Pacific Precious Metals Review
In our Pacific Precious Metals review, we go over this precious metals company with an inventory that makes heads in the bullion market turn. Though there might be better alternatives to open an IRA, we'll outline why we recommend them to anyone who likes their product offering.
Quality
Pricing
SUPPORT
IRAs
selection
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Key Takeaways from this review:
- Clearly listed price spread on all products, which is rare for IRA companies.
- More products than you can expect to find from an average bullion dealer, let alone one that also offers IRAs.
- Not much in the way of negative reviews with plenty of years in the business.
- PPM is different from most gold companies we review - they have a thriving brick and mortar business, with multiple locations in the San Francisco Bay Area
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Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
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We discovered Pacific Precious Metals is another unique company in the precious metals industry, and in a good way.
Pacific Precious Metals sells a lot of different products, even branching into things like jewelry. And, while we mostly cover gold IRA companies, we really love to see a company breaking the mold of the standard gold investment firm.
We'll cover each of them, along with their other services such as gold and silver IRAs which, by all accounts, aren't lacking in quality.
What is Pacific Precious Metals?
As mentioned, Pacific Precious Metals is a bullion store, a gold jewelry store and a precious metals IRA company all bundled together. This might seem like a little too much for a single company to handle, but just based on reviews, we'd say they're doing a good job of it.
Even more impressive is that they provide other services, such as assaying. While this isn't uncommon for a jeweler, it's not really something you can expect to get from your IRA provider or even a bullion vendor. It makes them a one-stop-shop of sorts, so long as you can find something in the shop to your liking.
As you get more into what the company is about, you'll also find that they're a highly reputable purchaser of precious metals themselves, whether in bullion or jewelry form. They don't fleece their customers, even though resold jewelry is infamously hard to get a good deal on.
The company opened its doors in 2011, giving them 11 years of experience in the precious metals sector. Plenty of time to polish all the sides, which they seem to have done a good job of.
Founders of Pacific Precious Metals
Curiously, there is no mention of the Pacific Precious Metals founders on the website, least from what we've seen. But we did some digging and found out that the company is run by one Daniel Barrett. He is listed as a co-founder, which leaves us wondering who the founder is. Dan is also apparently the owner of a software company called Plutus Software. He's a busy guy, apparently.
The About section of the website generally outlines their mission and gives you an idea of what the company revolves around, but there aren't too many details about their brick-and-mortar past location information.
Company Information
With so many companies focusing on online retail services, it's nice to have a gold dealer and especially an IRA company whose office you can walk in. Or, more specifically, offices. Servicing the San Francisco Bay area, they have offices in Palo Alto, Fremont, Walnut Creek and Sunnyvale. They also have what seems to be their main office in Sausalito, which we'll list in the table down below.
Each of these has regular working hours and, to top it off, Pacific Precious Metals open on Saturdays, making it a breeze to work with this company if you're a California resident or visitor.
Pacific Precious Metals Important Info | |
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Pacific Precious Metals Website: | |
Instagram: | |
Pacific Precious Metals Address: | 302 Caledonia St Ste 3 Fl 2 Sausalito, CA 94965-1953 |
Email: | info@pacificpreciousmetals.com |
Phone: | 1-415-383-7411 |
Locations: | Fremont, Sausalito, Walnut Creek, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto (CA) |
Pacific Precious Metals Custodians & Storage Fees
Equally as less-than-ideal is that they say custody and storage fees range between $800 - $1,110.
This is a high figure, since we've come to understand most custodians charge around $180 a year for management and $100-150 to store gold through a depository. No fees are listed for the depository, which is otherwise fairly well-laid out.
By comparison, take a look at Augusta Precious Metals IRA fees:
In a somewhat curious development, the company actually mentions the feared "self-custody" properly: they explain you have to open your own LLC to manage your IRA, though they don't mention it's generally a bad idea.
As for custodians, they only mention a company called My Solo 401k Financial in Southern California. It's a lesser known custodian, which some might not find as ideal as working with the big names in gold IRA custody.
Their depository services are offered domestically through Brink's and internationally through an unnamed New Zealand company, which they say is a bit more expensive. They extend their storage services to IRA and non-IRA customers and even those with valuables other than bullion.
