and is the reason to check: an advertised rand-per-gram figure is a headline, not a promise, and the only number that matters is the one written down for you on the day, for your weight and your karat, with every deduction named.
What a buyer worth selling to looks like
We are not going to tell you who to sell to. Here instead is the test we would apply ourselves. It is drawn from the failures on this page, and every item on it is something you can check before you hand anything over. A buyer that clears all six is not doing you a favour, it is simply operating the way the trade should.
- It publishes a rate you can check before you travel, tied to the live gold price. A percentage of spot, restated as the metal moves, tells you what you will be offered before you go. A fixed rand table cannot, because gold does not stand still, so the same unchanged number is a different deal from one week to the next. If a buyer will only give you a figure once you are in the room, that is a choice they have made.
- It weighs in front of you, on a scale you can see, and re-weighs without complaint. Trade scales must be verified by law. Ask to see the sticker, and ask for a second weighing if your figure differs.
- It tells you its percentage of melt up front. No buyer pays full melt, and none should be expected to. The honest ones name their margin instead of burying it, which turns the whole transaction into arithmetic you can check.
- Every deduction is named, in rands, before you agree. Refining, handling, assay, commission. And you are told whether a fee comes off the weight or off the money, because those are not the same thing.
- It is registered three times over, and will show you. An SADPMR licence, a SAPS second-hand goods dealer registration, and FIC registration. A real buyer asks for your ID because the law obliges it. How to verify a buyer covers what to ask for.
- It does not need you to decide today. Any buyer who is confident in their price will still be there tomorrow, after you have taken a second quote.
Apply those six and you will not need anyone's recommendation, including ours. That is the point: the reason a seller gets short-changed is almost never that they picked the wrong name off a list, it is that they walked in without a number of their own.
Ten things to do, each one earned
None of this is generic caution. Every item below maps to something specific: a complaint pattern in our own corpus, a tactic documented by reporters, a SAPS advisory, or a section of the Second-Hand Goods Act read from the Act itself. Three of them are rights you already have and probably did not know about. Ask for the figures on paper or by message, at any buyer. Asking costs you nothing, and a buyer who will not put them in writing has told you something useful.
Weigh it yourself, and watch their scale
The most reported problem on both platforms, and a 2019 reviewer named the mechanism exactly: weighing done where the customer cannot see the reading. A pocket scale is R150 to R300. Trade scales must be verified by law, so ask to see the sticker.
Get the weight per karat, separately
Not one lumped figure. That is how an 18ct piece quietly gets paid at a 9ct rate, which the Daily Maverick lists as purity fraud. If they say your piece tested below its stamp, ask to watch the test.
Ask whether the weight is rounded
One reviewer reported being paid to the whole gram, so 2.8 g became 2 g. On a small piece that is a tenth of your money, and it is invisible unless you ask.
Every deduction named, in rands, before you agree
Refining, handling, commission, assay. Ask whether a fee comes off the weight or off the money. The payout is the same either way, but a deduction taken off the weight hides inside a figure you cannot check without your own scale.
Look for the SAPS certificate on the wall
Section 2(1) of the Second-Hand Goods Act 6 of 2009 is one sentence long: every person who carries on a business as a dealer must be registered. Jewellery and unwrought precious metal are Schedule 1 goods, so a gold buyer is a dealer. Section 15 then obliges them to display the original certificate in a prominent place clearly visible to the public. Dealing unregistered carries up to ten years. Nothing on the wall is your answer.
Expect to be asked for your ID, and worry if you are not
The same Act obliges a dealer to satisfy itself on reasonable grounds that you are entitled to sell what you are selling, and to record the transaction. A buyer waving that away is avoiding its own obligations and leaving no record that the gold was ever lawfully yours.
Your gold cannot lawfully be melted for seven days
Section 23(1)(d) of that Act says no dealer may deliver the goods on, change their form or alter their appearance until seven days after acquiring them. A piece you regret selling has not lawfully been destroyed the same afternoon. If you believe you were misled, act inside that week and put it in writing.
