About this comparison. INGOTX tracks every major US bullion dealer's daily pricing across 60+ product categories and ranks them by actual median premium over spot. This page combines roughly 90 days of pricing observations on both APMEX and JM Bullion with public reputation signals from BBB, Trustpilot, and Reddit, and the current ownership structure disclosed in Gold.com, Inc.'s (NYSE: GOLD, formerly A-Mark Precious Metals, Nasdaq: AMRK) SEC filings. We earn affiliate revenue when readers click through to either dealer. The data and verdicts below are unaffected by that arrangement; the dealer that wins a category in our tracking is the dealer we name. How we track premiums →
The short answer
APMEX and JM Bullion occupy structurally different positions rather than competing directly on the same axis. APMEX leads the US bullion field on catalog depth (5,891 tracked products, ~2.3× JM) and dominates graded inventory (2,675 PCGS/NGC/ANACS/ICG products, ~8.7× JM). JM Bullion is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gold.com, Inc. (NYSE: GOLD) — the rebranded parent company formerly A-Mark Precious Metals (Nasdaq: AMRK) until December 2, 2025, the only NYSE-listed counterparty in the major-dealer field — and prices below APMEX on seven of eight flagship bullion categories we track, often dramatically. Across roughly 90 days of pricing observations, however, neither dealer has been the single lowest-premium dealer in our tracked field on a single day for American Silver Eagles, Gold American Eagles, Gold Maple Leafs, or Silver Maple Leafs, and only once or twice on the rest. The cheapest premiums on flagship bullion belong to specialists, not the two largest dealers.
Decision rules: catalog depth or graded coins → APMEX. Institutional counterparty strength or lower premium on flagships → JM Bullion. Absolute lowest premium on any specific flagship product → neither, use a specialist.
Catalog and structure — the two largest tracked dealers
APMEX and JM Bullion are the only two tracked dealers with more than ~1,500 distinct products in the last 90 days. They sit at the top of an 11-dealer field that drops off steeply behind them.
| APMEX | JM Bullion |
|---|
| Tracked products (90d) | 5,891 | 2,582 |
| Graded products (PCGS/NGC/ANACS/ICG) | 2,675 | 309 |
| Catalog rank in tracked field | 1 of 11 | 2 of 11 |
| Graded rank in tracked field | 1 of 9 | 3 of 9 |
| Year founded | 2000 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Oklahoma City, OK | Dallas, TX |
| Corporate structure | Privately held | Wholly-owned subsidiary of Gold.com, Inc. (NYSE: GOLD), formerly A-Mark Precious Metals (Nasdaq: AMRK) |
APMEX was founded in 2000 by Scott Thomas, who built a brick-and-mortar Oklahoma City coin shop into one of the largest US online precious metals retailers. The company is privately held and reports cumulative transactions exceeding $20 billion across ~1.8 million customers over 25+ years.
JM Bullion was founded in 2011 by Michael Wittmeyer and Jonathan Wanchalk in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, repeatedly appeared on the Inc. 500 list, and relocated to Dallas, Texas. A-Mark Precious Metals acquired the company in March 2021 for approximately $138 million; current CEO is Robert Pacelli. Gold.com's vertical reach goes beyond JM Bullion — the now NYSE-listed parent (Gold.com, Inc., NYSE: GOLD, formerly A-Mark Precious Metals until December 2, 2025) also owns Goldline, Silver.com, Provident Metals, BullionMax, BX Corporation (which operates BullionExchanges), and Stack's Bowers Galleries, meaning several dealers tracked in this comparison share JM Bullion's corporate parent. Gold.com also operates the Silver Towne Mint and the AMS Holding IRA subsidiary, and continues to run its Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment under the original A-Mark name That vertical integration is the structural reason JM can sit at competitive premiums without aggressive price-shopping: parent-level margin protection across refining, minting, and wholesale distribution.
The headline contrast: APMEX is the catalog-depth and graded-inventory leader of the US retail bullion market. JM Bullion is the institutional-counterparty leader, backed by Gold.com, Inc. (NYSE: GOLD) — the only NYSE-listed parent company in the field.
Pricing head-to-head on flagships
The honest finding first: across roughly 90 days of pricing observations, JM Bullion was the cheaper dealer than APMEX on 7 of 8 flagship bullion categories, often by very large margins on the gold sovereign coins. But neither dealer was the lowest in our tracked field on any flagship.
