Atlantic Precious Metals Review

Atlantic Precious Metals was a family-owned small business. Though the company had been around since 2011, the Better Business Bureau page says that they appear to have gone out of business. But what did they offer while they were in business? What should people know about this company, along with choosing a precious metals dealer of your own?

About Atlantic Precious Metals

Atlantic Precious Metals was founded in 2011 as a Limited Liability Corporation. The company was owned by Ron Miller, who personally answered every call. It appeared that Ron Miller was the sole employee of the company rather than having other employees to take on the work. As such, the scope of the company's reach was limited.

According to the website, the company's goal was to use their small business approach in order to stand out from the crowd. They wanted to be a smaller, more personalized precious metals dealer amid the crowd of giant corporations.

It's also important to note that there is an entirely separate company named Atlantic Precious Metal Refining, which has nothing to do with this business.

How the Purchases Worked

Ron did his best to simplify the process of acquiring precious metals. You needed to choose how much you wanted to invest and what you wanted to invest in. This might have involved advice regarding the precious metals products that were most likely to perform well over time.

Once you'd done that, you would need to choose your type of storage. The company could send your purchase to a safe or a home vault in an insured package. But it was more highly recommended that the customers use a professional depository to store their metals.

After you'd settled all of the details, you would lock your price. That means that the price wouldn't fluctuate with the market, so there wasn't any risk of paying more than you were quoted. Then you'd confirm the order, use a bank wire transfer to move the funds to the company, and receive the products in the mail several days later.

The company stated that the purchase price of the metals also included the cost of delivery. This means that you didn't need to pay anything extra for shipping.

Offered Products

The company sold gold, silver, and platinum bullion in the form of coins and bars. But there wasn't much information available about the fees they charged. For example, they didn't explain how much they marked up their prices from the market value, or whether there was an entire extra delivery charge added to the total.

Basically, it was hard to tell whether you actually got free shipping, or whether you just got an item priced $20 or more above what it should have been.

Customer Support

While the company was in business, there was a phone number you could call to talk to a member of the customer support team. You could also email them with a query and your contact information. Ron would call customers back at whichever time they said best suited them.

The company's website didn't list an address. But their page on the BBB did have a business address listed in Perry Hall, Maryland.

Other Services

The company had two more main services that it offered. Keep in mind that one man was running the entire business, so the number of different services was both impressive and unusual.

There were some services that would allow you to open up a precious metals IRA. You could purchase a retirement diversification package, which included a large amount of IRS-approved precious metals that could be held in an IRA.

Another option was to open a gold and silver trading account. This is an online account that allows you to buy and sell precious metals digitally, while having all of your assets backed up in a vault. Atlantic Precious Metals is not the only company to offer this.

Is Atlantic Precious Metals a Scam?

Atlantic Precious Metals is no longer in business. There hasn't been much information about why the company closed its doors. The company website doesn't appear to be active anymore, and it's difficult to find search results that aren't about the unrelated Atlantic Precious Metal Refining company.

There's nothing that definitively points to Atlantic Precious Metals having been a scam. But somewhat puzzlingly, there isn't a lot of evidence that disproves that theory, either. We can say that the company was most likely not a scam, given the lack of consumer reports or investigations.

But there were basically no customer reviews available online through any third party websites while the company was active. Their BBB page didn't have any complaints or reviews, and the company was never accredited. Now, since the business is defunct, the BBB page is still not accredited and has an NR rating.

It's extremely difficult to find customers who have actually worked with this business. There aren't even any reviews of the retail location on Yelp.

This isn't necessarily out of the ordinary, especially considering the company was run by just one man. He was providing all of the services and packaging all of the orders without a specialized team behind him. It stands to reason that he would have had a smaller customer base than many other companies.

Pros & Cons of Atlantic Precious Metals

Final Thoughts

Atlantic Precious Metals is an interesting company to explore. Their Better Business Bureau page says that they've gone out of business, and their website does appear to be defunct. It's difficult to say whether the owner ever officially declared bankruptcy or nullified the corporation. The business might still exist on paper, but it doesn't seem to be operating.

What made Atlantic Precious Metals so notable was that the owner did it all. He was the only employee of the business. Every customer worked with him from start to finish, and he answered every phone call and email. You would never work with any other representative.

This kinds of hands-on care and value is often appreciated by customers. But it can also be a double-edged sword. Sometimes it's more efficient for companies to have small teams of employees who each specialize in different things. For example, it's easier to offer IRA services when you have tax experts and financial services experts on board.

When you choose a precious metals dealer, you want to make sure that you pick one with integrity. That means looking for the companies that are transparent about their policies and pricing. You should always double check your price quotes against the spot price, and you should feel comfortable asking questions of the sales representative.

If a sales rep makes you feel pressured or uncomfortable, they might be working on commission, which can lead to "hard sell" tactics that make customers uneasy.