Live Spot
Metal moves all day. When you place an order we fix your price at that moment and stop quoting you the market — which means from that moment we are carrying the market on your behalf. Your order confirmation is a binding agreement to buy at the locked price.
| Payment method | You have | Card required |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card / PayPal | Paid at checkout | — |
| Bank wire | 48 hours to send | Yes |
| eCheck / ACH | 5 business days to clear | Yes |
| Check / money order | 7 business days to arrive, postmarked within 48 hours | Yes |
If payment never arrives, we are left holding metal we bought to fill your order at a price the market may have moved away from. A card on file lets us recover that actual loss. Nothing is charged if you pay on schedule, and the card is never charged for the order itself — only for a loss caused by a default.
Your card details are held by Stripe, our payment processor. We never see or store your card number.
If your lock expires unpaid, we cancel the order and calculate market loss: the amount by which your locked price exceeds what the same items are worth at cancellation. If the market moved in your favour, market loss is zero — but any market gain remains ours, because you did not complete the purchase that would have earned it.
A cancellation fee of the greater of $50 or 3% of the order total also applies, covering the cost of placing, hedging and unwinding the order.
You lock 2 Gold Eagles at $4,776.10 each ($9,552.20). Payment never arrives and gold has fallen; the same coins are now worth $4,636.99 each. Market loss is $139.11 × 2 = $278.22, plus a $286.57 fee — $564.79 total. Had gold risen instead, market loss would be $0 and only the fee would apply.
We do not charge the moment a lock expires. Every expired lock is reviewed by a person first. If your payment simply arrived late, or the shortfall is trivial, we will usually waive it — call us. If we do charge, you receive an itemised breakdown showing the locked price, the market price used, and how the figure was reached.
Outstanding market loss must be settled before further orders are accepted.
Pay by card at checkout — there is no lock window and no exposure. Or send your wire the same day you order. The overwhelming majority of orders never come near this policy.
The same lock runs in the other direction. When you submit a sell request we fix your payout at that moment and stop quoting you the market — so from then on a falling spot price costs us, not you.
Your purchase order prints a ship-by date. Get the package in the post by then and your locked price holds, however long the carrier takes and whatever the market does in the meantime.
If we have no tracking seven business days after you lock, the lock simply expires. Nothing is owed and nothing is charged — if the metal turns up later we price it at the market on the day it arrives, and you can decline that number and have it sent straight back, insured, at our expense.
This is deliberately gentler than the industry norm. Several large dealers will bill a defaulting seller for their market loss plus a cancellation fee, and bar them from trading until it is paid. We would rather carry the occasional expired lock than send an invoice to someone who changed their mind about selling their savings.
A short count, a different coin, or an item without weight and purity stamped on it means we stop and call you before doing anything. We re-quote only the items that differ, you accept or decline, and anything you decline goes back to you insured at our expense. We never quietly reprice a shipment and pay you less than the figure you agreed to.