Head-to-head on the 8 most-searched flagship categories
Median percent-over-spot premiums, 90-day window through June 26, 2026, in-stock observations only, premiums filtered to 0–100% to exclude data outliers. "% days cheaper" is the share of comparable observation days on which each dealer's daily median premium was lower.
| Category | APMEX median | JM Bullion median | Comp. days | APMEX cheaper | JM cheaper |
|---|
| Gold American Eagles | 14.19% | 9.26% | 59 | 8.5% | 91.5% |
| American Silver Eagles | 40.20% | 27.14% | 35 | 5.7% | 94.3% |
| Gold Krugerrands | 14.80% | 3.43% | 54 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Gold Philharmonics | 14.39% | 3.59% | 54 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Gold Pre-1933 | 5.54% | 3.96% | 54 | 0.0% | 100.0% |
| Silver Maple Leafs | 23.45% | 21.30% | 11 | 9.1% | 90.9% |
| Gold Maple Leafs | 18.01% | 13.79% | 54 | 42.6% | 57.4% |
| Gold American Buffalos | 8.56% | 8.56% | 55 | 70.9% | 29.1% |
JM Bullion dominates head-to-head on non-US gold sovereign coins — Krugerrands, Philharmonics, and Pre-1933 — undercutting APMEX on 100% of comparable days, with APMEX's medians running 10+ percentage points above JM's on the first two. On Gold and Silver American Eagles, JM is cheaper on 91–94% of comparable days; the gap is smaller in absolute points but consistent. Silver Maple Leafs runs the same direction on a smaller comparable sample. Gold Maple Leafs is essentially a tie (APMEX 42.6% / JM 57.4%). Gold American Buffalos is the one consistent flagship reversal: both dealers' 90-day medians round to 8.56%, but APMEX's daily category median was lower than JM's on 70.9% of comparable days.
Neither dealer is the lowest in the broader field
When the comparison widens beyond these two dealers, the picture shifts decisively. Across the same window, neither APMEX nor JM Bullion was the lowest-premium dealer in our 11-dealer tracked field on a single day for Silver Eagles, Gold Eagles, Gold Maples, Silver Maples, Krugerrands, or Buffalos. APMEX was lowest once on Philharmonics; JM was lowest twice on Pre-1933. Across roughly 592 dealer-category-days where one of the two could have won, the top two captured four. The dealers actually winning the flagship per-day-lowest crown:
| Category | Lowest dealer | % of days | Runner-up | % of days |
|---|
| Gold American Eagles | GoldenStateMint | 98.6% | BullionExchanges* | 1.4% |
| American Silver Eagles | GoldenStateMint | 56.8% | Kitco | 35.1% |
| Gold Krugerrands | SD Bullion | 36.5% | BullionExchanges* | 29.7% |
| Gold Maple Leafs | BullionExchanges* | 67.6% | Hero Bullion | 13.5% |
| Gold Pre-1933 | Hero Bullion | 45.9% | SD Bullion | 41.9% |
| Gold Philharmonics | SD Bullion | 70.3% | BullionExchanges* | 24.3% |
| Silver Maple Leafs | Kitco | 59.5% | SD Bullion | 25.7% |
| Gold American Buffalos | BullionExchanges* | 77.0% | GoldenStateMint | 10.8% |
*BullionExchanges' 30-day observation-weighted in-stock rate runs around 4.5% — the lowest in the tracked field. Their per-day-lowest "wins" often reflect listed-but-unavailable prices and are rarely actionable for a buyer placing an order. GoldenStateMint is a narrow-catalog specialist (~15 tracked products); per-day-lowest wins on Eagles are real but catalog breadth is not comparable to the broader retailers.
The honest read: for absolute lowest premium on any specific flagship, the answer is rarely either of the two largest dealers. Specialists win. Either of the top two asks the buyer to pay something — catalog depth at APMEX, institutional counterparty strength at JM Bullion — for the convenience of not specialist-shopping.
Where APMEX is the right choice
Graded and certified coins. APMEX tracks 2,675 PCGS, NGC, ANACS, and ICG graded products in our 90-day window — about 8.7 times JM Bullion's 309. For numismatic-grade silver and gold, certified Morgan and Peace dollars, slabbed sovereigns, or any purchase where the third-party grade is part of the product itself, APMEX is effectively the default among major US retailers. JM Bullion's 309 graded products ranks third in the field — meaningful depth, but not catalog completionism.
Catalog breadth and specialty coin series. Categories where APMEX tracks meaningful inventory and JM Bullion tracks essentially none include Silver American the Beautiful (183 APMEX products vs 0 JM), British Gold Sovereigns and Half Sovereigns (83+ APMEX products), Gold Pesos (79), Silver Koalas (48), Swans (29 each in gold and silver), and a long tail of niche commemoratives and back-year issues. If your buying interest extends beyond core flagship bullion into completionist or thematic collecting, APMEX has the catalog APMEX is unique for.
