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Is Goldline A Scam?
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Gold has always been seen as a nice safe store of value. When the world is in crisis, people turn to gold for stability, which is why the price of gold is around $1,200 an ounce these days. I’m not an investor but one important lesson, repeated by savvier investors, is that gold itself may be an investment but it’s true value is as an independent store of value. Should your home currency ever be deemed worthless (in the case of hyperinflation), you could take your gold to another country and convert it into their local currency. If your government were to collapse, you could go elsewhere and still have purchasing power.
You can see how gold has value when the world is in crisis right? That’s given rise to a lot of companies that are looking to make money from the increased popularity in gold. I’m sure you’ve seen ads from Cash4Gold, looking to pay you top dollar for your unwanted jewelry, but there are also companies on the other side. Companies who have gold and are looking to sell it. One of those companies, made popular by their spokesman Glenn Beck, is Goldline.
People want to know – is Goldline a scam? Representative Anthony Weiner of New York seems to think so.
Is Goldline a Scam?
The short answer is No. Unlike Cash4Gold, which has been shown to employ questionable sales tactics, Goldline is a legitimate seller of gold.
However, that doesn’t mean they’re the best place to buy gold. Fortunately gold, like any other commodity, is traded on the open market and you can get a spot price for it. You can use this spot price to determine the true market value of the coins you’re buying to see if it’s a good deal. When the cost of the coin is significantly higher than the gold value, you are overpaying to own gold. The gold coins might have artistic or numismatic value, above and beyond the metal value, and every business has to add a premium for profits, but at some point you are overpaying.
That’s the principal complaint about Goldline.
Bid-Ask Spread
In an open marketplace, the bid is the amount someone is willing to buy something for. The ask is the amount someone is willing to sell something for. Market-makers, the people who “put” sellers and buyers together, can generate a profit off the bid-ask spread – they buy it at one price and sell it at a higher price. In the Consideration for Investors section of the Account & Storage Agreement, Goldline explains that the bid/ask spread on semi-numismatic and numismatic coins is 30-35%! That means Goldline is making at least 30-35% off each sale… that’s a pretty healthy profit margin.
Goldline is, by their own admission, overpriced.
Here’s a video from the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC that looks at Goldline (includes Representative Weiner, Peter Schiff)
Here’s another video of Peter Schiff explaining why Goldline is overpriced:
Protip from the video: If you want to invest in gold, buy gold through an ETF.
Goldline isn’t a scam, they’re a savvy business. They recognize that people are panicking and they are putting out a product that people think they need. They’re advertising on programs, and using pitchmen and women, that bombard their viewers with doom and gloom (perhaps rightly so). Who is to say the numismatic value of these gold coins isn’t 30-35%? 
Is this any different than someone selling bottles of water at $2 outside a ball game or a concert?
(Photo: bullionvault)
{ 52 comments, please add your thoughts now! }
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Like I was told years ago the three things that sell are fear, greed, and sex.
Goldline is simply playing on people’s fear! If a consumer isn’t going to take the time to perform due diligence, it is on them.
This is not to mention the fact that gold is not even a good investment. It isn’t liquid nor does it pay dividends.
S_S
And you can’t eat it.
But you CAN drink it.
http://www.virginmedia.com/money/features/the-most-expensive.php?ssid=9
As usual, the nanny state wants to butt in to keep ignorant people from making mistakes. If they don’t make mistakes, how are they going to learn? The problem is: ignorant people never blame themselves for their stupidity. “They were cheated” is the common refrain.
Remember that old line “Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me”. Thank goodness for Star Trek
30-35%!? i know they say it in the t&c but still, that’s greedy
30-35% is not an uncommon profit margin for a growing business… Clothing retailers often make much more gross profit… somebody has to pay for all that Goldline marketing hype!
(I will admit that I agree with Jim, it’s just too much to pay when you can get gold much cheaper…)
Love the back and forth between Weiner and Beck. One of them looked like a fool.
Bill Snider
So people are stupid to buy at a high priced dealer. People should be doing the research BEFORE buying them. This happens all the time when buying products, why should the government get involved?
I’m always weary about these buying gold sites, even if this one is considered legit.
I’ll stick with stocks for the time being.
I’d rather have 15%-20% capital gains tax versus 28-35%!
Besides if you buy now, you are buying at the peak of the gold run. Sure if you bought in 2004 you would be rich. If you bought now right now, you would be loosing money or breaking even at best.
Honestly, I’d be holding dollars at this point to invest in the market. The Fed is bound to hike up the rates in a year. the Euro is tanking with the recent news of Greece and now Hungary. Spain & Portugal are waiting in the wings to get a bailout.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/CutYourTaxes/taxes-can-take-the-shine-off-gold.aspx
“Normally, when you sell a capital asset you’ve owned for more than one year, your tax rate is capped at 15%.
But when you sell a collectible, tax law caps your maximum rate on long-term capital gains at 28%, not 15%. In other words, on a $100,000 gain (lucky you!), that means you don’t pay $15,000 to Uncle Sam, you pay $28,000 — an extra $13,000.
