How We Rate Bullion Dealers
Disclosure. BullionMetric has no affiliate or commercial relationship with any dealer named on this page, and no dealer pays for placement or rankings. If we join affiliate programs in the future, we'll say so on this page and on our affiliate disclosure page, with the date it began.
Every dealer review on BullionMetric carries a rating from 1 to 5. Google shows it as stars in search results, so you may have seen it before you saw this page. This page explains where that number comes from, shows every dealer's scores, and lists every rating change we've made.
The short version: the rating is our measurement, not a customer-review average. Most of it comes from prices and stock levels we record ourselves. The rest comes from public signals such as the Better Business Bureau, review sites and court records. It's a summary, not a recommendation. The cheapest dealer for the coin you're buying may have a lower overall rating than a dealer that's better at everything else. Each review's "who should buy here" section does the recommending.
Current ratings
Scored October 14, 2026, from our tracking for July 13 to October 11, 2026.
| Dealer | Rating | Premium (35%) | Stock (15%) | Catalog (20%) | Reputation (20%) | Marketing (10%) | Weighted total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero Bullion | 4.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.85 |
| Money Metals Exchange | 3.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 3.675 |
| Golden State Mint | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 3.675 |
| APMEX | 3.5 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.65 |
| BGASC | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.40 |
| BullionExchanges | 3.5 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.40 |
| SD Bullion | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 3.125 |
| JM Bullion | 3.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 3.05 |
We track three more dealers but haven't rated them yet: Provident Metals, SilverGoldBull and Kitco. Kitco is tracked for silver only. A dealer gets a rating when we publish its review.
The five measures
Each measure is scored from 1 to 5 in half-point steps. The rating is the weighted total rounded to the nearest half point, with halves rounding up (3.25 becomes 3.5; 3.24 becomes 3.0). We round because the data can't honestly tell a 3.7 from a 3.8.
1. Premium: how much over spot you pay (35%)
This is the main thing BullionMetric measures, so it carries the most weight. For each product, we compare the dealer's premium over spot against every other dealer's on the same day.
- What we count: how many days the dealer was the cheapest, and its median dollar premium compared with the dealers around it.
- Which products matter most: the coins and bars most people buy. Those are Silver and Gold Eagles, Silver and Gold Maple Leafs, Krugerrands, Buffalos, 1 oz gold bars, and 10 oz and 100 oz silver bars.
- Who it's compared against: dealers that usually have stock, meaning more than 20% of their gold and silver listings were in stock over the last 30 days. A product counts on a given day only when at least three of those dealers had it in stock. Dealers outside that group are compared against everyone instead, and their thin stock shows up in the stock score.
- What's excluded: graded and certified coins, proofs, privy and limited editions, damaged or cleaned coins, and multi-coin tubes and boxes. Specific-year coins are compared separately from random-year coins.
- Spot price: premiums are measured against an independent reference spot price, not each dealer's own displayed spot. Details are in how we track premiums.
A 5 means the cheapest on most days across several of the products above. A 2 means rarely or never the cheapest on them, with premiums well above other dealers.
2. Stock: whether you can actually buy it (15%)
A low price on an out-of-stock listing doesn't help you. We look at the share of the dealer's gold and silver listings in stock over the last 30 days, and how many days the main products were in stock.
Big catalogs drag the headline share down, because they include old years that will never be restocked. So we weight the main products more heavily than the headline share. A dealer that shows 100% in stock but whose stock status we can't verify scores as unknown (3), not as strong.
3. Catalog: how much they sell (20%)
We count how many products we track at the dealer and whether it covers both gold and silver. We also look at how deep it goes in graded coins and whether it offers precious metals IRAs. A deliberately narrow dealer scores low here even if it's excellent at what it sells, because this measure is about range.
4. Reputation: what the public record says (20%)
This measure uses outside sources:
- BBB rating and accreditation, and complaint volume relative to the dealer's size
- Review-site scores (Trustpilot, Shopper Approved), weighted by how many reviews there are and how recent they are
- Lawsuits, regulatory actions and settlements, which count heavily
- Years in business
- Recurring complaint themes on Reddit and forums
An active regulatory action or a sustained pattern of complaints can pull this score below 2 on its own.
5. Marketing: whether the claims hold up (10%)
We check what the dealer says about itself against our data. A dealer whose headline is "lowest prices" and isn't cheapest on most products loses points. A dealer that makes no price claim, or whose claims hold up, doesn't. The weight is small because the premium measure already covers the prices themselves. This one is an honesty check.
Why these weights
Price is weighted highest because it's the question most buyers are trying to answer, and the one our data answers best. Catalog and reputation tie at 20% because each one decides purchases for different buyers: new buyers lean on reputation, experienced stackers on range. Stock counts less than catalog because most buyers can wait a few days for a restock but can't buy a product a dealer doesn't sell. If we change the weights, we'll say so on this page and rescore every dealer at the same time.
