How to Buy Gold Bars: Where They're Sold and What to Check

To buy gold bars, you pick a size, get same-day written quotes from two or three established bullion dealers, pay by wire or check, and have the bar shipped insured or carry it out of a local shop. You'll pay the gold price plus a premium, and the cheapest way to buy gold is to keep that premium, the shipping, the payment surcharge and the sales tax as small as you can.

The short version

Gold bars are sold by online bullion dealers and local coin shops. The U.S. Mint and the CFTC both point buyers to established dealers.
The spot price is a wholesale benchmark. Retail bars sell above it, and the gap is the premium.
Compare total cost: premium, shipping, payment surcharge and sales tax.
Check the seller first, then the bar: refiner, weight, fineness, serial number, dimensions.
Keep the invoice and serial numbers. You'll need them when you sell.

Where gold bars are sold

Type of seller	What you get	What to watch
Online bullion dealer	The widest choice of sizes and refiners, with prices posted and updated through the day	Shipping, card surcharges, and a few days' wait. You can't inspect the bar before you pay.
Local coin shop	You see the bar, pay, and leave with it	Smaller selection. Premiums differ from shop to shop, so call two.
Bank branch	Few branches sell bars	Call first. See the next section.
Private seller or online marketplace	Sometimes a lower price	You can't check the seller, and you may have no way to return a fake. An established dealer is the surer route.

Can you buy gold bars from a bank?

Official sources point to dealers. The U.S. Mint says it sells its bullion coins to the public through a network of Authorized Purchasers and tells buyers to research their bullion dealer or retailer. The CFTC suggests starting with well-established dealers in your local community. We looked for a federal agency page that lists banks selling gold bars or gold coins over the counter and didn't find one.

So a phone call to your branch is the way to find out, and it takes two minutes. If your bank does sell bars, treat it like any other seller and compare its premium against two dealers on the same day.

Step 1: Decide the size and the budget

Start with the total you're comfortable putting into gold, then split it into bars. Bigger bars cost less per ounce. Smaller bars let you sell a piece without selling everything.

Say you have $40,000 set aside and gold is at a made-up $4,000 an ounce. One 10 oz bar gets you the lowest premium. Ten 1 oz bars cost a bit more and can be sold one at a time. Our table of gold bar sizes has the weights and the math for each size, and if you're weighing bars against coins, gold bars vs. gold coins compares them.

Use money you can leave alone, so you're the one who picks the day you sell.

Step 2: Understand spot price and premium

The spot price is, in the CFTC's words, the cash price for immediate delivery of physical metal, quoted in dollars per troy ounce. It's set in wholesale markets, where the standard unit is a bar of about 400 ounces.

A 1 oz bar has to be refined, struck, sealed in a card, shipped and held on a dealer's shelf before it reaches you, and everyone along that chain gets paid. That's the premium. The CFTC says it flatly in its questions to ask before buying physical metals: a dealer will always sell metal above the spot price and buy it back below.

Can you buy gold at spot price?

Now and then a dealer advertises a bar or coin "at spot." Read the terms for who qualifies and how many you can buy, then add shipping and any card surcharge to see the real total.

An offer below spot from a seller you don't know is a warning. The U.S. Mint's advice on its own coins applies to bars too: a price under the current market price calls for extra scrutiny.

Step 3: Compare the total cost

The premium on the listing isn't the whole price. Four things make up what leaves your bank account.

Premium. Subtract the bar's gold value (troy ounces × spot) from the quoted price. Divide by the gold value to get a percentage you can compare across sellers and sizes.
Shipping and insurance. Some dealers ship free above a set order size. On a single 1 oz bar, a shipping charge can matter more than a small difference in premium.
Payment method. Many dealers post one price for a bank wire or check and a higher one for cards, because card networks charge the dealer a fee. Ask for both.
Sales tax. States set their own rules on bullion. Some tax it, some exempt it, and some exempt it only above a certain order size. Your state's revenue department has the rule, and a dealer's checkout will show the tax before you confirm.

Step 4: Judge the seller and the listing

Search for "gold bars for sale" and you'll see hundreds of listings that look alike. Here's what separates them.

The seller

Years in business, a street address, and a phone number a person answers
Prices posted and tied to the live gold price, with no "call for pricing" on ordinary bars
A published buyback policy, return policy and shipping policy
A clean record with your state attorney general's office
No pressure. The CFTC's advice is to never respond to cold calls, unsolicited emails or pop-up dealers selling precious metals.

