Best Online Catalog & Storage
APMEX Review
A true self-service bullion marketplace — buy online, store allocated, no salesperson.
Updated September 2026 · Founded 2000
4% off list price when paying by cheque or bank wire
APMEX is not a gold IRA company in the way Augusta or Goldco are, and it is worth being clear about that up front: it is a bullion retailer that supplies metal into a self-directed IRA held with a custodian you choose. Within that role it is excellent. It lists more than 30,000 products with live pricing, lets you check out online without ever speaking to a salesperson, and publishes its storage rate — 0.55% a year — in an industry that treats pricing as a secret. The blemish is a complaint volume that has been rising sharply.
APMEX Pros & Cons
Pros
- The most complete self-service buying experience in the sector: live pricing, online checkout, no sales call
- Publishes its storage rate, payment discounts, shipping thresholds and cancellation formula
- Owns its depository; storage is allocated and segregated by default rather than a paid upgrade
- Enormous catalogue and direct mint access, backed by a major refining group
Cons
- 268 BBB complaints over three years, with more than half of them in the last twelve months
- Premiums generally run above discount-focused competitors
- Custodian setup and annual fees are not published, so all-in IRA cost isn't visible in one place
- Cancellation costs market loss plus the greater of $50 or 5% of the order
Score Breakdown
26 years, A+ accredited and AAA at the BCA, but a high and rising BBB complaint volume.
Live pricing, a published storage rate and stated payment, shipping and cancellation terms — though IRA custodian fees aren't published.
30,000+ products and a wholly-owned depository offering allocated, segregated storage as standard.
Live chat, phone and email, but delivery and refund complaints are the dominant recent theme.
Deep product-level detail and market data rather than a retirement-planning curriculum.
APMEX in a Nutshell
| Founded | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Minimum investment | $2,000 (IRA) |
| Metals offered | Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium |
| Custodians | Entrust Group, GoldStar Trust, Equity Institutional, STRATA Trust |
| Depositories | Citadel Global Depository Services (at a Brink's facility) |
| Setup fee | Charged by your chosen custodian, not APMEX |
| Annual fee | Charged by your chosen custodian, not APMEX |
| Storage fee | 0.55%/year of value, minimum $15/month (Citadel) |
| Best for | Self-directed buyers who want to see prices and order without a phone call |
APMEX is a dealer, not a custodian. It publishes its storage rate but not the custodian's setup or annual fees — request those directly from Entrust, GoldStar, Equity Institutional or STRATA before you compare total cost.
What you're actually buying
The gold IRA specialists on this list bundle everything: a salesperson walks you through opening an account with their custodian, selects products, and arranges storage. APMEX unbundles it. You open a self-directed IRA with one of its four partner custodians — Entrust, GoldStar Trust, Equity Institutional or STRATA Trust — and then buy metal from APMEX the way you would buy anything online.
For anyone who finds the industry's phone-call-and-pressure model distasteful, this is a genuine relief. It also means nobody is holding your hand, and you are responsible for assembling the total cost yourself.
Storage worth understanding
APMEX owns its depository outright — Citadel Global Depository Services, which operates from a Brink's facility. Storage costs 0.55% of the value of your holdings per year, or $15 a month, whichever is greater, and that rate is published rather than quoted.
The structure is better than the price alone suggests. Holdings are fully allocated and completely segregated as standard — your specific items in your own space, never commingled — where many competitors charge extra for segregation. Shipping into storage is free, and so is shipping when you sell stored metal back to APMEX.
Do the maths on the percentage basis, though: on a $100,000 holding, 0.55% is $550 a year, well above the flat $100–$225 that gold IRA specialists charge. Percentage storage favours smaller balances and penalises large ones.
The complaint record
This is the reason APMEX does not score higher. Its BBB file shows 268 complaints closed over three years, and 156 of those — well over half — landed in the most recent twelve months. Product and delivery issues dominate. Separately, a number of customers have alleged lengthy holds on refunds of electronic payments. No regulator has made any finding on that, and these remain consumer allegations.
Context matters: APMEX serves a customer base in the millions, so raw complaint counts are not comparable to a boutique IRA firm's. Its Trustpilot score sits at about 4.4 across nearly 10,000 reviews and the BCA rates it AAA with no complaints on file. But the trend within its own history is the wrong direction, and it is worth knowing before you order.
Costs and the fine print
Pay by cheque, eCheck, bank wire or trade and you get 4% off the list price; card and PayPal pay the higher figure. US orders above $199 ship free, below that it's $9.95. The buyback desk has a $1,000 minimum, with a $40 service fee below it.
Read the cancellation terms before you order: cancelling costs market loss plus the greater of $50 or 5% of the order total. That is stricter than most, and it is the flipside of being able to lock a price instantly online.
Our Verdict
APMEX is the best option on this list for someone who wants to run their own self-directed IRA and buy metal like an adult on the internet — transparent pricing, allocated segregated storage at a published rate, and a catalogue nobody else matches. Weigh the rising complaint volume, check the percentage storage maths against flat-fee rivals if your balance is large, and get your custodian's fee schedule separately.
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Facts in this review — fees, minimums, ratings and offers — were checked at the time of our last update and change frequently; confirm current terms directly with APMEX. This review is editorial opinion, not investment, legal or tax advice.
APMEX
Best Online Catalog & Storage · 8.9/10