Self-directed IRA scope and loyalty program. APMEX offers a broader IRA-eligible product catalog and partnerships with custodians including Equity Trust and Strata Trust. The Bullion Card and Bullion Club loyalty program accrues points across purchases — useful for repeat buyers placing many small-to-mid orders. JM Bullion is also viable for IRAs (with New Direction Trust Company) but does not run a comparable across-time points program.
Where JM Bullion is the right choice
Lower median premium on most flagship bullion. The head-to-head numbers above tell the story directly. On Gold and Silver American Eagles — the two most-searched US bullion products — JM was meaningfully cheaper than APMEX on 91.5% and 94.3% of comparable days respectively. On Gold Krugerrands and Gold Philharmonics, JM beats APMEX on 100% of comparable days, often by 10+ percentage points. If you're choosing between just these two for flagship bullion, JM is the answer most days for most categories.
Institutional counterparty strength. Gold.com, Inc. trades on the NYSE under ticker GOLD (the company transferred from Nasdaq and changed its ticker from AMRK on December 2, 2025 as part of its rebrand from A-Mark Precious Metals) with quarterly 10-Q filings, annual audited financials, exchange listing standards, and a $467 million uncommitted credit line as of the most recent fiscal year-end. No other tracked US retail bullion dealer has a NYSE-listed parent. For buyers placing large orders or funding six-figure precious metals IRAs, that financial visibility is structural and not available elsewhere in the field.
Cleaner reputation signal, plus crypto and military discount. JM's Trustpilot rating is 4.1/5 across approximately 2,150 reviews vs APMEX's 3.5/5 across 8,363 — APMEX has 4× the volume, but JM's percentage-basis satisfaction signal is the higher of the two on identical A+ BBB accreditations. JM also accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum at the bank-wire pricing tier (~4% discount vs credit card) and offers a verified military discount matching the lowest pricing tier on every product. APMEX accepts crypto but does not offer a comparable standing military discount.
Where neither is the right choice
If you're buying any single flagship at the lowest possible premium and willing to look beyond the top two by catalog depth, neither dealer is typically the answer:
- Gold or American Silver Eagles → GoldenStateMint wins per-day-lowest 98.6% and 56.8% of days respectively. Narrow catalog, but for Eagles, the default first check. Kitco wins Silver Eagles 35.1% of days as a credible alternate.
- Gold Krugerrands or Gold Philharmonics → SD Bullion wins Krugerrands 36.5% and Philharmonics 70.3%. Median premiums run roughly 11 percentage points below APMEX's and 1–2 points below JM's.
- Gold Maple Leafs or Gold American Buffalos → BullionExchanges wins on listed price most days (67.6% and 77.0%), but the 4.5% in-stock rate rarely makes it actionable. Hero Bullion is the next-best practical option.
- Silver Maple Leafs → Kitco 59.5%; SD Bullion runner-up at 25.7%.
- Gold Pre-1933 → Hero Bullion 45.9%, SD Bullion 41.9%. Either is a meaningful improvement on the top two.
The case for paying APMEX or JM Bullion anyway is real: catalog depth, broader in-stock reliability, integrated IRA workflows, brand recognition, and — at JM Bullion specifically — counterparty transparency unavailable elsewhere. None of those benefits are free.
Shipping, payment, returns — head-to-head
| APMEX | JM Bullion |
|---|
| Free shipping threshold | $199+ | $199+ |
| Insurance | Included on all orders | Included on all orders |
| Packaging | Discreet, unmarked | Discreet, unmarked |
| Signature required | High-value orders | High-value orders |
| Carriers | USPS, UPS, FedEx | USPS, UPS, FedEx |
| Standard processing | 1–3 business days after payment clears | 1–3 business days after payment clears |
| Cash-equivalent discount | ~4% off displayed price for paper check, eCheck, bank wire | ~4% off for paper check, bank wire, crypto |
| Cryptocurrency | Bitcoin, Ethereum (no standing discount tier) | Bitcoin, Ethereum at wire pricing |
| Loyalty / volume program | Bullion Card / Bullion Club points | Bulk pricing tiers; military discount |
| Return window | 7 days from receipt | 7 days from receipt (restocking fees on certain categories) |
| Buyback | Sell-to-APMEX program with order-level quotes | DIY buyback service available 24/7; $1,000 minimum |
| IRA-eligible scope | Broad; Equity Trust, Strata Trust partnerships | Broad; New Direction Trust Company partnership |
Two operational notes: first, both dealers run into shipping delays during sudden demand surges — silver squeeze episodes, sharp gold moves, the early-2026 weeks when gold breached $5,000/oz — when fulfillment stretches from days to weeks. Second, both apply payment verification more aggressively on first-time buyers and large orders; building a transaction history with wire or check before attempting credit card on a five-figure order materially reduces friction.
