In the BullionMatch IRA Guide, we help you compare IRA-approved bullion from leading precious metals dealers, ensuring you get a fair price for your self-directed IRA (SDIRA).
What’s a self-directed IRA?
Assets held in an SDIRA can have greater protection from creditors, and being self-directed, you get more control over your choice of assets to invest in.
There are two primary types of SDIRA with different tax advantages.
- Traditional SDIRA: Contributions may be tax-deductible and gains grow tax-deferred.
- Roth SDIRA: Contributions are post-tax, but gains and qualified withdrawals are tax-free.
Why hold bullion in a self-directed IRA?
Holding bullion in a self-directed IRA (SDIRA) can help investors diversify their portfolio and protect against persistent inflation and economic downturns, especially because precious metals tend to move independent of stock indices and bonds.
Furthermore, precious metals are physical assets, which can appeal to investors who want to hold something with intrinsic value. However, as with anything physical, there can be not-insignificant storage and custodial costs.
Holding bullion in a self-directed IRA (SDIRA) carries potential drawbacks. These include strict IRS regulations designed to prevent tax penalties and potentially lower liquidity compared to conventional paper or digital investments.
Bullion Eligibility for an IRA
IRA-approved bullion must be purchased through a custodian and meet IRS purity requirements for inclusion in a self-directed IRA.
- Metals: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium
- Purity Standards: Gold (99.5%), Silver (99.9%), Platinum (99.95%), Palladium (99.95%)
- Formats: Only specific non-collectible coins and bars are allowed, like:
- American Gold Eagle coins (exception: despite being only 91.67% pure, they're allowed)
- Canadian Maple Leaf coins
- Australian Kangaroo/Nugget coins
- Approved bars from recognized refineries or mints (e.g., approved by COMEX), or are certified to comply with ISO 9001:2015 standards.
- Storage Requirements: Held by an IRS-approved trustee or custodian (not by the IRA owner personally) in a secure vault or facility. For example, Equity Trust, is an established provider and meets the requirements.
Inclusion Criteria for Dealers
In the BullionMatch IRA Guide, we cover the following dealers because they provide a clear and representative cross-section of the physical investment-grade precious metals market.
- APMEX: APMEX is one of the largest online retailers in the United States and serves as the retail division of APMEX Wholesale, which is one of only nine authorized purchasers in the country that the U.S. Mint permits to distribute its coins directly.
- JM Bullion: is the largest discount metals retailer in the U.S. and operates as the retail arm of A-Mark Precious Metals, another U.S. Mint-authorized distributor.
- BGASC: Large, independent discount retailer that operates without a wholesale arm.
- Golden Eagle Coins: Another large, independent discount retailer that operates without a wholesale arm.
- Lear Capital: Representative of the “full-service” precious metals dealer category, and the largest of its kind. Unlike online-only retailers, full-service firms assign experienced brokers to guide clients through the metals acquisition process for self-directed IRAs
Due to the higher level of service, full-service dealers like Lear Capital typically cater to wealthy individuals and clients making larger investments. Therefore, product premiums may be somewhat higher than others.
Fair Price for IRA Gold, Silver and Platinum Bullion
BullionMatch evaluates pricing using a market-relative methodology based on observed dealer pricing, not fixed or theoretical benchmarks.
Step 1: Calculate Melt Value
Each bullion item has an intrinsic melt value determined by:
- Weight (in troy ounces)
- Purity
- The spot price of the metal at the time of data collection
This represents the raw metal value of the product.
Step 2: Observe Market Premium Behavior
Physical bullion typically trades above melt value. The size of this premium varies based on market conditions, product type, and weight.
Historical and current market data show that:
- Smaller weights generally carry higher premiums
- Coins tend to have higher premiums than bars
The system incorporates these realities using weight- and product-specific premium expectations derived from market behavior.
Step 3: Compare Prices Within the Market
Prices are compared only against similar products—same metal and same weight—across the competitive dealer set. This avoids misleading comparisons between different unit sizes.
Each item’s markup over melt is ranked against peers of the same weight and classified based on its percentile position within that distribution.
Step 4: Assign Deal Ratings
Based on relative ranking, items receive one of the following classifications:
- Fair – Priced within the expected range relative to comparable products
- Don’t Buy – Priced higher than justified relative to peers
This is a relative scoring system, not an absolute valuation model. If market-wide premiums are elevated, the scoring adjusts dynamically, and the difference between “Fair” and “Don’t Buy” thresholds may be narrow.
Reference Price Thresholds and Heuristic Adjustments
In addition to relative scores, BullionMatch displays user-facing Buy and Don’t Buy reference prices. These thresholds are derived from observed market prices within the dataset.
For certain products—such as high-demand bullion coins or very small fractional units—additional heuristic adjustments may be applied when calculating these reference prices. These adjustments may include:
- An extra percentage premium, and/or
- A fixed price adjustment
These heuristics reflect persistent structural premiums observed in real-world pricing and are applied only after scoring. They do not affect relative rankings or deal classifications.
Numismatics Exclusion
BullionMatch does not include numismatic items in its pricing calculations or scores unless explicitly stated. An item is considered numismatic if it meets any of the following criteria:
- Certified by a grading service (e.g., PCGS, NGC)
- Issued as a proof, commemorative, or limited mintage
- Includes special privy marks or proprietary designs
- Carries special labels (e.g., First Strike, Early Release)
- Features specialty finishes (e.g., Reverse Proof, UCAM)
- Is dated prior to 2010 and exhibits materially different pricing behavior
Conclusion
The BullionMatch IRA Guide helps you compare IRA-approved bullion from leading precious metals dealers, ensuring a fair price for your self-directed IRA. It covers criteria for bullion eligibility, dealer inclusion, and fair pricing thresholds for evaluating deals.
If you have any questions, contact the team at BullionMatch with any query whatsoever, please email Ludwig at mises@bullionmatch.com