Best Places to Buy Gold Online

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Contributor, Benzinga
March 2, 2023

Are you looking for the best places to buy gold online? A large portion of precious metals trading is moving out of brick-and-mortar shops onto the internet. Now online retailers are often your best option for investing in gold, silver or other precious metals like platinum or palladium.

Whether you’re buying gold for an investment, as a hedge against inflation or just as a safe haven, many great online precious metals trading platforms and retailers are available to choose from. Here are five of the best places to buy gold online, so you can find the perfect platform for you.

The Best Places to Buy Gold Online

Here are some of the best places to buy gold online that offer both direct delivery and support for IRAs:

Overall Best for Gold IRA + Home Delivery: Advantage Gold

Best for Gold IRAs + Low Minimums and Fees: Red Rock Secured

Best for Selection: Birch Gold Group

Best Reputation: Augusta Precious Metals

Best for Retirees Looking for Security Against Market Crashes: Lear Capital

The Benefits of Buying Precious Metals Online

Buying precious metals online is often the preferred option for those looking to add gold or other precious metals to their investment portfolios. You access several advantages over buying gold online from brick-and-mortar stores, such as convenience, cost-effectiveness and diversification.

The convenience of buying gold online is one of the most important factors. When you use any of the best gold platforms like the ones listed below, it only takes a few minutes to sign up for an account and to start trading. Online buyers also have the opportunity to compare shops to find the best deal without having to travel all over their city or state.

Online gold platforms can deliver gold directly to the customer's door, eliminating the need to travel to pick up the metal. 

The cost-effectiveness of buying gold online is another benefit. Many online retailers offer competitive prices, which can help buyers save money on their purchases. Additionally, online retailers often offer discounts for bulk purchases, making it even more cost-effective for those looking to buy a large quantity of gold. Many online retailers offer free shipping on orders, which can reduce the total cost of the purchase.

The easy ability to diversify is another great benefit of buying precious metals over the internet. You can diversify your portfolio with a wider range of coins that may hold value differently. All of the best places to buy gold online listed below offer some form of platinum and palladium. By purchasing gold from multiple online retailers, buyers can diversify their holdings and reduce the risk of their investment.

Perhaps the most important feature that you get from using an online gold shop is great IRA support. Because of the strict IRS rules on precious metals IRAs, you are not allowed to physically hold the metals in your IRA. Even after the IRS allowed U.S. taxpayers to buy precious metals with an IRA in 1997, this requirement made it difficult for investors to actually do it.

The rise of online platforms like Advantage Gold and Birch Gold Group makes setting up a precious metals IRA almost trivially easy.

Buying gold online is the best option for most people looking to purchase gold or other precious metals. The convenience, support for IRAs, cost-effectiveness and ability to diversify are advantages to buying gold online. However, if you just want to drive around and look for cool coins to collect, your local coin shop is probably your best choice.

What to Look for in the Best Places to Buy Gold

When it comes to the best places to buy gold online, take these factors into consideration. The first is the reputation of the platform. All of the best gold platforms discussed in this article have fantastic reputations, but you may still want to compare the options. Generally, the most reputable precious metals trading platforms have great customer ratings and reviews from sites like Benzinga.

You need to make sure the platform supports the specific investment you want. Top platforms usually make this easy and post a list of the various forms of precious metals that they offer on their websites. If you don't care what form your precious metal is in, you likely won't have to worry about the selection.

Find out if the platform offers IRA support. Pretty much all the best places to buy gold online allow customers to purchase gold with their IRA as well as direct delivery. It's as simple as the tax benefits that you get with an IRA. It allows investors to defer taxes on their investments, and it can be helpful when building a sound retirement fund.

Another important factor to consider is the ease of use. The best places to buy gold online should be user-friendly and offer a straightforward process for purchasing gold. The platform should offer helpful customer support and an intuitive interface to make it easy for customers to understand the process and complete their transactions.

Best Places to Buy Gold Online

Here are breakdowns of five of the best places to buy gold online.