Pacific Precious Metals Products
Because of the diversity of the products, we'll group them under individual bullion types and then the more colorful varieties.
For starters, let's mention that a prominent product of theirs is a gold and silver IRA, though it isn't really central to the company. They definitely specialize more in general acquisition of precious metals.
Gold bullion
Their gold bullion category is too expensive to even try to list individually as we sometimes do. Many customers have indeed reported that buying coins from this company is almost addictive. They have a total of 632 gold coin products. This includes all of the IRA-eligible coins, many antiques and more.
What about gold bars? They have gold bars from 10 different mints, most in over 10 denominations, with a total of 214 products in the gold bar category. The mints, as is the case with coins, are some of the most popular private and sovereign ones out there, but also some lesser-known but definitely sought-after ones.
And, just in case you figured they forgot about rounds, they have 18 different gold rounds listed, likewise from various top private mints and in different denominations. This might be shaping up to be the most impressive inventory we've seen from any single company yet.
Silver bullion
Building on the extended gold inventory, Pacific Precious Metals' silver bullion is just as varied. Again, all of the most popular silver coins from all of the top sovereign mints. 335 products in the Australian category alone... sheesh. A total of 587 silver coins listed, all individually. As is the case with any of their products, the prices are laid out transparently.
Silver bars likewise aren't lagging behind, with bars from over 10 mints joining to form an inventory of 136 products total, though those from a few mints seem to be empty right now. And, just in case you haven't had enough silver, there are 18 different attractive silver rounds to choose from right now.
Platinum bullion
Though the company mentions platinum bullion frequently and has a section devoted to it, it's empty. A little strange to see considering how abundant the rest of their inventory is.
Assaying
Assaying is a subject that can be a little touchy for some. Let's be real: your local businesses that sell gold are always going to try and downplay the value of the item you brought to try and get a better deal. This is true of bullion but all the more so in the case of jewelry. The smaller a store is, the more they can get away with this, so to speak.
Therefore, having a fairly big name in the industry specialize in assaying and offer it for virtually anything that contains precious metals is good.
You're the least likely to get swindled that way, in our opinion. On the website, they go over their assaying process in some detail, and it's clear it's a sizable part of their business.
Pacific Precious Metals IRAs
Whether you want to open a gold and silver IRA through a custodian or feel like living dangerously and want to go for an LLC, Pacific Precious Metals makes it clear they're willing to assist you.
While this is an improvement compared to many bullion dealers offering IRAs, it still doesn't come off as true all-encompassing customer support.
Should you opt for opening your IRA via a custodian, which we recommend, the process is simple:
- Pacific Precious Metals will presumably help you get in touch with the company
- The custodian will open an individual retirement account and help you fund it with rollovers and transfers
- From there, you can purchase whatever gold and silver you'd like and store it in the newly-created IRA, so long as it's eligible.
- No minimum investment is listed on behalf of the company
- The custodian will charge $800 - $1,100 a year to manage your gold or silver IRA in a mostly hands-off approach
- The bullion will be stored in a facility of your choosing, which is presumably limited to Brink's in the case of IRAs
Note: we do NOT recommend opening a precious metals IRA through your own LLC as IRS regulations around owning precious metals in a retirement fund are strict and most individual investors are better off working with a trusted custodian. Sometimes called "home storage gold IRAs", these IRAs require you to open something called a "Checkbook LLC", often marketed as a loophole, but in reality they can be a serious headache.
Pacific Precious Metals Ratings
Starting with the Better Business Bureau, the company has the highest rating of A+ and is accredited. It has 1 complaint closed in the last 3 years, and no reviews. On Yelp, they have a 4.5 star rating based on 46 reviews, with all of the customers saying it was a pleasure to do business with Pacific Precious Metals. That being said, most customers seem to have come for an assaying or a regular bullion purchase.
On Birdeye, the company has a 4.7 rating based on 30 reviews. 27 5-star ones, 2 1-star ones and one with no rating. The 1-star ones don't go into any detail. Aside from that, the company is absent from quite a few other notable consumer watchdog sites.
We like that the company replies to questions pretty often, as can be seen on these sites, and is generally upfront about their profile on these websites.
