Online metal dealers

P

pastmaster2011

New Member
Is it always safe to assume that when you purchase metals from an online dealer such as JM Bullion, Apmex, kitco that it is 100% gold or silver ? I know that these are fine companies but could some bad or fakes slip through the cracks ? because I am so new to stacking I have trust issues with anyone I deal with, due to my novice experience to stacking I will not even deal with my LCS because I just do not feel I would know a fake when I see or hold one. Am I the only one that thinks this way ? Just trying to learn. Thanks
 
The big online dealers work on reputation and if they sell a few fakes they will go out of business. Although you can never be 100% sure unless you melt and test everything you get I would say that statistically speaking you are a lot less likely to get fakes from them than you are from other places. EBay seems to have more fakes than anywhere else and is at the other end of the spectrum. If you are really paranoid then learn how to tell fakes from the real thing and buy some portable test equipment such as an X-Ray Fluoroscope so that when you go to the LCS you can run some tests. Personally, I would trust the big dealers but still check items once in a while.
 
Ian Gillman said:
The big online dealers work on reputation and if they sell a few fakes they will go out of business. Although you can never be 100% sure unless you melt and test everything you get I would say that statistically speaking you are a lot less likely to get fakes from them than you are from other places. EBay seems to have more fakes than anywhere else and is at the other end of the spectrum. If you are really paranoid then learn how to tell fakes from the real thing and buy some portable test equipment such as an X-Ray Fluoroscope so that when you go to the LCS you can run some tests. Personally, I would trust the big dealers but still check items once in a while.
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Ian Gillman said:
The big online dealers work on reputation and if they sell a few fakes they will go out of business. Although you can never be 100% sure unless you melt and test everything you get I would say that statistically speaking you are a lot less likely to get fakes from them than you are from other places. EBay seems to have more fakes than anywhere else and is at the other end of the spectrum. If you are really paranoid then learn how to tell fakes from the real thing and buy some portable test equipment such as an X-Ray Fluoroscope so that when you go to the LCS you can run some tests. Personally, I would trust the big dealers but still check items once in a while.
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Thanks for the reply, was just wondering how others feel about purchasing from online dealers, what you say makes alot of sense. Thanks
 
pastmaster2011 said:
Is it always safe to assume that when you purchase metals from an online dealer such as JM Bullion, Apmex, kitco that it is 100% gold or silver ? I know that these are fine companies but could some bad or fakes slip through the cracks ? because I am so new to stacking I have trust issues with anyone I deal with, due to my novice experience to stacking I will not even deal with my LCS because I just do not feel I would know a fake when I see or hold one. Am I the only one that thinks this way ? Just trying to learn. Thanks
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Yes, the major online dealers are very reliable. I've never heard of a fake from JM Bullion, for example. (FYI, if you're buying from APMEX or KITCO, you're overpaying – there are much lower priced dealers. See my Pay Less article.)

You might want to familiarize yourself with some of the basic tests. A good guy to watch is Silver Unboxing Therapy. He unboxes orders from major American dealers, and then immediately tests the silver in several ways. It's kind of funny, but educational. His tests are fairly simple and economical, easy to learn.
 
Anything a dealer gets directly from the manufacturer will be 100% okay. It is possible for a dealer to have a fake that he's got from an individual, but this would be extremely rare as usually they XRF test everything.

All the fakes I have seen were on places such as ebay and alibaba. However, in every case that I've received fakes (that I know of) I've been able to get a full refund. We've also seen the occasional fake on this site, but this is also rare.

So if you're not confident about testing, the safest way is to only buy from authorised dealers. However, if you see a special on this site, you should only buy from a well know seller and this would be about 99.9% safe.
 
Yes, all the major dealers are fine.

Instead of fearing fakes, just learn how to detect them. It's not hard, and it's not expensive...

https://www.silverstackers.com/foru...magnet-test-and-ring-test.90576/#post-1071987 (check out the post by the wise American, 4th one down in the link)

Alloy said:
...See my Pay Less article...
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Wouldn't it actually be called the "Pays Me More" list if you try to make commission from most or all of the ones you recommend?
Also, you lose pretty much any credibility when you advise people to buy metals on credit cards. ;)
 
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