A husband and wife who quit their jobs to sell gold and silver coins online are now turning over up to £1 million a month through live auctions.
Oliver and Anna Mills, both 25, left their jobs as a software engineer and a nurse to focus on their business, Oliver's Bullion. They now each draw a £50,000 salary from the company, which generated £6.5 million in revenue over the past 12 months.
The couple were 23 and on a weekend trip to Paris when Oliver received a text from his father with a link to Whatnot. The online shopping platform allows users to buy and sell items in live video auctions.
Oliver downloaded the app and watched a seller auction gold and silver coins, making around £10,000 in an hour.
"I'd never seen anything like it. It is like teleshopping, but way cooler," Oliver said. "We loved it and we spent the rest of the holiday watching Whatnot streams."
Early sales and expansion
Oliver, who was earning £31,000 a year, returned to London and bought coins on Facebook Marketplace and eBay. On November 30, 2024, he hosted his first 45 minute stream. He made £1,300 in sales and a £325 profit.
"That was a real lightbulb moment for me," he said. "When you see £1,300 come into your bank account in one go and that's nearly your entire month's salary and you earned those sales from 45 minutes of streaming, it's a bit of a wow moment."
Oliver began buying old coins by the kilo, funding the purchases with a credit card and £1,000 loans from his father. In successive weeks, their stream sales grew to £3,500, then £5,500 and £6,000.
The couple, who met in Weymouth, Dorset, established Oliver's Bullion in January 2025. In August 2025, Anna left her £24,000 a year nursing job to work on the business full time, initially taking a £34,000 salary.
"Leaving my job was absolutely terrifying," she said. "I wanted to be a nurse because I wanted a very stable job. So it was very overwhelming initially."
Oliver quit his engineering job in December 2025, also taking a £34,000 salary to cover their £2,000 monthly rent and mortgage payments on a shared ownership flat in west London.
Livestream auctions
The couple, who have also hired Oliver's sister, buy between 1,000 and 2,000 items a week, spending between £100,000 and £350,000. Anna packages the orders, while Oliver hosts the streams on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes.
Oliver says their home is "less a flat now and more a warehouse".
They typically draw 250 to 500 viewers per stream. During one 24 hour broadcast, they peaked at 1,351 viewers and sold 3,017 items, generating around £320,000.
Their stock ranges from standard bullion to collectable pieces. On Black Friday, Oliver sold 150 one ounce silver Britannia coins in six seconds. Other notable sales include a five ounce gold privy coin for £18,000 and a monster box of 500 2026 Krugerrands for £39,000.
February was their highest calendar month, with sales reaching £780,000.
Market volatility
The business requires strong relationships with suppliers, allowing the couple to receive stock, sell it on a stream the same day, and pay the supplier the next day.
They are exposed to movements in the spot price of precious metals. The price of gold peaked at £4,152 per ounce in early March before falling to £3,194 within three weeks.
During that period, the business lost around £30,000 overnight and then up to £15,000 a month. Oliver and Anna had bought coins at £92 each that they had to sell for around £70.
"We were losing £10 to £20 quid on every coin we sold," Oliver said. "We still had to host the livestream and sell them because the price wasn't going back up any time soon."
"The markets can be incredibly volatile. We are completely at the mercy of the stock market, and Donald Trump's Twitter account, which can influence the price of precious metals."
Oliver said a strong trading period before the price drop helped them absorb the losses, and the market has since recovered. The couple now plan to sell their London flat and move back to Dorset to expand the business.