Pacific Precious Metals Reviews From Customers
5-star rated review on Birdeye:
" Friendly staff and very nice guidance to buy gold coins"
5-star rated review on Yelp:
"I have added PPM to my short list of precious metal dealers and highly recommend them if you are looking to buy or sell bullion."
Another 5-star rated review on Yelp:
"It was a pleasure to work with Preston, their associate who helped me purchase a 1993 Australian Silver Dollar."
Best Alternatives of Pacific Precious Metals
There's no shortage of alternatives to Pacific Metals to consider, and we've written about quite a few of them on this website. We know you are still unsure whether to try Pacific Precious Metals or not. Don't worry, In this section we will present you the best alternatives of Pacific Precious Metals which covers their ratings, fees and a short review.
A quick caveat before you go through these: most of these are gold IRA specialists that can also sell you physical gold, and each has their own strengths. For example, Augusta is best for high-networth individuals, while Goldco has a great selection of gold and a lower minimum purchase threshold. Advantage is great for IRA rollovers, and Birch Gold is solid for new IRA investors.
On the other hand, if you're looking more for bullion and physical gold dealers and not in the market for an IRA, we suggest checking out Texas Precious Metals, and if you're looking for a great provider of platinums and palladiums, you might want to check out Provident.
A few of our favorites:
# 1 - Augusta Precious Metals (Most Trusted)
Augusta Precious Metals is our top gold IRA company recommendation. They have a great reputation, are great for high networth individuals, and have been around since 2012. They are almost completely focused on precious metals as their name suggests. Augusta Precious Metals is extremely well rated by both the Better Business Bureau as well as the Business Consumer Alliance.
We gave Augusta Precious Metals 5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
Pros
Cons
# 2 - American Hartford Gold (Best Customer Service)
American Hartford Gold is easily one of the most trustworthy gold IRA dealers, with near pristine ratings and reviews online, great product inventory, and super a super helpful team with great customer service. It's obvious they care about their customers. On the other hand, if you're looking for platinum or palladium, you're out of luck. We gave AHG 5 out of 5 stars.
We gave American Hartford 5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
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Cons
# 3 - Birch Gold Group (Best Choice For New Investors)
Birch Gold Group is a company with almost two decades of history. They’re gold IRA specialists with a great reputation that charges low fees and has an excellent as well as easy buyback program. Birch Gold Group is recommended for new investors since they’re easy and efficient to work with, have low fees and you can start a gold IRA with them for as low as $10,000.
We gave Augusta Precious Metals 4.5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
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# 4 - Lear Capital (Trusted and Established)
Lear Capital is one of the oldest names in the gold IRA industry. Founded in 1997, Lear has made a name for itself for many years as a trusted provider with a solid reputation in customer support and account management. We recommend them for all your gold IRA needs, but if you're looking for platinum or palladiums, look elsewhere.
We gave Lear Capital 4.5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
Pros
Cons
Pacific Precious Metals FAQs
The payment methods listed on their website are cashiers checks, wire transfers, personal checks, and cash, so no cards of any kind are available as a payment method.
It seems they don't offer free shipping for any products, regardless of price. They say that shipping prices depend on the value of the package, saying that the shipping costs average between $15 and $40 most of the time.
Through what appears to be their sole custodian in the form of My Solo 401k Financial, you can open either a gold or silver IRA with the company and fill it with gold bullion. They even offer to help you set up your own company if you're really into self-custody. It's not clear how much customer support you can expect to get once the IRA is up and running.
Final Thoughts - Is Pacific Precious Metals Legit?
Everything we've come across suggests that Pacific Precious Metals is a legitimate company with no malpractice.
One of the main issues that a lot of bullion vendors with IRAs have is that they don't list the price of products. That's not the case here, where you'll get a clear price on any of the hundreds of products in their inventory. It's definitely faith-instilling and supports the notion that the company engages in good practices.
While their IRA offering is definitely lackluster compared to specialists, just by the looks of it, we'd still say that the diversity of the services that the company offers makes up for it. After all, not every bullion vendor offers to assay any product you might have that could contain precious metals. Along with their many offices to choose from, we'd say that this company does what it does very well.