Scottsdale Bullion Review

Scottsdale Bullion is an Arizona-based precious metals dealer that offers gold and silver products to investors. They also have IRA services available for those who want to open a precious metals retirement account. But are their practices legitimate? How do they compare to other precious metals IRA companies?

Here's what you need to know before investing.

Precious Metals IRA Services

Precious metals are one type of alternative asset that can be held in a self-directed IRA. Unlike traditional IRAs, self-directed IRAs are managed entirely by the beneficiary instead of a professional investment manager. But you need to comply with strict IRS regulations regarding the storage, custodianship, and type of precious metals held in the account.

Setting up the account, coordinating a rollover of your current retirement funds, and having your metals shipped to the right place can be overwhelming. So companies like Scottsdale Bullion help to streamline the process for you.

According to the Scottsdale Bullion website, you can coordinate the setup process through their company. You'll be able to talk to the available precious metals experts and investing advisors to have your questions answered. While the company doesn't provide many details about how they handle the process, they have received mostly positive reviews from clients online.

Available Products

When you go to the company's website, you can browse the different gold and silver that they have available. Most of their coins come from official government mints all over the globe. They have an impressive number of global gold and silver coins in stock, especially in terms of IRA-eligible coins.

They do not appear to have any platinum or palladium products available for purchase. So if you're looking for those precious metals, you might need to go elsewhere.

Similarly, they don't appear to deal in gold or silver bars. Their inventory is entirely made up of coins.

There are coins that come from mints in countries including the US, Canada, Australia, Austria, South Africa, China, and Mexico.

The largest variety of coins comes from the US. In total, the company has 27 different gold and silver US coins listed in its online inventory.

Rather than searching for gold or silver products alone, the website categorizes the coins by their country of origin. If you're looking for specific international currency, you might appreciate this. But it could be inconvenient if you're trying to focus on just gold or silver.

Selling Gold and Silver

The company is also willing to purchase gold and silver products. Some companies will only buy precious metals from former customers as part of a buyback program. While Scottsdale Bullion does have a buyback program, you can also sell them your precious metals even if you've never worked with them before.

Unlike many other companies, Scottsdale Bullion is willing to purchase certain products that they don't actually sell. They will accept platinum, palladium, rare coins, and junk silver. They also do make an effort to resell most of the coins they receive.

When you reach out to sell your products, you will receive an evaluation from the company's precious metals experts. Then they will make you an offer.

It's possible that the best way to utilize this service is by visiting the company headquarters in person. The website doesn't have much information about how the evaluation process works, how they calculate their offers, or whether you can ship your metals to the company to receive an appraisal.

Items You Can't Sell

The company does note that there are several products that they are not willing to buy. On this list are:

Buyback Program

If you purchase gold and silver from Scottsdale Bullion, you can sell it back to the company when you're ready to liquidate it. That saves you the hassle of finding a buyer who's interested in the items.

While the company does state that they have a buyback program, they don't explain how buyback pricing is calculated. They do say that if you have a Scottsdale brand product, you'll probably get a higher resale price.

There is at least one Yelp review from a disgruntled customer who said that the company overcharged them for their metals and then lowballed them during the buyback process.

Is Scottsdale Bullion a Scam?

Scottsdale Bullion is definitely not a scam. The company is accredited with the Better Business Bureau, and the organization gives them an A+ rating. There are four customer reviews on the website, all of which have 5 stars. Though one complaint has been filed in the past three years, it has since been resolved. The complaint details are not available.

The company also has a handful of reviews on Yelp, averaging 4 out of 5 stars. Most customers have said that they've had a positive experience. However, there have been a few complaints.

One of the complaints said that the customer had paid to receive graded coins, but the products they actually received were not anywhere near the promised grade. Another complaint said that the company marked up prices to up to 30 percent more than their market value.

Companies do need to mark up their precious metals prices at some level if they want to turn a profit and pay their overhead. But 30 percent is significantly more than you'll find at most dealers. That said, these complaints are hearsay, and it's possible that the company's pricing policies don't actually reflect this number.

Pros & Cons of Scottsdale Bullion

Final Thoughts

Scottsdale Bullion is a legitimate business that has been in the precious metals industry for more than 15 years. The company seems to have a relatively good reputation both locally and online. All of their Better Business Bureau customer reviews are positive, and most Yelp reviews are positive.

A few customers have left complaints on the Yelp site alleging that the company marked up the costs of items far beyond their sale value. But those reviews are a few years old. Most reviewers have stated that they felt like the transaction was honest and the staff was helpful.

All in all, there aren't any major red flags pointing toward Scottsdale Bullion. But there are some precious metals IRA companies that outperform them. These companies have hundreds of positive customer reviews and haven't been accused of inflating their prices.