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Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange is a somewhat misleading name, as the company deals in all four of the standard precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
Their inventory levels for each metal vary, but the breadth of their offerings is truly impressive.
While their primary focus is on gold and silver, they also offer a significant array of platinum and palladium products.
Despite platinum and palladium items comprising about 10% of their total gold and silver inventory, they still provide more options for these metals than most other companies that do not specialize in them.
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About Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange
Other Online Reviews
Yelp has 36 five-star reviews of Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange on file and one one-star review. Yelp, however, is known for "1s and 5s," so it would be wise to take any of the reviews on that platform with a grain of salt.
The single one-star review complained about a preliminary weekend offer not being honored because Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange feared a lower price when gold trading resumed the following Monday.
That's not a wholly unreasonable policy, and the joke was on the complainer anyway because he'd have gotten more than the original offer had he just waited for the trading to resume. This reviewer looked up the gold prices for the days the complainer listed in his complaint.
Some of the glowing reviews on other sites carry the disclaimer that Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange "may have compensated" the reviewers before the publication of the reviews. The reviewer then claimed that such compensation was necessary so that the public could continue to read the reviews for free. That dubious assertion renders such reviews suspect.
The website Nicelocal has 38 reviews of Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange. The overall rating is 4.9 out of 5. Nicelocal doesn't have a feature for verifying its reviews, and all of the reviews about the company seem to be the same in both sentence structure and lack of punctuation. There are no other reviews of the company on Trustpilot or any of the other more well-renowned review websites.
Company Offerings
As stated, the company buys and sells precious metals of all kinds. They also provide numismatic grading services through a third party, and they buy and sell collectible coins as well as bullion coins.
The company buys and sells jewelry, too, and it offers the same kind of third-party appraisal services as it does for coins. On the company's website, it says that such grading and appraisal services are provided for free.
The company keeps many varieties of coins from different countries, such as Austria, Mexico, Canada, China, and England. The coins that need grading have verified grades and are placed in protective coverings as all coins should be to prevent accidental wear and possible damage from skin oil and other contaminants. The company does not provide access to anything to do with precious metals IRAs and other investment accounts.
Precious-Metals IRAs
A precious-metal IRA is a special kind of retirement account into which you can only put such metals. You have to buy all metals that you put into such an account. You can't have had them in your possession at all. Also, even though such an account is also known as a self-directed IRA, you can't do any of the transactions yourself.
You have to rely on a custodian to perform all of them for you. Additionally, when you have such an account, the items must be stored in a secure separate location. One of the most popular locations with owners of precious metals is the Delaware Depository.
When you create a precious metals IRA, the metals you put into it become inaccessible without penalty until you become 59.5 years old.
Were you to take them out of the account, which includes taking possession of them, then you would pay taxes and penalties associated with breaking the rules.
Once you turn 72, however, then you must begin to make minimum withdrawals at regular intervals.
You're also allowed to put bullion coins into a precious metals IRA. These coins are stringently weighed and checked for purity to ensure that they're as close to their stated value as possible. .
Both bullion and bullion coins must be 99.5% pure if they're gold, 99.9% pure if they're silver, and 99.95% pure if they're either platinum or palladium
There is one exception to this. Certain American gold coins are only 91.67% pure, such as a few years' American Eagles, and these coins are considered a legacy. You may not put any numismatic coins into a precious metals IRA because they are, in most cases, not worth anything when it comes to their metal content.
Their value comes from their rarity and the demand for such coins in the industry. Because such demand varies greatly over time, numismatic coins' values go up and down equally greatly. Therefore, their value cannot be set in the same way that coins whose value is just that of their metal content can be.
As far as the website shows, the company buys and sells precious metals in all forms but does not provide access to precious metals IRAs, custodian services, or storage options. Also, Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange don't seem to have any partnerships with custodians or depositories. They do ship for free, however, if the order is $500 or more.
So, if you create a self-directed IRA with another company and then have your appointed custodian buy the items you want, then you can have that person have Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange ship them for free to a depository of your choice.
Considering that most companies that set up self-directed IRAs have minimum purchase requirements that are 10, or even 20, times Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange's minimum for free shipping, you will be able to do it with no problems if you are willing the jump through the extra hoops and inconvenience.
The Best Reasons to Own Precious Metals
The first is that it is a tangible asset. It's not imaginary the way paper assets are. It's backed by the metals themselves instead of being backed by something that represents the metals, such as futures or stocks in a gold-trading company.
While it is true that the stability of precious metals' value means that they don't go down also means that they don't go up greatly either. Their great value is that you won't go broke owning them. It's not like buying stocks on margin or leveraging futures, both of which are almost as risky as straight-up gambling.
The trade-off is that precious metals don't generate income in the same way as other investments that pay dividends, but their safety more than offsets this disadvantage.
Most experts say that people should only have 5%-10% of their portfolio in precious metals and that the "all-eggs-in-one-basket" approach is a poor strategy.
Having Precious Metals at Home
As stated, precious metals should stay in their protective sleeves or cases. It's difficult to provide adequate security at home without a major investment and a possible extensive renovation to the home.
The possibility of contamination of the metals and the difficulty of providing adequate security are two of the main reasons that the precious metals in a self-directed IRA cannot be stored at home. It is therefore recommended that, even as individual investors, folks have their precious metals stored in a secure depository.
Historical Performance of Precious Metals
Precious metals have, with a few periods of lull, steadily increased in value over the last 50 years. Earlier in 2023, gold itself peaked at an all-time high that approached $2,020 per troy ounce. Currently, gold has dropped back somewhat to about $1,950.
Over the years, silver has been more volatile than gold. Five decades ago, it traded at nearly $50 per troy ounce. Earlier in 2023, it was trading at roughly $35 per troy ounce. Despite it being far rarer than gold, platinum routinely trades at about half the value per troy ounce of gold.
Palladium is down from its all-time high of more than $3,000 per ounce in March 2022. It still, however, is much higher than it was 40 years ago. It went through a similar down period at the turn of the century, and there's no reason not to expect it to rebound eventually.
Website Issue
When loading the website for the first time, this reviewer received a notification that Google Chrome was out-of-date, which caused a download of a zipped file.
Google Chrome doesn't ever update through a zipped file; it's always an update through a radio button on the browser window.
The zipped file, therefore, was suspicious. Scanning the file with a malware detector yielded a possible infection if the file had been unzipped.
Because of this, it is highly recommended, at this point, not to try to order through Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange's website.
The Final Word
Aside from the aforementioned website issue, this reviewer was impressed with the number and quality of the bullion coins that the company offers. It's also an advantage to be able to buy all four of the usual precious metals in one place.
The chief disadvantage is that the company doesn't offer any of the services associated with self-directed IRAs. Still, this reviewer recommends Hollywood Gold and Silver Exchange for in-store purchases. If the company cleans up the infection on its website, then it's a good option for buying precious metals as well.
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