What drives each dealer's rating
Hero Bullion
4.0. Hero is the cheapest dealer we track on silver bars: cheapest on 100 oz bars on all 45 fully tracked days, and on 10 oz bars on 44. It's also the cheapest dealer that usually has stock on random-year Gold Maples and 1 oz gold bars. It's held back by a younger track record (founded 2020, an A- BBB rating, not accredited) and gold coins that went out of stock for up to 15 tracked days in a row. Full review →
Money Metals Exchange
3.5. Money Metals is the cheapest dealer that usually has stock on random-year Krugerrands (40 of 68 days) and has the lowest median on random-year Silver Eagles. Every main product it sells was in stock on every day we observed it. It was never the cheapest on random-year Gold Eagles, with the highest median among dealers that usually have stock. That gap is also why its "lowest premium" positioning scores only half right. Full review →
Golden State Mint
3.5. Golden State Mint posts the lowest Silver Eagle prices we track: cheapest on 75 of 78 days. Two things hold it back. It sells only about 16 products. And its listings show as in stock 100% of the time, a signal we haven't been able to verify, so we leave it out of the "usually has stock" comparisons and score its stock as unknown. If that stock signal checks out, its rating would rise to 4.0. Full review →
APMEX
3.5. APMEX has the deepest catalog we track: 5,867 products, 2,690 of them graded. It also has a 26-year record and an A+ BBB rating. On price it rarely wins: it was never the cheapest on random-year Gold Eagles, Gold Maples or Buffalos, though it was cheapest on random-year Silver Maples on 20 of 70 days. Full review →
BGASC
3.5. BGASC is usually the second-cheapest on the main products and the cheapest on many specific-year gold coins. Its stock is reliable (44.5% of listings in stock, second among full-catalog dealers), and it has an A+ BBB rating. It rarely wins outright on random-year coins and doesn't list random-year Silver Eagles. Full review →
BullionExchanges
3.5. When BullionExchanges has gold in stock, it's usually the cheapest of all the dealers we track: cheapest on random-year Gold Eagles on 58 of 65 days and on Krugerrands on 46 of 48. But only 4.9% of its listings were in stock over 30 days, the lowest we track, so most of its catalog can't be bought at those prices. We track only its gold, so its silver isn't scored. Full review →
SD Bullion
3.0. SD Bullion is the cheapest dealer that usually has stock on random-year Gold Eagles, Buffalos and Philharmonics. It's also the most expensive of those dealers on random-year Gold Maples, Silver Maples and 10 oz bars. That makes its slogan, "The Lowest Price. Period.", the weakest marketing claim we score. There's also a pending class action alleging the slogan is false advertising. Full review →
JM Bullion
3.0. JM Bullion has the second-deepest catalog we track (2,576 products) and a solid public record: 15 years in business, an A+ BBB rating (accredited since 2014), a NYSE-listed parent (Gold.com), and Trustpilot 4.5 across more than 2,500 reviews. On price it was almost never the cheapest. Its median premium on random-year Gold Eagles was $211 over spot, against SD Bullion's $123. Full review →
Rating changes
We rescore every dealer at least every 90 days. We also rescore sooner after a BBB rating change, a regulatory action or settlement, or a major change in a dealer's catalog or marketing. Every change is listed here.
October 14, 2026
| Dealer | Before | After | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hero Bullion | 4.8 | 4.0 | 4.8 was Hero's Trustpilot score, published as our rating in error. 4.0 is its score under this method. |
| SD Bullion | 4.0 | 3.0 | The earlier figure matched SD's Trustpilot score and wasn't calculated under this method. |
| JM Bullion | 4.1 | 3.0 | The earlier figure wasn't calculated under this method. |
| Golden State Mint | 4.0 | 3.5 | Rescored on new data. Its gold coins are now rarely the cheapest, and its stock signal is still unverified. |
| Money Metals Exchange | 3.5 | 3.5 | Rescored on new data. No change. |
| APMEX | 3.5 | 3.5 | Rescored on new data. No change. |
| BullionExchanges | 3.5 | 3.5 | First scored under this method. No change. |
| BGASC | — | 3.5 | First rating, published with its review. |
Next scheduled rescore: by January 12, 2027.
What the rating doesn't measure
- Shipping speed, packaging and customer service. We don't place test orders, so these appear only through the reputation measure.
- Dealers we don't track. "Cheapest" means cheapest of the 11 dealers we track, not the whole market. It doesn't include your local coin shop.
- Days we missed. Our tracking has gaps. There was no data for any dealer from September 29 to October 2, 2026, and some dealers have longer gaps. Each review states its own gaps and counts only the days we tracked in full.
- The future. Dealers change prices and policies. A rating describes the 90 days it was measured on.
Questions
Why don't you just use Trustpilot or BBB ratings?
Those measure customer satisfaction, and you can read them yourself. Our rating adds what only daily price tracking can show: whether a dealer is actually cheap, and whether you can actually buy at that price. Review sites are one input to our reputation measure, not the rating itself.
Can a dealer pay for a better rating?
No. No dealer pays us for anything (see the disclosure above). If that changes, commission will never be an input to the rating, and we'll mark the start date on this page.
The dealer I use is rated lower than I'd expect. Why?
Check its row in the table above. Most gaps come from price: a dealer can be easy to buy from and still rarely be the cheapest on the main products. The review explains the details.
I think a number is wrong. How do I tell you?
Email support@bullionmetric.com, or use our contact page. Include the dealer, product and date. If we've made a mistake, we'll correct it and list the correction under "Rating changes."