My first-ever order of gold came in on Friday. I ordered two of Valcambi's combibars (on both, the plastic was either chipped or broken, but still not 'open'), a freestanding 1g valcambi bar and a 20g PERTH bar in the assay card. I sent an email to them and am waiting to hear back so I can explain my order. Ultimately, I am thinking of exchanging the two combibars for undamaged ones. I trust the authenticity. However, there were a few alarms that went off for the PERTH bar. The issues that make me question its authenticity are detailed in the attached pictures as well as explained below: The bar itself is somewhat loose inside the assay card. If you move the card, you can feel/hear the bar rattle in the space. It's not significantly loose within, but there's evident space allowing the bar to move freely within. Where the card seals in the bar, you can see there is an evident bevel. I find it surprising a world-leading minter such as PERTH would have such shoddy craftsmanship. The Bar Code. I read if the zero in the code has just two dots on the bottom line it's a fake, and that the genuine bars have three dots on the bottom of each zero. I think I am going to play it safe and ask to exchange the two combibars for undamaged ones and ask for a refund for the 20g perth bar. I am not looking forward to paying return shipping/insurance though... Thoughts? Or am I just paranoid? *edited for grammar
One of things you have to consider is most of what you buy is used And has already changed hands several times, i had a similar situation When i bought some platinum the package though not compromised was a bit on the used side.
You're probably just paranoid because Apmex has too much at stake to sell a fake/accidentally sell a fake. Thus, we would expect they would verify their items better than most. Secondly, this illustrates exactly why I don't buy from Apmex anymore. Besides the higher than average prices, what they sold, even if it is authentic, looks sourced from a secondary market. It's not in a good shape. It does not look new. This is wrong and misleads the customer. What they sent you looks ugly. Thirdly, this illustrates why I never buy gold in bar form. They're too easy to fake. You decrease your risk of fakes by buying full ounce gold with the best security features on the market: Gold Maple Leafs. You decrease your harm from fakes by buying other gold only in small fractional form, like 1/10 oz gold coins. Should one be fake, which is unlikely anyway, but if it is--your loss is only around $125ish dollars at any given time. When I buy full ounces, I ONLY buy Gold Maples with DNA authentication for dealers to verify and radial lines and year privy marks for anyone to visibly authenticate with the naked eye (or a loop, for the old people with bad vision). Lastly, while bullion scanners and wands are not perfect (sometimes gold plated items can skip by as authentic) you could have a dealer scan your Perth bar to see if it's real. Good luck.
I personally stick with gold coins, like AGE or Maple Leaf fractionals. Bars are much easier to counterfeit, and harder to sell, meaning you will get less for them.
I will not get into all the details but I returned an item that had some scratches on the holder and smudges on the content and I contacted them and they E Mailed me a return shipping label. Did not cost me anything. you have damage on your holder.
Why buy a bar at all? Common MS60 saints go for just above melt. I wouldn't buy any bar unless it was cut in half. Otherwise, it's gold plated tungsten to me.
Thank you all for the replies and insight! They're very helpful for a novice buyer such as myself. Sounds like I'll stick with Maple Leaf or AGE moving forward.
I would send it all back and try to get them to pay for a return shipping label. That is all damaged. Personally, I like graded gold if I can get it for a great price.
Why grade bullion ? it makes no sense what so ever, trying to recover The premium paid is next to impossible
Apmex is pretty good at letting you know if it’s secondary market or not. All of that is well within what you should expect from secondary market.
Can you tell the difference between a Chinese fake maple leaf and a real one. Would others trust you enough to buy one off you? It's getting to the point where ALL gold may have to be authenticated. (bars & rounds) Premium paid is passed on to the buyer and so on down the line. Encapsulated coins are trustworthy gold money.
There's all types of collectors with their own reasons for collecting the specific mediums that they collect. you'll find the ppl with the Gauden coin avatars will say to collect St gauden coins; the ones with slabbed gold avatar will say to collect graded gold coins; the privy avatar to collect privy based Canadian gold ... Funny how that is, huh ? Personally, I do not like bars. they are just plain, drab looking with no connection to a specific gov't. With that, since I live in the US and the US has the largest global financial basis that is used by other gov'ts I prefer US based metals. So I prefer US coinage. But, visually, I prefer the pre33 US coins. You can get them close to spot but also keep in mind you're not going to sell them as BU if you buy a close to spot cleaned gold. It all depends upon why you are collecting gold on which option(s) you prefer and enjoy. But, You also have to identify, if you plan on selling or how and where you would plan on selling any acquired metals. The market may also eliminate or add other markets too. Individual dealers may vary on pricing too - ppl here get disgruntled when trying to sell and a dealer offers less than they were expecting. Not all dealers want to build up inventory if a market is headed down, they try to flip super fast (at least the few dealers I've dealt with ).
learned that the resell value on basic bars is very low firsthand, so its graded pre-33 gold for me. I don't trust my abilities in identifying fakes with raw items. I guess someone could counterfeit a graded label, but that's just in the rarest of rare instances.
If your looking at grading for authentication purposes only, i would say Educate yourself before you buy, after all its your money, but there is no reason to grade bullion from any other stand point, in my opinion For what it,s worth.