Advantage Gold

Advantage Gold is renowned as one of the best online precious metals dealers, and it has built an impeccable reputation since it was founded in 2014. It has a wide selection of coins, and it is likely your best option if you want to roll over an IRA. It takes minutes.

A major factor that makes Advantage Gold so good for IRA rollovers is its extremely knowledgeable customer service team that can help you every step of the way. The one notable con of Advantage Gold is that it doesn't offer a bunch of old or rare coins and focuses on new coins and bullion. It makes up for this by offering a wide selection of bullion including six different kinds of platinum coins and a palladium coin.

Birch Gold Group

If you're looking for a trustworthy online coin shop with an extensive selection of coins and nearly unmatched educational resources, Birch Gold Group is a fantastic choice. Its education section has all the information about precious metals and numismatics that you need to know from premier experts in precious metals trading.

You can buy coins directly or set up a Birch Gold IRA in minutes, allowing you to take advantage of tax benefits while investing in gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion.

Red Rock Secured

Red Rock Secured is a popular precious metals dealer and online coin store with low fees and minimums as well as coins and bullion. You can buy a wide variety of forms of gold and silver from Red Rock Secured, and it even sells a few forms of platinum and palladium.

Because of U.S. government regulations, it can be difficult to set up a precious metals IRA without a reputable gold dealer like Red Rock Secured. Red Rock Secured also offers hassle-free rollover services if you have an existing IRA with another institution or company for no cost to you. It also has a world-class customer service team that can answer questions you may run into when buying gold online or setting up an IRA.

Red Rock Secured has an unusually low minimum investment requirement for the sector of $1,500, whereas many other top gold dealers require an investment of five figures or more.

Lear Capital

Lear Capital is a top choice for full-service precious metals dealers. It specializes in self-directed IRA gold and silver IRAs so it's a great option for retirees looking for total control over their retirement fund. With Lear Capital, you can transfer your traditional IRA into a precious metal IRA easily with the help of the platform's customer service. You can also purchase coins and have them shipped to you directly.

Lear Capital has honed its craft for the entire 25 years of its existence, and the result is a seamless, easy-to-use platform. It has a spectacular selection of gold and silver coins, too. The only major con is that it doesn't sell palladium coins, and it has a slightly higher minimum investment than other top gold dealers.

Augusta Precious Metals

Augusta Precious Metals stands out from the competition when it comes to helping savers and retirees protect their retirement savings with precious metals. It has earned an incredible reputation in customer and editorial reviews by serving customers well.

The platform's extensive education resources and unmatched customer service make it one of the easiest gold IRA platforms to use. The main downside of Augusta is that it has a high minimum for direct delivery and IRA purchases.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy Gold?

This article familiarizes you with a bunch of great precious metals dealers, but is now a good time to buy gold? No one can know for sure, but you can keep an eye on all the major factors that affect the price of gold against other asset classes.

Some of these factors may include Federal Reserve monetary policy changes, a recession, the U.S. dollar weakening or strengthening and the state of the war in Ukraine. If you think that the global markets are going to suffer soon, it might be a great time to buy gold. However, there are no guarantees of returns or even stability when investing in precious metals.

Are you looking for the best places to buy gold online? A large portion of precious metals trading is moving out of brick-and-mortar shops onto the internet. Now online retailers are often your best option for investing in gold, silver or other precious metals like platinum or palladium.

Whether you’re buying gold for an investment, as a hedge against inflation or just as a safe haven, many great online precious metals trading platforms and retailers are available to choose from. Here are five of the best places to buy gold online, so you can find the perfect platform for you.

About Henry Stater

Henry is an expert in all things crypto. He stays up to date with all the latest coins, platforms and technologies in the field. He has particular expertise in the burgeoning decentralized finance ecosystem and loves trying out all the new platforms. He also always follows major events in other financial markets and geopolitics as a whole, especially when an event’s effects ripple through the crypto market.