The listing

A proper listing tells you the refiner, the exact weight, the fineness (.999 or .9999 on most retail bars), whether the bar is cast or minted, whether it comes in a sealed assay card, and whether it's new or "secondary market," meaning previously owned. A listing that says only "1 oz gold bar" over a generic photo isn't enough to go on.

"Gold plated," "gold clad" and "replica" all mean the item is not a gold bar.

The refiner

The wholesale market keeps a list of refiners whose large bars it accepts, the LBMA's Good Delivery List. Many of the same refiners make the small bars sold to the public, and bars from those names are the easiest to sell later. If you may ever hold the bar in a retirement account, the refiner matters even more, because IRA custodians often accept only accredited brands. See IRA-approved gold for those rules.

The bar itself

When it arrives, check it the day it comes.

Assay card: sealed, undamaged, with a serial number matching the bar.
Weight: a 1 oz bar weighs 31.1 grams. A scale that reads to a tenth of a gram costs little.
Dimensions: refiners publish length, width and thickness. Gold is very dense, so a fake made of cheaper metal that weighs the right amount has to be bigger. Calipers catch that.
Markings: crisp stamping, correct spelling, the fineness and weight where the refiner puts them.

None of these is proof alone, since good counterfeits copy packaging and some use metals close to gold's density. If a bar worries you, a reputable local dealer can test it without damaging it, and the seller's return window is the reason to check right away.

Step 5: Pay and take delivery

Most dealers lock your price when you confirm the order. From then on you've agreed to buy at that price, and backing out after the gold price falls can cost you a cancellation fee plus the dealer's loss. Read the policy before you click.

Bank wire: usually the lowest price. Confirm the wire details by calling a number you already have, never one from an email.
Check: often priced like a wire, with a wait for it to clear.
Card: usually costs more and may have an order limit.
Cash at a shop: a business that receives more than $10,000 in cash has to file IRS Form 8300. That's a routine filing. Splitting a cash purchase to avoid it is not allowed.

If you buy gold bars online, the package should come fully insured, in plain packaging, with a signature required. Photograph the contents next to the invoice and report anything wrong the same day.

Step 6: Store it

Decide where the bar will live before it ships. A home safe, a bank safe deposit box and a private depository each have different costs, access and insurance, and a standard homeowner's policy sets a low special limit for bullion unless you add coverage. Our guide to storing physical gold and silver compares the three.

Step 7: Keep your records

Put these in one folder, and keep a copy somewhere other than with the gold:

The invoice, showing date, seller, product, quantity and the price you paid
Proof of payment
Serial numbers, and a photo of each bar in its card
Shipping and insurance paperwork

The invoice sets your cost basis, the number a gain or loss is measured from when you sell. The IRS taxes gains on precious metals under its collectibles rules, described in Topic 409, and a tax professional can tell you how they apply to you. When that day comes, how to sell gold covers buyers and reporting.

So what's the best way to buy gold?

Get three written quotes on the same day, from sellers you've checked, for a bar you can resell without an argument. Take the lowest total. That's the whole method, and it takes about an hour.

If bars turn out not to suit you, the best-known gold bullion coins are the other common form, and buying physical gold outside an IRA covers the costs and taxes that apply to both. This page is education, not personal advice.

Common questions

Where is the best place to buy gold bars?

An established bullion dealer, online or local, that posts live prices and a buyback policy. Which one is cheapest changes daily, so compare the total cost from two or three on the same day.

Can I buy gold bars from a bank?

Call your branch to find out. We found no federal agency page that lists banks selling gold bars to the public, and the U.S. Mint and the CFTC point buyers to bullion dealers. If your bank does sell, compare its price.

Can I buy gold at spot price?

Now and then, as a promotion. Dealers normally sell above spot and buy back below it, so an "at spot" deal comes with terms worth reading. The U.S. Mint says a price below the market calls for extra scrutiny.

What is the cheapest way to buy gold?

Per ounce, larger bars from known refiners, paid for by wire or check, in an order big enough for free shipping. Cheapest to buy isn't the same as easiest to sell, so think about both.

Do I pay sales tax on gold bars?

It depends on your state. Some tax bullion, some don't, and some exempt larger orders only. Check with your state's revenue department or look at the dealer's checkout before you confirm.

We base our guides on primary sources such as the IRS, the Department of Labor, and federal regulators. Read our editorial policy. Spot an error? Tell us.