CMI Gold & Silver Review

Building a sound financial future is almost exclusively dependent on making sound investments. Sure, you could just plunk money into your savings account and watch the 1% roll in month after month; but will that increase your net worth enough to provide you with a sound retirement plan? Most likely not, unless your savings balance is pretty impressive.

Because relying on interest accrued from savings is generally not going to amount to enough to retire comfortably, we often seek to invest our money in another way to better improve our later years. 401 K’s and direct stock purchases can be a great way to help supplement our retirement accounts; however, those avenues can lead to losses that hinder our goals.

For this reason, many people explore other investment avenues such as acquiring stockpiles of precious metals that can be sold for cash in the future. Being universally accepted as a form of currency and with an almost consistent growth rate, gold, silver, and other precious metals can prove to be a very sound investment.

Having almost doubled in price in the last ten years, gold is surely an investment that will keep on giving. But where is the best place to buy precious metals at a rate that will make it worth your while? There are a lot of different companies that sell precious metals to those looking to make such an investment, but how do you choose which one will best suit your needs? To help you answer that question, let’s look at one such company, CMI Gold and Silver, in order to assess their worthiness as a precious metal dealer.

Who is CMI Gold and Silver?

Established in 1973, CMI Gold and Silver is one the United States’ oldest bullion dealers.

Operating out of Phoenix, Arizona, they buy, sell, and trade non-jewelry forms of noble metals. CMI also boasts prices lower than other established dealers and offers free shipping on orders over 3 oz. Reading through their site, you’ll also see that CMI has strong political opinions and a sense of humor as well, which may be a bonus for those who agree.

Does CMI Have a Verifiable History of Good Business Practices?

With Better Business Bureau (BBB) records dating back 57 years to 1965, the company has zero complaints on file. CMI was even granted the honor of an A+ BBB rating 23 years ago in 1999 and maintains that high rating as of this day (2022). For a company that does business strictly over the phone and in person, that alone shows impeccable customer service skills.

Does CMI Offer Selection?

Providing products in four different metal categories, CMI sells gold, silver, platinum, and pallidum. While they offer an array of coins and bullion bars in the gold and silver categories, the other categories are pretty sparse. If you are looking for platinum and palladium your choices are very limited as they mostly offer just coins in these categories. In comparison to other reputable bullion dealers online, CMI Gold and Silver definitely has a more limited selection of products than their competitors.

Is the Price as Nice at CMI?

Well, in the world of precious metals asking about price is like expecting the stock traders on Wall Street to give you closing figures before the opening bell. In other words, it’s impossible to accurately convey to you where their prices will rank in comparison to others 5 minutes or 5 days from now.

Why Are Bouillon Price Comparisons Difficult?

The bullion market fluctuates all day long, barring an hour a day and weekends, so prices are constantly changing. This is why CMI Gold and silver operates by means of phone orders only, so they aren’t tasked with trying to update their online prices all day long. Despite this, they do have spot prices listed online and offer a free service that emails spot prices to you daily.

What Are Spot Prices?

Spot prices, in case you are not familiar, are that day’s base commodity price for which a precious metal can be bought, sold, or traded. Spot prices are determined by future predictions of the market as reported by COMEX or GLOBEX, two of the most popular commodity exchange organizations. Although spot prices represent the current market value of gold, silver, and other valuable metals, they do not represent the price for which you can actually buy such metal.

What Are Premiums

On top of the spot price, bouillon dealers charge premiums to buyers. Generally, the premium for gold is a fluctuating percentage of the spot price, while silver premiums are generally charged at a fixed rate. That being said, it's hard to compare prices without getting multiple quotes from more than one company at the time that you are ready to buy.

Common premiums for silver are 5% - 8% for bouillon bars and 12% - 20% above spot for coins. Gold premiums, however, continuously fluctuate. That being said, expected premiums for gold bars should be between 3% and 8% and 3% and 15% for gold coins. Coins are always sold at higher premiums because processing the ore into a coin rather than a bar is more costly.

A Quick Price Comparison

Although CMI Gold and Silver does not list any premium rates online, their buyer's guide instructs new buyers to buy at low premiums and to sell at high premiums. For the purpose of providing you with something tangible in regard to price comparisons, I called to get a price. CMI Gold and Silver’s spot price for a 1 oz. Perth Mint gold bar was $1707.58 and the sales price I was quoted (which includes the premium) was $1765.00. So as of today, (6/15/22 at 2 pm EST) CMI’s premium for 1 oz. of Perth Mint gold was a little over 3%. That’s a great price!

To put that price in perspective, I also called one of CMI Gold and Silver’s competitors, American Hartford, who also holds an A + BBB rating and has an upstanding reputation. The very helpful gentleman who answered the phone told me that their spot price was listed for a 1 oz. Perth Mint gold bar was $1703.60 and the sales price was $1790.00. So, as of today (6/15/22 at 3 pm EST), American Hartford was selling gold at a little over a 5% premium. I guess CMI gold win’s this price comparison hands down!

Of course, you’ll have to do some comparing yourself if you’re truly looking to get the very best price, but when comparing CMI Gold and Silver to American Hartford, you’ll most likely find the same type of premium difference in the future. Now, let's see what CMI’s customers have to say about their personal buying experience.

What Do Customer Reviews Say about CMI Gold and Silver?

At Golddealersreviews.com, 11 reviewers have given their input, leaving CMI with an almost perfect 5-star rating in all four eligible categories. One review on this site, in particular, states that the customer has been buying from CMI Gold and Silver since 2012 and they state that their prices are far better than other prices they have found. Well, that’s a good sign. Let’s keep looking though.

Moving on to Google reviews, there are 66 customer reviews and a total of 4.9 stars, which looks like a trend. Hats off CMI, those high star ratings are hard to achieve! As I scroll down through the 66 reviews, I see 5 stars, after 5 stars! In fact, these customers are so impressed with the company that people have taken the time to detail their successful transactions and to thank CMI’s for their exceptional service! I was truly impressed and even more so when I saw that every single review was accompanied by a company response. This company is on the ball!!!

To see if maybe, by some crazy act of God, I just happened to find all the positive reviews in two places, I moved on. I mean, come on, this company can’t be that perfect right? Searching some more I stumbled onto reviews.birdeye.com, where they have 71 reviews for CMI. Guess what, 66 of them are 5 stars! At this point, I’m not even going to bother to read down the list. I’m convinced, CMI Gold and Silver has it going on in ways I’ve literally never seen another company achieve. In all my searching, I only found 4 unique, 1-star reviews and if that’s all the company has out there in this day and age, They are customer service gods!