If you hold the asset for less than a year, it gets worse. Your gain becomes a short-term gain, and it’s taxed at regular income tax rates. That means a rate of as much as 35%. On a $100,000 gain, that’s $35,000 you pay to the government. Ouch!”
I bought gold less than a year ago for $780 an ounce–most stocks didn’t do that well. I could take it back today to where I bought it and sell it back for spot price minus a $20 premium (not unlike the $12.99 I’d pay to sell stock on etrade).
You must have bought some gold-plated bullion or tungsten core gold bars cause gold hasn’t been at $780 an ounce since Nov ’08
http://goldprice.org/charts/history/gold_2_year_o_usd.png
And $20 premium? Sounds pretty rosy to me.
Try $55-$75 purchase premium
http://www.usgoldbureau.com/bullion-gold-coins
E-trade has $10 trades not $12.99
https://us.etrade.com/e/t/estation/pricing?id=1206010000
Scottrade has $7 and Tradeking has $4.95 trades
Look I’m not discounting gold, I’m just saying for people who don’t have a Daddy Warbucks warchest of cash to invest, stocks are the better option.
Did you buy your gold at GOLDLINE ?? And if you did, how much was the total (true) price for an ounce?
How’d that work out for you?
Scam…no. Uneducated people have been overpaying since the creation of currency.
Wish I could think of something that people are willing to over pay for. I know, canned air, like in the movie Spaceballs.
Scam, no. I’d say its a damn savvy business decision on their part to use Glen Beck as their spokesman. They found with him an audience that was too stupid and/or paranoid to know what a good investment is. Good for them.
On the other hand it certainly makes Glen Beck look like a douchebag for being the exclusive shill for this product but I guess he doesn’t mind presumably this was the appearance he was going for anyway.
See my comment above.
Bill Snider
Great article and videos, would like to see more like this!
You don’t have to buy gold. The Goonies found One Eyed Willies ship, and it was full of gold and other goodies.
Just find a map and follow follow it to where X marks the spot.
@Vic…..I tend to agree with you, but to make
the point that you would be buying gold near a
peak, none of us know. It’s a historically high
price, but to call it a peak, you need hindsight,
which is hard to have until the future, LoL
I should have stated Relative peak
But overall gold has had an amazing run. But its bound to end. Just ask anyone that bought in the 80s for $800 and sold it for $350 in the 90′s.
There is a reason they put ‘Previous performance doe not indicate future results’ at the end of every prospectus for any thing. The time to buy gold was when things were calm not when things are in a panic. You want to SELL into the gold buying panic and buy into stocks selling panic. It’s like Buffet says “Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful”
First Vic, it isn’t the gold peak, far from it. Secondly, you don’t buy gold for an immediate turn around, it’s a long term 3-5 year hold recommended, and 5-10 year optimal hold. This is stated when talking to clients.
Thirdly you can’t compare the gold run in the 80s because the circumstances are way different. There was China a communist country, India a 3rd world country, embargos and impending wars.. Now China and India are hoarding gold. They make up for 1/2 the world population and they’re all buying gold. Then you have our falling dollar, if the economy recovers, interest rates will increase, gold will be worth more along inflation. If the economy falters, gold will go up when the Fed comes to the rescue with more printing of money..
I think that anyone that owns a business is entitled to charge the premiums they wish, it is after all capitalism at its best!
I own gold coins and have bought coins over the years. Goldline is not the place to buy your gold coins. You should buy where you can see the buy and sell prices. Many gold coins will be able to be sold back for a small markdown. So, if you bought a coin for 1000.00 you could sell it back that day for 940.00. However, if you did the same thing at goldline that 1000.00 coin would sell back for 700.00.
Please check it out. Go to a local coin shop or gold dealer, and compare prices first before you buy. Also, if you are within only 2 years of cash funds, you might think twice before even buying a gold coin.
I belive anyone dumb enough to listen to Glen
Beck should spend all their money buying gold
from Glen and his friends.
It was probably the dumb Libs buying the gold at inflated prices.
I worked for Goldline for a while and made some very good money but I quit because I’m not the type who can continue to cheat good people and feel good about it…
We were told if someone wants bullion to tell them to send in their money. Once the money is in our bank. we would hard sell them into a higher premium product like the swiss franc. There were designated people to do the hard sell for the bail and switch.
Fear was a major strategy we were taught to use such as the so call confiscation issue and also we were also told to say that the coins were “private”. No 1099.
The truth is if Goldline acted in a responsible and ethical way toward their customers…they would not be able to stay in business.
@ Former Employee: Any chance you would be open to a news interview?
Glen Beck is a scam artist and is taking advantage of a lot of people who don’t know much about the internet and have access to information about how much Goldline is a ripoff. There are a lot of good conservative people out there who are ignorant of his advocating a rip off business. We need a big show like 20/20 etc to bring this out so that it will be common knowledge.
You people are idiots. If you buy and sell collectible coins, you do not divulge your personal information when you sell, no name, social security number or DOB. In other words, folks, you don’t pay capital gains tax. Get it? hello? You guys buy all the ETF’s and stocks you want, you have pieces of paper, I have real money GOLD> I can sell that anywhere.
