Bellevue Rare Coins Review

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Bellevue Rare Coins has bought and sold gold, silver, jewelry, and coins in the Seattle area since 1979, and today runs four storefronts across Bellevue, Lynnwood, Issaquah, and Tacoma.

This review looks at what the company actually offers, how its pricing and fees stack up, what customers say about the experience, and where it fits if you're deciding whether to sell a coin collection, unload scrap gold, or buy bullion in the Pacific Northwest.

Key Takeaways

• Bellevue Rare Coins holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and a 4.3 out of 5 score on Trustpilot from 482 reviews.
• The company operates four physical locations in Bellevue, Lynnwood, Issaquah, and Tacoma, each buying and selling gold, silver, jewelry, watches, and rare coins.
• Card payments carry a 3.5% processing fee, and non-bullion returns are accepted within 10 days, while bullion purchases are final.

Company Background

Pat Hoolahan founded the business in 1979. It has stayed family-run since then, with his children now handling day-to-day operations. Eric Hoolahan currently serves as CEO.

That kind of continuity is uncommon in the coin and jewelry trade, where a lot of shops change hands or close within a decade.

The company started as a single coin shop and has expanded to four locations across the greater Seattle metro area.

Each store buys and sells the same core categories: gold and silver bullion, rare and collectible coins, currency, jewelry, diamonds, and watches. Inventory varies a bit by location, but the buying process is standardized across all four.

Locations and Hours

Here's a quick reference for anyone trying to figure out which store is closest:

All four locations are closed on Sundays. Walk-ins are accepted, but the company also lets customers schedule an appointment online, which several reviewers mention as a way to skip the wait during busy weekend hours.

What They Buy and Sell

Bellevue Rare Coins covers a wide range of categories. On the buying side, they take gold in almost any form: bullion, scrap, dental gold, and jewelry.

They also buy silver bullion, silverware, and old US coinage, along with platinum, palladium, diamonds, watches, and both US and foreign currency.

On the selling side, the stores stock bullion coins and bars, rare and ancient coins, jewelry, and watches, and customers can buy in person or order bullion by phone.

The company's site includes a live pricing page that updates spot prices for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium throughout the trading day.

This matters more than it sounds like it should. A lot of smaller coin shops post static "we pay X" numbers that lag the actual market, sometimes by days.

A live feed means the offer you get walking in the door should track much closer to that day's spot price rather than a stale sheet from last week.

Pricing, Fees, and Payment Terms

Here's where the fine print actually matters. Based on the company's published FAQ and terms:

The 3.5% card fee is worth knowing before you walk in, especially on larger bullion purchases where that percentage adds up fast.

If you're buying a few thousand dollars in silver eagles, paying by wire or check instead of card saves real money.

On the selling side, payment methods include cash, check, and wire transfer, and multiple Trustpilot reviewers mention receiving payment the same day, with no waiting period on cash transactions.

Reputation and Review Data

This is the part most people actually want to know: is this a place that pays fairly and treats people decently, or not.

As of early April 2026, Bellevue Rare Coins holds a 4.3 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot, based on 482 reviews, which Trustpilot classifies as Excellent. 

The Better Business Bureau lists the company as A+ rated and accredited since May 2011, which is now over 14 years of BBB accreditation without losing that top rating.

Reading through the reviews gives a more textured picture than the star rating alone.

The recurring positive theme is staff behavior: reviewers repeatedly name specific employees (Theresa, Kristy, Carina, Renee, Kyle are mentioned by name across dozens of reviews) and describe transactions as patient, well-explained, and pressure-free.

One reviewer, working through a friend's 40-year jewelry collection as an estate executor with no prior knowledge of gold or silver, described the staff as professional and informative rather than pushy.

The negative reviews cluster around two issues. Wait times during busy periods, even with a scheduled appointment, come up more than once.

And a smaller number of reviewers felt their items were undervalued, particularly for currency and less common coins where the gap between face value, collector value, and melt value confuses a lot of first-time sellers.

One reviewer who felt an item was appraised too low later sold it privately for more. That's a real risk with any single buyer, not just this one: a shop's offer reflects what it can resell for, not necessarily the ceiling price a patient private sale might get.

How It Fits the Local Market

Seattle and the surrounding suburbs have a handful of BBB-accredited coin and precious metals dealers, including American Rare Coin and Gold in Thurston County and several smaller jewelry buyers scattered around King and Pierce counties.

What sets Bellevue Rare Coins apart from most of that competitive set is simply scale: four staffed retail locations versus the single-location model most competitors run.

That matters if you want to compare offers without driving across the state, since you can walk your item into two or three BRC locations in the same afternoon if you're in the Seattle-Tacoma corridor.

The company also holds trade affiliations that carry some weight in the industry: they reference relationships with GIA (Gemological Institute of America) for diamond and jewelry credentials, the American Numismatic Association, and coin grading services PCGS and NGC.

None of these affiliations guarantee a specific price on your item, but they do indicate the staff has access to the standard grading and authentication frameworks the industry uses, rather than making up their own valuation method.

Bellevue Rare Coins also runs a charitable arm, the Bellevue Rare Coins Foundation, which the company says supports local nonprofits. It's a smaller detail, but it does distinguish the business from a purely transactional gold-buying operation.

Who Should Use Them

Based on the review pattern and business structure, a few types of customers seem best served here.

People handling an estate or inherited collection who have no idea what they're sitting on will likely benefit from the free, no-obligation evaluation and the staff's willingness to explain pricing logic, which several reviewers specifically praised.

 People comparison shopping a large bullion purchase should check the live pricing page first and factor in the 3.5% card fee before deciding how to pay.

People selling rare or unusual currency, where value depends heavily on condition and rarity rather than melt weight, might want a second opinion given the handful of complaints in that specific category.

If your priority is simply liquidating scrap gold or common bullion coins for cash quickly, the process here looks straightforward based on customer accounts: weigh it, test purity, quote a price tied to that day's spot value, and pay same day in cash or check.