Kitco

Check out this write up of Kitco before you buy gold and silver from them.

Kitco came out of the blue in 1977 and have become one of the biggest gold and silver suppliers in the world today but just how reliable are Kitco with their prolific and up-to-date precious metal charts?

Many people and businesses make use of their kitco charts and precious metal prices. But does that make them a good and trustworthy supplier? The information supplied may bring many people to their website, but is this simply to get more people to buy gold and silver from their website?

Who are Kitco?
The kitco company was started in 1977 by Bart Kitner from his then Peel Street Montréal Apartment in Canada with a 700 dollar loan and a big vision.

Kitco expanded and in 1983, Bart moved Kitco from his apartment into its first corporate building. Then in 1989 Kitco settled into its present building in Cathcart Street Montréal. Kitco arrived on the internet in 1995 and has, since then, become a major global retailer of precious metals.

Although Kitco.com are probably more known for their Kitco charts and kitco live quotes, Kitco also offers a complete line of high quality gold and silver bullion bars and gold coins and silver coins for investors. Also they offer refining services for the jewelry manufacturing industry, including mill products.

Kitco customers rely on kitco for superior service and the highest quality products at competitive prices. Kitco serves the needs of both small and large investors, as well as the precious metals industry. Various sources provide the information for the gold and silver price including the kitco lme, or London metals exchange price fixes. Kitco establish the price of kitco gold from these sources and is that upon which their prices of gold and silver are based.

From their web site you can access for free the standard kitco chart. Also kitco live quotes and kitco base metal quotes. In fact all precious metals.

Other services offered include:

kitco precious metals
kitco gold chart
kitco live quotes
kitco base metal
kitco copper pricing
kitco live market
kitco London fix
kitco gold news
kitco spot gold price

Of interest to us is the kitco 24 hour spot gold chart and kitco live gold prices.

Kitco are also associated with kitcocasey.com, a website of Doug Casey. They seem to place a lot of stock in Doug Casey and his gold and silver natural resource stock reports and share analysis.

Kitco Customer Service
To buy gold or buy silver from Kitco.com you need a kitco account.
It is easy enough to open an account on the website and kitco will sell you gold or silver from their rang of products once you have an account.

They also, interestingly, sell GoldMoney and have a comprehensive outline of what Gold Money is and how to order on line. Kitco is the only authorized reseller of GoldMoney

Buy Gold from Kitco
The kitco gold and silver range is very extensive and diverse. Here is a list of the Kitco Product Range. With the product range is the current kitco gold prices and kitco silver prices. These change on a daily basis with the changes in the kitco current gold price. This product range includes gold bars, silver bars, gold coins, silver coins, and even platinum coins. Kitco is available on a 24/7.365 basis of course on line and by phone during business hours.

You must have an account when buying gold or silver from kitco. This is easy to set up and takes just a few minutes.

Here is a list of gold, silver and platinum available from kitco. All prices are in USD.

Gold Eagle 1 oz
Gold Eagle 1/2 oz
Gold Eagle 1/4 oz
Gold Eagle 1/10 oz
Gold Maple 1 oz
Special Gold Maple 5 X 9 pure 1 oz
Gold Buffalo 1 oz
Gold Maple 1/2 oz
Gold Maple 1/4 oz
Gold Maple 1/10 oz
Gold Maple 1/20 oz
Gold Krugerrand 1 oz
Gold Bar 400 oz
Gold Bar 10 oz
Gold Bar 1 oz
Kitco Gold Bar 1 oz
Gold Bar 1000 grams
Kitco ChipGold 1gram
Kitco ChipGold 5 grams
Kitco ChipGold 10 grams
Kitco ChipGold 20 grams
Silver Eagle 1 oz
Silver Maple 1 oz
Silver Bar 1000 oz
Silver Bar 100 oz
Platinum Eagle 1 oz
Platinum Eagle 1/2 oz
Platinum Eagle 1/4 oz
Platinum Eagle 1/10 oz
Palladium Maple 1 oz

Kitco Pooled Accounts
A Pool Account is basically a precious metal account deposit in which the client does not have title to specific (allocated) bars or coins. It is an unallocated storage, usually of gold or silver. The client instead owns a defined unsegmented interest in a pool of precious metals held by Kitco. The client is entitled to receive physical bullion in the form of any type bar or coin normally carried by Kitco upon payment of quoted fabrication charges. These can be expensive however. Kitco pool accounts are similar to others, such as the Perth Mint or Monex.com and many others.

