Best gold price dance like a drunk uncle at a wedding—unpredictable, sometimes humiliating, but impossible to ignore. Search for the best price here Luck is nice. The “spot price” you see on TV flashing? That serves as only a basis. The true game starts when you start trying to purchase the goods.

First of all, realize that nobody—that is, none save me—sells gold at spot price. Dealers tack on premiums like they are out of fashion. Those metallic coins? Pay three to ten percent over spot. Although bars are often less expensive, good fortune in locating fractional sizes free from gouging is rare.

Though rather erratic, timing is everything. Gold bursts when:

• The economy implodes
• Politicians claim to be dumb.
• The dollar yawns
• A pigeon farthest from the Federal Reserve

Timing the market is like attempting blind darting. Half of the time the pros make mistakes. Your best line of action is Dollar-cost average like your retirement depends on it (because it does).

On price, online vendors often outperform physical stores. Better deals follow from less overhead. The problem is that you cannot hold the items prior to purchase. Online dating for gold bugs here is Swipe right and hoping the pictures were honest.

Premiums vary greatly depending on the product type:

• Government mint coins with best premiums
• Generic rounds (middle ground)
• Usually the least expensive secondary market bars

That coin with the baby panda design, “collector’s edition”? Not the gold content; you are paying for the artwork. Unless you are aiming to wow your numismatist pals, keep to basics.

Watch “too good to be true” price. Should a dealer’s offer gold below spot, either:

• It is a hoax.
• They will charge you outrageous shipping costs.
• You are going to get gold-plated tungsten.

When gold’s hot, sales strategies become imaginative. Every dealer abruptly makes a “once-in- a-lifetime” offer. Funny how those lifetimes recur every quarter.

Your total cost depends on the payment type. Discounts on wire transfers are not unusual. Credit cards? Value paying 3% extra for the “privilege” of 22% APR financing your purchase.

There are quantity breaks, but avoid going house mortgaged. Purchasing 100 ounces could save you 0.5% each ounce—perfect if you are Scrooge McDuck, useless if you are only starting small.

Local cash deals can cut rates, but unless you like perhaps risky back-alley transactions, they meet in a bank lobby. A man called Vinny presenting Krugerrands from his luggage says nothing more than “trustworthy”.

While they create other complications, gold ETFs address the premium issue. Not the real thing, you possess paper gold. When the music stops, you want a metal chair rather than promises.

In a lumberyard, storage expenses cut into returns more quickly than termites. Until you consider insurance, home safes are low cost. Like credit card debt, depository charges compound.

The true “best price” is about entire cost rather than only the number:

• Buy luxury
• Transport and insurance
• Storage
• Liquidity during sales

The actual worth of gold is not in daily swings. It is in what it does when all else collapses. You are buying, remember, for this reason. Not day trading but rather to sleep peacefully when the financial zombies arrive.

Go daily to check several sellers. Prices evolve more quickly than TikHub trends. Set alarms. Check spreads. And for God’s sake, resist buying when CNBC starts shouting about hyperinflation.

The finest gold price is ultimately the one that allows you to acquire actual metal without running across theft on storage or premiums. Everything else seems to be noise.

Now go off and negotiate like your forebears did—perhaps avoid the goat trade component this time.