Never sell at your own front door
SAPS has advised sellers repeatedly, across several provinces and years, to meet at a police station or another secure public place rather than inviting a stranger home. Be clear about what that is, though: it is advice, not a facility. SAPS runs no designated safe-exchange programme in South Africa, so there is no marked bay, no promised camera coverage and nobody to witness the deal. The convictions behind the advice involve people selling other goods online rather than gold, but the exposure is identical.
A payment notification on a phone screen is not payment
A man was sentenced to an effective 15 years in June 2026 for taking 19 vehicles from private sellers using falsified bank payment confirmations. Wait for cleared funds in your own account.
Do not post or courier gold
South Africa’s couriers exclude it. The Courier Guy’s terms exclude coins, bullion and precious metals from any liability. PostNet excludes them and caps liability at R1 000 a consignment. DHL caps metal by weight, which against gold is a rounding error. The Post Office prohibits uninsured precious metals and its parcel insurance is suspended.
And the one thing that costs nothing
Get a second quote. It is the single most effective protection available to you and it is free. The gaps described in this sample are not margins of a few per cent. Several are large enough to change what the parcel was worth to the seller entirely. Gold is a commodity, its melt value is identical at every counter in the country, and the only thing you are shopping for is the percentage of that value someone is willing to pay you. There is no reason to accept the first number you are given.
Before you go anywhere, read what SA buyers actually pay so you know what a fair percentage looks like, how to verify a buyer is licensed, and the scams that target gold sellers. Then work out your own melt value on the calculator and take that number with you.
Right of reply, and how to correct us
Goldza sells no gold and buys no gold. Nothing here is a recommendation for or against any particular buyer, and we deliberately do not name one we think you should use, because the point of the page is that you should not need us to. How the site is funded is set out on the about page.
If you are a business named here and you believe we have something wrong, or the reviews quoted misrepresent what happened, write to the Goldza Project Team. We will publish your response in full alongside the passage it concerns and correct anything inaccurate, with the change logged publicly on our corrections page, which is where every mistake we have made on this site is already recorded. The same goes for readers: if a rate here is out of date, tell us and we will re-check it.
The Goldza Project Team · reviews read 27 July 2026
Common questions
Selling gold safely, answered
- How do I know a gold buyer weighed my gold correctly?
- Weigh it yourself before you go. A pocket jeweller's scale accurate to 0.01 g costs around R150 to R300 online and settles the single most common dispute in this trade before it starts. Write the weight down, photograph the scale with the gold on it, and take the scale with you. Ask to see their scale's verification sticker: trade scales used to determine payment in South Africa are legal measuring instruments and must be verified. If your figure and theirs disagree by more than a rounding difference, stop and ask for a re-weigh on a second scale.
- Are gold buyers allowed to charge a refining fee?
- A buyer can price however it likes, including deducting a refining or handling charge, provided the charge is disclosed to you before you agree. The problem customers describe publicly is not the existence of a fee but its timing: a rate advertised online, then a deduction produced at the counter. Ask for every deduction in writing before you hand anything over, and ask specifically whether any fee comes off the weight rather than off the money, because a percentage taken off the weight is worth more to the buyer than the same percentage taken off the price.
- Why do two gold buyers offer such different prices for the same gold?
- Because payout is melt value minus a margin that each buyer sets for itself, and that margin is not regulated. The metal figure is fixed by the market and identical for everyone; the percentage of it you are offered is not. Public reviews describe gaps large enough to matter on a single parcel: one customer reported being quoted about R15 000 and later receiving R39 000 elsewhere for the same items, and another reported one Sandton buyer offering R20 000 less than a competitor five minutes away. Always get a second quote.
- Can I trust a gold buyer’s Google rating?
- Treat it as one weak signal, not as verification. Public review platforms have no verification step, and a star average is something the business it describes may be able to influence. We cannot test any individual account and we do not assert that any particular business has done this. The practical point stands regardless: read the one- and two-star reviews specifically, sort them by newest, and look for the same specific complaint recurring rather than one angry customer.