Buy gold bullion online

What is the cheapest, most efficient way to buy and invest in gold?

There are many ways to buy and own gold. Buying coins and small bars offers a popular but costly way of doing so. The price you pay for gold coins or small bars is typically 5-8% higher than the spot price. When you sell, you’ll usually receive 5-8% less than the spot price. Shipping is not always included and the additional cost of home insurance should also be considered. Buying gold, securely stored and insured in a professional vault through BullionVault, avoids nearly all these costs and hassle.

The table below shows you how much gold some popular coins contain. It also shows the live prices to buy the same amount of gold on BullionVault. Use this table and our cost calculator to compare owning physical gold bought, stored and sold at wholesale prices using BullionVault versus buying coins from a dealer.

Comparing gold coins, gold bars and gold bullion for sale

Many coin and small bar dealers offer ‘free’ shipping when offering gold for sale online, but in reality that cost has been shifted into the price you pay for the coin or bar, along with the cost of its manufacture and the dealer‘s profit margin. In total, it is not unusual for all of these costs to result in you paying 5–8% over the actual wholesale price of the gold you buy.

Paying 5-8% over the spot price to buy a coin or small bar may be acceptable to some, but the costs you face get worse. Because when you come to sell, you are unlikely to realise full value for your bullion.

A coin or bar dealer will not buy gold from you at the spot price, as they have to factor in their business overheads. They also have to consider the chance that the bar or coin is not what they think it is. Some rarer coins might be quoted at prices above spot, but in gold bullion products like small bars, Sovereigns or Krugerrands, this usually results in you receiving 2-5% less than the spot price when you come to sell.

All told, the typical roundtrip cost of buying and selling a small gold bar or coin will cost you 10% or more of the value of the gold it contains. Losing one-tenth of your money seems like an inefficient way of buying something with the primary purpose of a store of value.