APMEX Review 2023 – Invest In Precious Metals

By Harriet Phelps

What Is APMEX?

Headquartered in Oklahoma City, APMEX is a precious metals dealer with operations in 30+ countries on all continents. With APMEX, you can access 20,000+ products, including high-quality products from the US Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint.

APMEX has over 1.5 million customers and 50 exclusive partnerships with the largest mints, storage & shipping, and insurance companies worldwide. Since APMEX was launched in 2000, they’ve completed over $16 billion in sales, offering access to four of the most established precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.

In this quick APMEX summary, I will go over all the best features of this platform. If you want to read a more in-depth analysis, check out our full APMEX review.

Pros & Cons of APMEX

Pros

  • No minimum investment
  • Access dozens of gold, silver, platinum, & palladium products
  • Fully insured by Citadel
  • Join the APMEX Club and access exclusive benefits 
  • Competitive storage & insurance fees
  • Set up automatic purchases with APMEX AutoInvest
  • Shipments to 30+ countries

Cons

  • No discounts when purchasing with credit cards, PayPal, or crypto
  • Minimum $199 purchase to qualify for free shipping

Invest In High-Quality Precious Metals

APMEX focuses on four of the most traded precious metals: gold, silver, platinum & palladium, and 30,000+ high-quality products – including IRA-approved options. The product types available are: 

  • Bars
  • Rounds
  • Bullion coins
  • Proof and Uncirculated Coins

You can browse from 15+ brands, filter by year, and find sales quickly from the APMEX marketplace. IRA-approved options comply with quality requirements – at least 99.5% purity – and dozens of options are available.

If you don’t find the right product, check out Augusta Precious Metals, one of the best platforms if you’re looking to invest in gold.

Simplify Your Investments With Automatic Purchases

If you want to start investing in precious metals and would like to take advantage of a tried-and-tested investing strategy, you can set up automatic purchases with APMEX’s AutoInvest features. 

AutoInvest takes advantage of dollar-cost averaging and allows customers to set up recurrent purchases at fixed timeframes – daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly –or for fixed amounts. 

Most products in the APMEX marketplace support AutoInvest – you can look for the Start AutoInvest button on top of each product. You can also pause or cancel AutoInvest purchases at any time.

Use Your IRA Account To Invest In Precious Metals

With APMEX, you can use funds from your IRA and invest in a wide selection of IRA-eligible products. If you don’t have an IRA custodian, APMEX recommends using:

  • The Entrust Group
  • Goldstar Trust
  • Kingdom Trust Company
  • Strata Trust Company
  • Equity Institutional

After you’ve created your account, you can fund it or rollover from an existing IRA account, and APMEX will take care of the rest. The last step is to choose your investments – you can access all IRA-eligible products directly from the Precious Metals IRA section on APMEX’s website.

Place Orders And Access APMEX Club-Exclusive Benefits

After spending your first $5,000 or making your second order, you’ll qualify for the first tier of the APMEX Club. As an n APMEX Club member, you’ll have access to very useful features – at no cost. You can qualify for higher tiers and better benefits just by making purchases. Some of the benefits accessible to members of the APMEX Club include:

  • Get notified about special deals and new products
  • Exclusive offers and pre-order discounts
  • Anniversary gifts
  • Expedited shipping
  • Special Volume Pricing for Sales Transactions

To qualify for each tier:

    • Select Tier: 2-5 orders (or spend more than $5,000)
  • Premier Tier: 6-9 orders (or spend more than $10,000)
  • Elite Tier: 10+ orders (or spend more than $20,000)

There’s also a VIP tier, accessible by invitation only, that offers benefits like Free Expedited Shipping on large orders (at least $10,000) and discounted shipping via the APMEX Logistics program.

Another platform offering free shipping – on orders over $500 – is Money Metals Exchange; one downside is that they ship only within the US.

