On their website, Only Gold wants their customers to believe that they are the top place on the Internet to visit to purchase precious metals. Additionally, besides selling gold, they also sell other precious metals including numismatic in rare coins, plus silver, platinum, and palladium as well. This website doesn’t get the most traffic online, which makes their online presence a bit confusing.
Is Only Gold an actual legitimate company? Is there anything important to know about them before investing your hard-earned money?
IMPORTANT – before we get too far in this review, we’d like you to know we’ve vetted quite a few companies in this space.
We know that selecting a company to work with is a major financial decision and something not to take lightly. InvestingInGold.com has put in extensive research spanning many years in order to compile a list of the 5 highest recommended companies for this year.
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We urge you to view the links to see where OnlyGold stacks up against the competition.
Only Gold Company Info
In 2014, CMI Gold and Silver merged with the Only Gold. CMI has a long history because they’ve been in business since the early 1970s. They have more than four decades worth of experience in the precious metal space. Only Gold has took over as the face of the company and their platform is their main online trading post to purchase bullion and coins.
Richard Smith is the original founder of Only Gold. He has a long and storied history in the industry with more than 25 years of experience. He chose to merge with CMI because his business was placing a high demand on his time and he could never go on a vacation. He wanted to get help and this merger made that possible.
His goal was to create a website that people can visit and quickly learn about different prices for bars and coins based on day-to-day fluctuations. Before founding his company, he was a buyer and seller of precious metals within the same industry.
After these two companies decided to merge, they combined it to have more than six decades of experience in the business. This business was family operated and the salespeople were noncommissioned, which means customers get great service without experiencing major pressure from pushy salespeople.
The Numismatic Guaranty Corp. has accepted Only Gold into their membership. Professional Grading Service has done the same. The company has further credentials which makes them even more legitimate because they trade with the Certified Coin Exchange and they are supportive of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets.
Only Gold Policies
Their goal is to offer their customers competitive prices for gold and silver. And they provide immediate pricing to their customers on the web, which is also great.
When checking out, you have to call the company instead of adding your products to an online shopping cart. The customer service representative will put in your order. They’ll answer questions and concerns on the phone for you as well.
They use an algorithm on their website to keep up with day-to-day price fluctuations in the global gold, silver, platinum, and palladium market. They can add discounts to their algorithm, and because they do not sell precious metals on commission, their customers never experience extremely high markups. Additionally, this company has a great relationship with a number of different distributors.
Website Resources
The overall goal of this company is to provide their customers with resources about precious metals. As one example, you could take a look on their website to find graphs representing the gold price over the years. They also tell the current price of different precious metals and spot prices for a variety of metals as well.
Additionally, they have an FAQ section on their website that asks and answers many important investment questions. They talk about the best type of gold bullion for investors, choosing all of the best options, and completely analyzing the global marketplace as well.
Sharing this information helps prove the legitimacy that the company possesses. But you should also keep in mind that just about every precious metals company offers education to their customers. As a matter of fact, many of the other precious metals brokers on the Internet have free ebooks, regular blog posts, videos, and an education center that is very robust.
Only Gold Buying Process
There are very specific trading hours that they maintain. They are open from Monday through Thursday between 7 AM and 5 PM. They reduce their trading hours on Fridays from 7 AM to 3 PM. Create an account with them – or not – and avoid dealing with pushy salespeople.
If you intend to purchase precious metals, you have to place a call during trading hours to make it happen. They have a 10 ounces minimum order threshold. And since prices quickly change throughout the day, he left the call to lock in a price before proceeding.
The company requires a personal check or bounce wire transfer to make a purchase on the same day. They do not accept debit or credit cards and the payment must come from a financial institution based in the US.
If you place an order with the company worth more than $100,000 initially, you must pay via bank wire transfer on the date of purchase. So, you must put your order in prior to the bank closing, because you otherwise will not be up to complete the transaction and you’ll have to do it all over again the next day.
They ship items to their customers within three business days or less after receiving payment.
Only Gold Selling Process
To sell precious metals to the company, only Gold requires specific thresholds and minimum requirements. As an example, if you want to sell silver to them, you cannot sell less than 300 ounces otherwise they will not take it. They have a 5 ounce minimum threshold for selling gold, platinum, and palladium. Call up the customer service hotline to get a quote on your precious metals.
Before completing the deal, make sure they can from the purchase prior to shipping the items. You must ship them via USPS Registered Insured Mail.
They use the spot market to provide purchase prices, which is a market that changes regularly and minute by minute. But the customer service knows what you are selling and they will help you lock in your final price.
After the company receives your ship package, they will send you your payment within 24 hours and pay you within 24 hours of receipt. Typically, their customers tend to get their payment within the same day upon receiving the goods.
Is This Company Considered a Scam?
Definitely not. Only Gold doesn’t scan their customers. In fact, the company opened their doors in 1973, which makes them one of the oldest precious metals companies in the US.
The main issue with the company is they have a weak online presence. They have a website which is fine, but they do not update it consistently and they make it difficult to navigate. There are very few customer reviews about the company as well, which is another potential red flag.
Only Gold Pros
- Excellent Better Business Bureau rating and no complaints
- They sell a wide range of collectible coins and other precious metals
- They have more than 60 years of experience in the business
Only Gold Cons
- Poorly designed website
- Online customer reviews are sorely lacking
Bottom Line
This company has a tremendous amount of experience and they have an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau. Nevertheless, it looks like they have given up on their website, they designed it poorly, and they hardly ever update it with the exception of the regular price updates that are part of an algorithm.
It’s also really tough to find legitimate customer reviews on the Internet about this company. So, they must get their referrals via word-of-mouth. Personally, I believe there are better gold brokers to do business with, with an excellent web presence and many customer reviews.