How to Avoid Overpaying for Bullion

Whether you’re stacking silver or gold, every dollar matters. But most buyers don’t realise just how much extra they’re paying – not because of metal prices, but because of hidden fees, poor exchange rates, or the wrong checkout method. Here’s how to avoid the most common traps and retain more metal for your money.

1. Skip the Card. Pay by Bank Transfer.

All bullion dealers will pass on card processing fees when applicable since bullion margins are razor-thin. Paying via EFT (bank transfer) ensures you dodge payment surcharges that many sites hide until checkout. Over a few kilos, this adds up fast – especially when using third party payment payment gateways like Afterpay or Paypal.

💡 Tip: Our system automatically removes fees when you select “Bank Transfer” at checkout — no coupon codes needed.
Read our full Bullion FAQs for the breakdown.

2. Look For Free Shipping Deals Wherever Possible

Here are TCC, we use a Piggyback System to enable all buyers to access free shipping. We offer free shipping on bullion if you include a minimum of:

  • $350 AUD in non-bullion items (Australia)
  • $900 AUD in non-bullion items (Overseas)

This allows you to bundle your bullion with capsules, proof coins or accessories, and dodge shipping costs entirely, especially useful for international buyers.

🛒 See our full range of Coin Capsules and Premium Proof Coins.

3. Know the Difference Between Spot and Premium

Spot price is just the raw value of the metal. What you actually pay includes:

  • Minting & fabrication costs
  • Dealer margin
  • Payment & logistics fees
  • Risk coverage (for volatile markets)

At The Coin Chest, we update our prices every 3 minutes based on live global spot rates, not yesterday’s figures, and we benchmark our premiums against the top five Australian dealers weekly.

4. Watch Out for Dealers Who Charge Across the Whole Cart

Some dealers sneakily apply fees across your entire cart, not just the bullion portion. That means you pay surcharge fees on capsules, proof coins, even postage, which adds 3%–4% for no reason.

We don’t do that. If you’re not paying by bank transfer, only the bullion portion is fee-adjusted, nothing else.

5. Buy from Official Distributors (Avoid Fake “Deals”)

When buying from private sellers, there are situations where you will run into deals too good to be true. Examples are a dime a dozen, but if you ever see deals for under metal price on the private market, you should not pursue them. You’re likely to be robbed, scammed out of all your money, or worse.

Surely Some Sellers are desperate enough to sell at below metal price?

We pay minimum metal price on all buybacks – so why would they sell it below metal price? There’s no incentive to sell metals below their intrinsic value unless there is something sketchy going on the background….

But they are offering the coin at just above spot price…

Is it worth the risk? Consider this, you manage to find a private seller for some 1oz gold bars / rounds and they are willing to sell you them for $30 below what we sell our Perth Mint gold 1oz bars at… With current spot price at around $5,000 AUD per ounce, you would need to have over 160 transactions successful to recoup the cost of 1 transaction gone wrong.

The numbers just don’t stack if you’re buying privately to save a few dollars on a transaction. For some smaller transactions it might make sense, but we haven’t even considered the risk of security, location of homes, people following you, and the list just goes on….

Only buy from official distributors

Look out for bullion distributors and dealers who are able to source product through mints. For example, We’re proud to be official distributors for:

That means genuine coins, direct sourcing, and priority access. No dodgy secondary markets or eBay risks.

🛡️ See our official recognition & partnerships

Bottom Line: Stack Smart, Not Expensive

Bullion investing is about preserving wealth, not handing it to middlemen in risk, fees and fluff. Use the systems we’ve built – bank transfers, smart bundling, and mint-direct sourcing – and you’ll stretch every dollar further.

Need help with a large bullion order or want to discuss options?
📧 Contact us at info@the-coin-chest.com or call +61 468 475 275.