APMEX Security

After you complete a purchase, you can have your assets shipped directly to your house or Citadel, APMEX’s partner and one of the most secure depository buildings in the US. Assets stored within Citadel’s vault are fully protected in case of loss, damage, theft, and most other liabilities. Unlike banks or other financial institutions, you have immediate access to your assets at all times.

Sending your assets to Citadel is very easy – you can do so directly from the APMEX before you complete a purchase. When shipping to Citadel’s vaults, there’s a shipping fee of $9.95 on orders below $500, plus an annual storage & insurance fee starting at 0.55% or $15/year.

Storage And Insurance

With APMEX, you can choose between sending your assets directly to you and storing them safely with Citadel. Citadel is APMEX’s partner storage service provider; it offers competitive fees and full insurance on all your assets. Here’s the breakdown of the storage fees:

  • Up to $100,000 portfolio value: 0.55%/year
  • More than $1M: 0.50%/year
  • More than $10M: 0.45%/year

The minimum monthly fee is $15, and when you’re ready to withdraw your metals and have them shipped to you, there’s a $50 handling fee (or a $75 handling fee for shipments outside the US).

APMEX Fees

  • Shipments within the US: $9.95 per order (or $0 if the order is over $199)
  • Payment methods with a discount (4.167%): Bank wires, checks, and eChecks
  • Payment methods with no discount: Credit cards, PayPal, and crypto

With APMEX, there’s no minimum investment; you can pick a payment method or change it at any time with a quick call to the reps at APMEX. Make sure to change your payment method before placing an order to take advantage of the discount.

Sign-Up Process

APMEX is available in 30+ countries worldwide and offers competitive prices and affordable shipping. Keep in mind that additional duties or taxes will depend on your local customs, so it’s worth checking that out before placing an international order. Here’s how to get started with APMEX:

  • Visit APMEX’s website
  • On the top right, click Create Account
  • Fill in some of your basic information
  • Fund your account

If you use our link to sign up, you will get a discount of up to 4.167% on all your purchases, with no limits. Additionally, you’ll automatically join the APMEX Club for bonus perks and benefits like flash sales, further discounts, and anniversary gifts.

APMEX BBB Reviews 

APMEX has decent reviews from its users, and it holds an average rating of 3.89/5 on BBB. Here’s what some of those users have to say about APMEX:

  • “I just recently placed my 4th order with Apmex, and to date, everything has been fine. The order was processed and shipped out and in my possession in less than seven days. They are my go-to for precious metals..” – Antonio S.
  • “I have placed over a dozen orders with APMEX over the last year and have not been disappointed in any fashion yet. APMEX offers competitive pricing and is not only a great source for bullion but for collectibles as well. Shopping at APMEX is always a pleasure to me..” – Mark A.
  • “I have been using APMEX for precious metals for over 12 years. If I were to recount all my orders, I am sure that they would be at least 40 orders from me. I have never been disappointed! Their shipments are always timely, and the quality is what I have expected and sometimes even exceeded expectations. I can highly recommend them..” – Ferrell Y.
  • “I purchased 5 Gold Buffalo’ and 2 $100 90% junk silver bags. I wired the money in 4 hours. 2 days after the order; we were signing for delivery of our order. Fastievably fast, accurate, and professional. I placed an order over the phone and made sure on a recorded call of agreed on price. We had no surprises at Al—great company.” – Michael C.

If you are not convinced that this particular service is for you after reading these reviews, we recommend checking out our JM Bullion vs. APMEX review, where we compare APMEX with one of its closest competitors: JM Bullion. 

Final Thoughts

APMEX is an excellent option if you’re looking to invest in a historically stable asset class – precious metals – and build out your portfolio’s resilience against inflation. With APMEX, you can easily invest in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, and best of all, there are no minimum investments – something unheard of in this type of investing platform. APMEX is an excellent option and our top recommendation for investors worldwide looking for affordable shipping and competitive pricing.

Interesting Related Article: “The Benefits of Investing in Gold IRAs”