Reputation and trust signals
| APMEX | JM Bullion |
|---|
| BBB rating | A+ (accredited since 2004) | A+ (accredited since 2014) |
| Trustpilot rating | 3.5 / 5 | 4.1 / 5 |
| Trustpilot review count | 8,363 | ~2,150 |
| Notable legal history | 2018 Texas AG settlement re: "Best Price Guarantee" marketing | Subsidiary of NYSE: GOLD (formerly Nasdaq: AMRK), subject to SEC reporting requirements |
| Reddit community read | Catalog leader; routinely flagged for high premiums; default for graded coins | Lower premiums than APMEX; institutional counterparty preferred for large/IRA orders |
The Reddit pattern across r/Bullion, r/Silverbugs, and r/Gold is consistent: APMEX is characterized as the catalog and graded-coin destination with the highest premiums in the major-dealer field; JM Bullion as the lower-premium alternative with comparable shipping and customer service. The parent company's exchange-listed status (now Gold.com on the NYSE, formerly A-Mark on Nasdaq) is mentioned approvingly by buyers placing large orders or funding IRAs. Complaint patterns common to both — shipping delays during demand surges, credit card screening — appear roughly evenly distributed. APMEX's Trustpilot distribution is bimodal (85% five-star, 5% one-star), characteristic of a high-volume retailer that does most orders well and occasionally drops one. JM Bullion's BBB profile shows the same A+ accreditation pattern at lower aggregate complaint volume, reflective of a smaller customer base. Gold.com's SEC filings (and prior A-Mark filings before the December 2, 2025 rebrand) disclose JM Bullion's subsidiary operations transparently, with the segment reported in the parent's quarterly Direct-to-Consumer results.
Which one should you choose?
The data-supported decision tree:
- American Silver Eagles or Gold American Eagles → between these two, JM is cheaper on 91–94% of days. But neither wins the field — check GoldenStateMint or Kitco first.
- Gold Krugerrands, Gold Philharmonics, or Gold Pre-1933 → JM cheaper than APMEX 100% of days, often by 10+ percentage points. SD Bullion lower than both on Krugerrands and Philharmonics; Hero Bullion the leader on Pre-1933.
- Gold Maple Leafs → essentially tied between the two. BullionExchanges has the lowest listed price most days but is rarely in stock; Hero Bullion is the most practical alternative below either.
- Silver Maple Leafs → JM ahead of APMEX, but Kitco wins the field 59.5% of days.
- Gold American Buffalos → the one category where APMEX edges JM (70.9% of days). BullionExchanges wins the broader field; APMEX is the better large-dealer pick.
- Graded numismatic coins (PCGS / NGC / ANACS / ICG) → APMEX, decisively. 2,675 graded products vs JM's 309.
- Specialty / completionist coin series (ATBs, world sovereigns, niche commemoratives) → APMEX has the catalog; JM frequently doesn't carry the series.
- Self-Directed Precious Metals IRA → both viable. APMEX has broader IRA-eligible product scope; JM has the NYSE-listed parent (Gold.com, formerly A-Mark) and AMS Holding IRA infrastructure.
- Strongest institutional counterparty in US retail bullion → JM Bullion. Gold.com, Inc. (NYSE: GOLD), formerly A-Mark Precious Metals, is the only NYSE-listed parent in the field.
- One-stop catalog depth and brand reliability, willing to pay above peer median → APMEX.
- Absolute lowest premium on whatever you're buying → almost never either of these two. Run the live comparison; specialists win.
The verdict
The two largest US bullion dealers by tracked catalog depth occupy structurally different positions rather than competing on the same axis. APMEX is the catalog-depth and graded-inventory leader; JM Bullion is the institutional counterparty leader, backed by Gold.com, Inc. (NYSE: GOLD) — the only NYSE-listed parent in the US retail bullion field. On head-to-head pricing, JM Bullion is meaningfully cheaper than APMEX on 7 of 8 flagship categories, with Gold American Buffalos as the one consistent reversal. In the broader field, neither dealer is the lowest-premium dealer on any major flagship across roughly 90 days of independent tracking — the specialists win that crown. Choose APMEX for catalog breadth, graded coins, and IRA scope; choose JM Bullion for lower premiums on most flagship bullion and the strongest institutional counterparty profile available in the category; check the live INGOTX tracker before either if absolute lowest premium is what matters.
Track current premiums: APMEX live dealer page · JM Bullion live dealer page
Related INGOTX reviews: Is APMEX Legit? · Is JM Bullion Legit? · Is SD Bullion Legit? · Is Golden State Mint Legit? · Is Money Metals Exchange Legit?