All gold and silver pools perform the same purpose and all are subject to the same degree of security in terms of gold. Pool accounts can sometimes be used to supply bars and coins when there is a short fall in stock due to over demand in actual gold and silver delivery which means that if there is a run on gold or silver from that particular pool then the pool management may be hard put to supply enough gold to cover all physical deliveries.

This was pointed out by Ted Butler, "… In simple terms, these are purely paper promises or bookkeeping-only entries that are sold as an alternative for owning the specifically earmarked real silver of segregated or unallocated type accounts. For illustrative purposes, an example of a pool type account would be kitco.com kitco.com and for unallocated certificates the Perth Mint of Australia perthmint.com.au But they are not the only examples."
BUYER BEWARE by Theodore Butler [01/30/2007]

The attractiveness is perhaps that it is a cheaper way of jumping on the gold or silver bandwagon. But again, like anything else, one gets what one pays for.

Kitco Payment Options
Kitco policy is that all payments to Kitco must be either by certified check, cashiers check, postal money order or direct wired of funds. All orders over $50,000.00 must be paid by bank wire only. In this case instructions will be sent by e-mail along with the order confirmation. All payment should be dated within 24 hours of your order confirmation, and must be received by kitco within seven days. Be aware that Kitco reserves the right to cancel orders that do not meet both these requirements. Kitco also does not accept C.O.D. orders or credit card payment for bullion products over the Internet.

When you buy gold or silver always ensure you get a price by phone first before you commit yourself. All prices over the phone will be recorded and the recording kept for security and establishment purposes. Ensure that you make accurate notes including time date, who you spoke to and what was confirmed as regards price and delivery.

Sell Gold to Kitco
Kitco will buy gold and silver from you. The price varies depending on the spot price of gold and silver at the time they buy. The kitco buy price is around 1.5 under the spot price which is better than many gold and silver dealers.

Kitco also buys gold and silver jewelry. For example 14k gold has a price somewhat less than 24k gold of course and, again, is just under the spot price.

To sell gold or silver to kitco you need to go to the packing slip page and fill out the details.

To sell gold or silver bullion, you go direct to the bullion packing slip page and you can add up to 8 items which you can select from a drop down box on the page.

You can either establish a price for the gold or silver prior to sending in the packing slip, at which point the information would be entered on the packing slip with a transaction number or you can rely on Kitco to do that for you by them looking at the market value when the goods are received and processed by kitco.

The item should be sent by registered and insured mail to kitco and an address is provided for this purpose after you have filled out the packing slip. Where you send the item will depend on where you live.

The same applies to refined metal but the packing slip is different and covers jewelry gold and silver in the various karats. And amounts.

Kitco Security
The purchase system is secured by Thawte and you can see, when you go to the checkout and through the payment systems that the https is present and authenticated by Thawte security systems. Kitco do not accept credit cards so the potential fraud is much less.

There are privacy policies and full terms and conditions. Usually somewhat boring but you would be well advised to read through it, especially if you are going to buy or sell gold or silver to kitco.

Last word on Kitco
Kitco.com appear to be reliable and trustworthy. They have their full address and contact details available for all to see and anyone can call them by phone and have any questions answered.

Their address is:
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec
H3B 1M1 CANADA

They also have an office in the US at:

64 Lake Street, Suite 101
Rouses Point, New York
12979 USA

Kitco have spent a lot of time and effort to present what is , perhaps, one of the most well known and reliable sites on the internet today.

If you have bought gold or silver or any other precious metal from www.kitco.com please feel free to leave your feedback on the quality of service and products including any kitco complaints.