The membership warehouse club Costco, best known for their $1.50 hotdog and soda combo, began offering precious metals last year through their website and available for sale inside some select locations.
The initial product lineup include a variety of 1 oz Gold Bars from PAMP Suisse and RAND Refinery. After initial success, they began offering American Silver Eagles in tubes of 20 coins, which certainly increased awareness and interest.
Costco’s expansion into the precious metals market by adding more coins and bars to its lineup demonstrates an increase in consumer demand for tangible investment assets. This expansion not only broadens the investment options for Costco members but also signifies the growing trend of retail investment in precious metals.
Costco is well-known for its competitive prices and customer-friendly policies and services, both of which contribute to its strong reputation and popularity among consumers. The way that the retailer is able to leverage its membership model to offer competitive pricing on precious metals, potentially undercutting traditional coin dealers or precious metals retailers. With some analysts suggesting this move by Costco reflects broader trends in the retail and investment sectors, indicating a mainstream acceptance and interest in precious metals investment.
2024 Canada 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf
The 1 oz Maple Leaf is the flagship investment-grade gold bullion coin from the Royal Canadian Mint, the official government mint of Canada.
The Gold Maple Leaf is minted with gold that is refined to a purity level of .9999 millesimal fineness (24 carats). Additionally, the Maple Leaf series includes advanced anti-counterfeiting enhancements into the coin’s design, such as radial lines and micro-engraved laser etchings.
When compared with other investment-grade coins, the premiums for Maple Leaf gold coins are extremely competitive.
Costco is known for keeping product markups low, which helps keep prices competitive and attractive to shoppers. While these coins are only available from Costco during certain times with limited quantities, dealer premiums for 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf coins range from as low as 2% to as high as 8%, depending on the seller.
2024 US 1 oz American Gold Eagle
Following up on the success of the American Silver Eagles, Costco began periodically offering its gold counterpart. The 2024 1 oz American Gold Eagle is the flagship gold investment coin from the US Mint. Introduced in 1986, this coin has been a mainstay for investors for nearly 40 years.
The current obverse of the coin features a famous rendition of Lady Liberty that was originally featured on the St Gauden’s Gold coin.
The reverse of the Gold Eagle was redesigned in 2021 and features the head of a bald eagle in the center.
Around the head of the eagle, inscriptions are included for the United States of America and the notable latin phrase “E Pleribus Unum”, which translates to In God We Trust. Other inscriptions are included for the weight and $50 dollar face value.
While Costco is known for their low prices, they seem to time their offerings when the spot price of gold remains fairly stable. There have been reports on social media where Costco has increased the price of an item during the sales period. When Costco does have a gold or silver offer live on their website, the quantity available remains unknown to buyers. Though on average, the flash sales seem to average between 4 and 6 hours.
The 2024 1 oz Gold Eagle is a standard bullion issue investment coin and are readily available from most online bullion dealers and local coin shops. Premiums from local coin shops can vary greatly, while online premiums are as low as 3.5% to as high as 9% over the spot price of gold.
PAMP Suisse Gold Bars
The PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna 1 oz gold bars was one of the initial precious metals offerings from Costco. The Lady Fortuna design is one of the most widely recognized gold bar in the world.
Lady Fortuna is the Roman goddess of luck, chance, and fortune, both good and bad. The age-old saying “Luck is blind” could probably be attributed to the story of Fortuna. She is shown blindfolded and holding a cornucopia spilling over with wealth and riches and a wheel of fortune.
PAMP Suisse has been using the design of their premier line of gold bars since the 1980s. Recently, Costco began offering other sizes of PAMP Suisse Gold Bars that include larger sizes, like the 50 gram gold bar, and even fractional 1 gram gold bars.
The PAMP Suisse 1 gram gold bars that are sold by Costco are part of the PAMP Multigram+25 set. The set includes 25 individual 1 gram gold that are each encased in their own mini assay card. The larger assay card is perforated to allow for easy divisibility should you need to gift, trade or sell a portion.
The obverse of each of the bars feature the same beautiful Lady Fortuna design as the larger bars. While the reverse each bar is emblazoned with the PAMP Suisse logo at the top. It also displays each bar’s weight, purity, and serial number.
Costco does not have a precious metals buyback program and their sale comes with special terms and conditions that explicitly state that all sales are final and not returnable.
Some local coin shops may carry some of the PAMP Suisse products, while the Multigram line of products from PAMP often has variable availability amongst online dealers. Premiums for fractional gold bars are generally higher due to the increase in manufacturing costs, with ranges from online dealers ranging from as low as 16% to as high as 30%.