Buying from the USA?
- Thread starter SilAuOz
- Start date
Thanks champ
Alloy
Active Member
APMEX is significantly overpriced compared to other major American dealers. The best prices are almost always at Silver.com, BGASC, SD Bullion, Gainesville Coins, and sometimes JM Bullion or Provident. Only buy from APMEX if they have a sale that beats other dealers' prices. (Well, we should just broaden that to say buy from the cheapest reliable source – any of the major dealers, whichever is cheapest. Too many people overpay for bullion by buying from APMEX and other uncompetitive dealers.)
APMEX serves an international market as they ship internationally. Silver.com, JM bullion have great prices but only ship to USA addresses.
SlyGuy
Active Member
Apmex "uncompetitive"? Lmao. Your financial bias is showing clearly, man (PS, you forgot to put your affiliate marketing hyperlinks to the bullion sites in your post above, as you do in most of your other posts).
You are trying to make people mistake your sales pitch for quality info and education. That's sad (both on your self-interested part... and for anyone who's that gullible).
Apmex is in line with other major US bullion retailers on most things and has been for years... nearly unbeatable overall selection, free USA shipping, they ship worldwide, customer service is quick an easy, and they have good buyback prices for people who need to sell their stack. They also have a lot of neat coin display cases and other products that are exclusives. Sometimes Bullion Exchanges, JM, SD, or others beat Apmex by a little... other times, Apmex beats them. It's dynamic and usually pays to price check them all for any substantial purchase... but to say Apmex isn't competitive is lunacy. All of the major sites are usually within 5% of one another on bullion and new stuff... and not much further apart even on older "rare" numi stuff. And that is my opinion of them based on many orders... not any personal bias. I like Apmex and many other sites also (namely the ones I just mentioned, but I always price compare each time).
Just because they aren't one of the sites that pays you a few dimes here and there to spam and promote them doesn't make Apmex any less of a AAAAA+++ bullion site. They have been around for 20 years and built a good rep while many other bullion sites have come and gone. That's not done by having high prices or bad customer service or losing or delaying orders. Apmex is as solid as they come.
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Alloy
Active Member
APMEX costs significantly more than competitive dealers like Silver.com and SD Bullion (and I also just discovered BOLD Precious Metals – they're good too). That's just the reality. There's no point making stuff up and dancing around the issue if you can't back it up with actual price comparisons. I think I already posted my spreadsheet – APMEX is not in the top tier as far as prices go.
People overpay for metal, and that's just dumb. You need to be disciplined about finding the lowest price, or you're eating into your margins.
People overpay for metal, and that's just dumb. You need to be disciplined about finding the lowest price, or you're eating into your margins.
Alloy
Active Member
I just looked up the international shipping situation. SD Bullion ships internationally. Contrary to what SlyGuy said, they have much better prices than APMEX. There's often a dollar's difference for 1 oz. coins. That's a lot when silver is in the $15 ballpark.
https://sdbullion.com/sd-bullion-shipping-policies
I say again, don't overpay for metal, and ignore people who tell you to. I've seen too many elderly folks get screwed, and it's just unnecessary.
https://sdbullion.com/sd-bullion-shipping-policies
I say again, don't overpay for metal, and ignore people who tell you to. I've seen too many elderly folks get screwed, and it's just unnecessary.
I just did a pricing of 100 Silver Eagles @ SD, special random dates that they choose, delivered to my door. After currency conversion it works out to $26 per coin and who knows what other taxes might be added. I think, for Australians anyway, we are better off buying our coins here.
ZaidaBoBaida
Member
I'm not sure what GST is - is it like VAT? Would it be easier to get an American friend to buy and ship the coins to you - though the cost of shipping would add quite a premium.
Alloy
Active Member
Yeah, I would assume so. That's some major distance in terms of shipping. I might do a price comparison of Oceania dealers at some point. Today I'm publishing my article on North American dealers.
check prices and shipping costs before buying. I always use https://trustedpmdealers.com/ for this, moreover there are sometimes super advantageous deals, like silver at spot at with very low premium
Alloy
Active Member
Yeah, it's a VAT. Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore have a Goods and Services Tax (GST) instead of VAT, but it's just a naming choice.
Precious metals are exempt from GST in all three of those countries, but they have different definitions of exempt precious metals. Singapore is the most restrictive, requiring that bullion be made by a refiner on the LBMA Good Delivery list or a government mint, and gold must be 99.9% pure, which excludes the most popular gold coin in the world – the American Gold Eagle (it also excludes the Krugerrand – they're both made of crown gold, a 91.7% alloy that is much harder and scratch resistant than pure gold).
More on the Australian GST here.
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He's been trying to run the white house....haven't been running smoothly since he took over the oval office...
You do realise it's not the best idea to potentially insult the persons you are soliciting help from... He is their President after all, and has many supporters in the stacker circles. Just curious if you are able to comprehend this concept at all.
ZaidaBoBaida
Member
Apmex also seems to have certain coins exclusively at least for a period of time - most recently the new Australian dolphins and the British 2 dragon. I looked for both of them on other sites and didn't find them. I'm hazarding a guess that if the new Tower of London series becomes available from a source other than the Royal Mint that Apmex will have it first and maybe exclusively. Also, I have to say - every time I've ordered from Apmex I've gotten some little bit of swag with my order - a pen, a key chain - stuff like that. I've never gotten that from anywhere else I've ordered from. I've also never had a problem with Apmex, but I did have a problem with JMBullion. They kept pushing back the ship date for my 2019 gold panda - when I had paid for 2 day shipping. They weren't even going to take the charge for the 2 day shipping off until I called and raised hell about it, and really they should have offered me something in compensation for having to wait so long.