When looking to buy any type of gold bullion online, one of the most crucial things that a prospective buyer must look for is how extensive the company’s product selection is.
If a site has very few products it will obviously diminish the chances you have of finding what you are looking for. At the same time, if a website overloads you with the amount of gold and silver in their selection and couples that with disorganization, you will be one very confused shopper.
Finding the perfect website to buy gold at is not as easy of a task as one may originally think, but it also is not rocket science either. You need to be on your toes as a shopper in regards to the quality of the item you are buying, the price it is over the spot value of the metal in the bar or coin, and how large the item is so you have an idea as to how you will store it; be it at home or at a depository.
The dawn of the internet brought with it e-commerce, and in terms of buying precious metals, e-commerce is a thing that has left a lot of gold and silver investors unhappy for a number of reasons. There are seemingly countless added risks to buying online as opposed to at a traditional brick and mortar store which means extra caution is required.
In the following few sections we will talk about some of the finer, often looked over aspects of purchasing gold online.
Liquidity
As a buyer, and likely an eventual seller of precious metals, liquidity in your purchases should be something you look for. By purchasing the finest of gold bullion and gold coins, you will ensure that when the price of gold rises you will be able to sell your holdings for the biggest possible return on your investment, or ROI.
Sites like JM Bullion supply you with only the finest gold products. When you searching for a gold bar or multiple gold bars the condition is everything. While bars are not looked at for condition nearly as much as gold coins are, no one wants to purchase a bar that is tattered and worn.
Nowadays many different sizes of gold bars, especially smaller sizes, come encased in plastic in order to protect their luster and appearance. JM Bullion is an example of an online precious metals dealer where nearly all of the gold products sold come in some sort of protective casing.
Gold coins are undoubtedly the most liquid, or easy to sell, when they are in the finest condition. There is a direct correlation between the condition of your coin and how much it is worth. More often than not coins that are worn and not protected are sold and bought for a lot less than coins that have been preserved. It is your duty as a collector/investor to keep both your gold coins and bars in the finest condition as to be able to facilitate a resell faster, and for more money than what you purchased them for.
Storage
Much like condition is directly correlated with liquidity, storage is fairly directly correlated with condition. Depending on the size of your investment or collection storing your gold is not very difficult. Most investments are of physical size that permits storing them at home a viable option.
It is suggested that if you purchase at home you should store your gold in either a small safe or lockbox. This is for added security and because you know if they are sitting nicely and neatly in a safe they will have little to no chance to become damaged.
If you do not have a lockbox or safe, most investments are small enough to fit in something like a dresser drawer or a shoebox in the back of a closet. At the end of the day it is merely important that you do everything in your power to keep your investment as safe and secure as possible.
For those who are more financially sound or simply have an investment of size that requires it, a depository is a great option. Depositories are simply safes, owned and operated by companies whose only objective is to hawk over your gold.
You are obviously going to pay a fee, likely monthly or annually, in order to make use of the depository but in all reality these fees tend to be reasonable. You will have the peace of mind to know that your investment is completely safe and secure. You are able to retrieve your metals whenever you want to and most depositories make it a fairly easy process to do so.
Price Over Spot Value
The spot value of gold is the current market value of the metal. In an ideal world the current spot price of gold would also be the price which you bought gold at, but this is sadly not the case. Instead most online and brick and mortar dealers of precious metals tack on what is called a premium and is nothing more than an added cost in order for them to make a few bucks and cover the cost of operations.
Your goal as a precious metals investor is to find whatever it is you are purchasing for a price that is as close as possible to the current spot value. This task is going to require a bit of comparison shopping but in the game of buying and selling precious metals, you need to make buys when the price is the lowest and sell when it is highest and there is nothing that facilitates this more than buying for as close to spot price as possible.
If you find gold for a price that is under the current spot value you have one of two things; either the seller is flat-out stupid or you are being scammed. All sales that are happening at a price (per ounce) that is under the current spot value should raise some level of suspicion. There are very few people out there who are looking to scam you but the reality is that these people do exist and they are definitely something to look out for.