For decades, investors who wished to buy precious metals had no choice but to do so in a brick and mortar store. Many communities would have only one or two stores where someone could buy bullion, so prices tended to not be very competitive. Online commerce has come a long way, and today most serious bullion investors opt to buy bullion online, as the advantages are too numerous to ignore.
The largest advantage to buying bullion online are the tremendous cost savings. Online stores can operate so much less expensively than traditional brick and mortar stores who have to contend with overhead, utilities, heavy labor costs, and property taxes, to name a few. Online bullion stores can avoid most of these costs and, therefore, operate on a leaner budget. This allows online bullion stores, like CBMInt, to pass those savings onto our customers, making our products much more price competitive.
The other huge advantage that online bullion stores have is product selection. Brick and mortar stores are a “what you see is what you get” type of operation, where the customer is limited to the bullion products available on any particular day. Online stores, however, can source their products from all over the world. In effect, our shelves are never empty. Because we are not limited by the physical size of a particular building, we can offer our customers hundreds and even thousands of products.
The third large advantage is one that is not well understood but deserves mention — authenticity. Physical stores certainly strive to only offer authentic bullion products, but they do not have the control over their product supply that online stores have. This is because these physical stores often buy bullion back from the public and then resell it — a dangerous flaw in the process that opens itself up to abuse by unscrupulous individuals. Online stores like CBMint, however, only source bullion products directly from the mints and refiners themselves, always ensuring full product quality and authenticity.
There is one small advantage that physical brick and mortar stores possess — time of delivery. Investors who buy bullion from such a store immediately receive the product, without having to wait for shipment. With modern e-commerce, however, this is hardly an issue. Shipping times are so streamlined that customers on CBMint often receive their bullion purchases within a few business days. Buyers in the continental United States also enjoy free shipping on CBMint, as we feel our customers should not have to pay transport costs just to receive their bullion purchase.
The final advantage of buying bullion online is the oft-negated sales tax. If you live in the US in a state that still taxes bullion sales, you are forced to pay sales tax on your purchase in a brick and mortar store. Buying bullion online allows investors to avoid that tax in most cases, unless they live in the state where the online store has a physical presence. Check your local and state tax laws for more detailed information, or feel free to call CBMint toll-free at 214-597-1571 if you have any further questions.
