BullionBidder
Notes on bidding smarter at auction, reading a catalog, and the all-in cost of bullion.
The two most popular bullion coins in North America, side by side. The Eagle is 22-karat and the Maple is .9999 fine, yet both hold exactly one ounce of pure metal. So the real question isn't purity, it's premium: which one costs you less over the metal, and which is the better deal when one shows up at auction. The honest comparison, with the math that settles it.
Read postMost people skim a catalog, spot a few things, and bid. That's how you overpay. Reading one properly before bidding is the biggest edge a buyer has, because the deals and the traps both hide in descriptions nobody worked through. How to decode each lot, find the fees that turn an estimate into a real cost, and price the all-in so you know which lots are deals.
Read postJunk silver is sold by face value but worth its silver, many times that face. Two numbers price any bag in your head: 0.715 oz of silver per $1 face for US 90%, 0.60 for Canadian 80%. The formula, the 'times face' shorthand dealers use, the coins that break the math, and why it's taxable in Canada.
Read postGold's premiums are much lower than silver's, low single digits instead of double digits, because the fixed minting cost is a tiny fraction of a gold coin's value. But gold has its own trap that costs people real money: fractional coins. What a fair gold premium looks like by product, and where the trap hides.
Read postBudget divided by spot says ~14 oz at $70 spot. Wrong, because nobody sells at spot. What $1,000 actually buys depends on the product: ~14 oz in low-premium bars down to under 12 in Silver Eagles, and fees plus the 2026 squeeze trim it further. The real answer worked out, plus why more ounces isn't always the win.
Read postWorried about getting ripped off on your first silver? That's the right thing to worry about. Start with plain recognized bullion, buy from reputable sources, sidestep the numismatic upsell and the fear-and-hype pitch, and check your all-in cost against melt and fair premium before you pay. The honest first-timer walkthrough.
Read postA price means nothing on its own. You judge it against three numbers: your real all-in cost, the melt value (the metal floor), and dealer retail (the ceiling). Where your all-in lands between that floor and ceiling is the whole answer. How to run the check on any coin, bar, or auction lot in under a minute, and the three things the price can't tell you.
Read postPalladium and platinum are near-twins: same metal family, same job in a catalytic converter, same silvery look. But for a Canadian buyer they are not equals. One is exempt from GST/HST and one is taxed, the price pecking order just flipped after years upside down, and their futures point in different directions. Which sister metal actually makes sense to own, and why. Not tax advice.
Read postPalladium is the precious metal almost nobody stacks, and the one Canada quietly taxes. Four-fifths of it goes into catalytic converters, its price has run from $600 to a record near $3,429 and most of the way back, and unlike gold, silver, and platinum it is not on the Excise Tax Act's exempt list, so you pay GST or HST just to buy it. What palladium is, what moves its price, and the tax nobody warns you about. Not tax advice.
Read postMedals, tokens, and medallions get scrolled past, so a sterling piece can hammer under its own melt. Here's the three-step sterling math on a real lot (CA$127.26 all-in, 18% under melt), the Canadian catch that decides whether it's a deal (sterling is taxable, bullion isn't), the traps that cost you, and why we bid the metal and let any collector value be free.
Read postWhere does the silver price actually come from? A twice-daily London auction called the LBMA benchmark. Here's how that number is really set, in plain terms.
Read postBuy now or wait for the crash? What dollar-cost averaging actually is (if it's new to you), why buying on a schedule beats trying to time the dip, and the part that matters most no matter which camp you're in: getting the lowest price over spot on every buy. You don't need a dip to buy cheap. Not financial advice.
Read postWondering how much over spot to pay for silver? Fair premiums run 3 to 8% on bars, 15 to 25% on coins. Here's the cheat sheet, plus the 2026 squeeze.
Read postA lot of people are passionate about gold and silver, and a lot of the loudest voices are selling something with a side of fear. A calmer look at why people actually stack, inflation hedge, crisis insurance, tangibility, diversification, and just liking it, each paired with the honest counterpoint. Not financial advice.
Read postHome, a bank box, or a private vault? The honest breakdown of storing gold and silver, the two rules stackers follow, and the insurance gap most people miss.
Read postCounterfeit bullion is real and getting better. The app checks the price, not the metal, so authenticity is on you. The kitchen-table tests that catch most fakes for free (weight and size, the magnet slide, the ping, the ice test), when to pay for an instrument, and the one protection that beats them all: where you buy.
Read postAlmost nobody pays full spot. A good coin shop pays close to it on bullion, a pawn shop far less. See what each buyer pays, and how to avoid a lowball.
Read postQualifying gold, platinum, and silver bullion is GST/HST-exempt in Canada, but 'bullion' isn't the test. The purity-and-form line, and the coin that misses it.
Read postCoin shop won't buy your silver, or quoted way under spot? Here's where else to sell it, from auction houses to online buyers, and how to price it first.
Read postThe honest origin story. Twenty years is the platinum anniversary, so we bought a 1 g platinum bar as a gift. It took eight weeks to arrive, we went looking for a faster way to add to it, found auctions, and built a tool to bid without overpaying. The first thing it won us was a hard-to-find 10 g bar at roughly a third less per gram than the gift cost.
Read postAuctions can be a real sourcing channel for resellers, but the number that decides your margin isn't the hammer, it's the all-in after premium and shipping. How the margin math works, how to ground your resale number in real eBay comps, and how to run it across whole catalogs without losing your evenings.
Read postOne of our own auction wins, every number on the table: a 4 oz colourized Ghostbusters .999 bar, 1 of 400, bought at CA$416.95 all-in, basically the price of the silver. How the all-in math let us set a ceiling and recognize a real deal, and why we keep the metal math and the collectibility separate on purpose.
Read postJunk silver is real silver, ordinary circulated coins with no collector premium, and often the cheapest way to stack. Which US and Canadian coins count, the two factors that price any bag, and the messy Canadian years to watch.
Read postI'm not an AI skeptic, I pay for the top tiers and use them daily. So I handed a 400-lot catalog to the chatbots and asked which lots were below retail. The answers were confidently wrong, and confidently wrong is the only kind that costs you money.
Read postA reputable house is one of the safer places to buy bullion, but "reputable" means it stands behind its sales, not that every catalog line is perfect. The checks that let you vet any house yourself, and why you still verify the lot.
Read postSpot, melt, premium, hammer, all-in. Nine pricing terms in plain language, in the order they build on each other, ending with the one that actually tells you whether you got a deal. The other eight are just the pieces that feed it.
Read postThe same 10 oz silver bar, the same afternoon, priced four ways. The cheapest channel was never a place. Here's how to compare a shop sticker, an online price, an auction hammer, and a marketplace listing on the one number that makes them honest.
Read postThe winning bid is the smallest number you'll pay. Premium, shipping, and a possible card surcharge can add close to a fifth on top of your hammer. Here's how to read any fee schedule, the whole stack, before you raise your hand.
Read postThe metal is often cheaper at auction than anywhere else, but the first time is intimidating. Here's the plain walkthrough start to finish, plus the one thing nobody warns a beginner about: set your all-in maximum before you bid, not your hammer maximum.
Read postTwo stackers bid the same afternoon. One wins under melt and overpays. The other wins over melt and walks away with a steal. The difference is which number they were reading, all-in versus retail, not the lot against melt.
Read postWin a 10 oz bar under melt and it can still cost you more than the dealer once the buyer's premium lands. Here's the all-in math, and why the lots that truly beat retail sell below spot.
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