I bought swiss frank gold coins from goldline in 2001 for 70 each and just sold them back to them at 280. That is with their spread and mark up and all that. I gained 400 percent in ten years and I don’t pay capital gains tax.
You’re calling them a rip off. ? My God, I’m calling them ANGELS. I bought a house with the profits.
Put your money where your mouth is. Show me one other stock or other asset or other company that will show you 400 percent profit with NO TAX in ten years.
I just bought 50K in british sovereigns from Goldline last month. With the deficit and inflation coming…..I’m cashing in with gold baby. !
I will quadrupole this investment in 7 years this time.
You just proved in your comment they are a rip-off.
You let them talk you into wasting your money buying numismatic coins. You paid more cash for less gold. For your 50K you could have gotten a lot more actual gold by buying bars or bullion coins (ie maple leaf, gold eagles).
Tobby Willis: What you are doing is called income tax evasion and there is better than a good chance you will end up in prison for it especially since you decided to brag about your crime on the Internet. You think they can’t track down who you are? Idiot. I am thinking of turning you in myself for the reward. Why should I have to pay taxes when a cheat thief like you pays nothing? Fuck you. Well someone will fuck you, in prison.
Unless, Tobby Willis is just a big fat GOLDLINE employee selling another big fat lie. If it’s too good to be true……
Goldline is WAYYYYY overpriced. Do not purchase your precious metals from this company. Their mark-up is horrid. I bought gold at $900. The current price is now over $1300. I called to ask what their buy back price is…I would be losing on my original purchase by selling back to them – and the price has increased $400!!
Don’t waste your money here; I don’t care what Glenn Beck says!
My Dad bought Gold coin from a friend of his who drove his then, brand new Thunderbird to Mexico and back. This was in 1968.
It was a 1 oz. coin and cost less than a new pair of golf clubs at the time.
The value today is outrageous. The coin is safe in a vault and is rolling around in the container laughing with joy…..who knew…
Okay…here’s the inside scoop on Goldline from a former employee who left Goldline because of their questionable tactics for manipulating people… I know work for a legitimate company selling precious metals. QUITE SIMPLY… It is not in GOLDLINE’S best interest to sell you gold or silver BULLION, although this is the BEST way to buy gold. The reps will not keep their job nor make much MONEY if they only sold bullion. If you say you want bullion, they will tell you to send in your money, and once received by GL, will beat the heck out of you into buying the freakin coins!! If you want coins, there are plenty of gold dealers where you can get them a lot cheaper than Goldline!! BE WARY OF DOING BUSINESS WITH GOLDLINE!!
Okay…here’s the inside scoop on Goldline from a former employee who left Goldline because of their questionable tactics for manipulating people… I now work for a legitimate company selling precious metals. QUITE SIMPLY… It is not in GOLDLINE’S best interest to sell you gold or silver BULLION, although this is the BEST way to buy gold. The reps will not keep their job nor make much MONEY if they only sold bullion. If you say you want bullion, they will tell you to send in your money, and once received by GL, will beat the heck out of you into buying the WAY OVERPRICED coins!! If you want coins, there are plenty of gold dealers where you can get them a lot cheaper than Goldline!! in my opinion, GOLDLINE is UNETHICAL.
I made the mistake of buying gold and silver from Goldline about 2 years ago. When gold hit $1400.00 an oz., I broke even. Finally in the black. I think GOLDLINE SUCKS big time. Whenever one of their representatives call me, I never answer. Next time I will and let off some steam. If ever there was a company that needs to be put out of business they’re it.
After thinking this though, I too; decided it was better to go through an ETF to purchase
gold. It obviates the necessity to have Brinks escort me back to my car, or have my house rewired for intrusion alarms; actually it already has that, but it’s difficult if you get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, or a water exchange.
I just hope I can believe those annual meeting reports.
gold has always gone up since the beginning of time. if you are buying gold for instant gain look elsewhere. be patient. i have heard from friends when gold was 650 that was the peak then it hit a $1000 that was the peak then $1200.. listen to your heart and most importantly listen to history i bought gold for my daughter who is an infant i could only imagine where i would be if my parents did th same for me as an infant. the pair of nikes you bought for a $100 cost 40 cents to make think about that.
I have been looking around the Net because I am about to buy gold and I’m looking for info. I notice there are several sites that bash Goldline and Glenn Beck.
I don’t watch his show, read his books or care much about him however I find it interesting that in the bashing comments above the authors don’t even know how to spell his name! And a “Former employee” is code for Chicken Sh*t. Anyone could write anything. You have a name or it’s likely B.S.
I especially noted some “complaints” on the Web that curse FOX as well. Like FOX is selling you gold? These types of comments are made by frustrated liberals at best.
I did ask Goldline a few questions about the buy-back policy and it can be a bit of a loser if you sell 1. at the wrong time, 2. you sell it back to them, 3. you are selling because you have to. I’m going to ask a couple of gold buyers, pawn and jewelry stores about their prices.
Perhaps my wife can wear a small bullion bar on a chain necklace, it would be the cheapest way to buy her jewelry!
I was taken by goldline, if i had trusted my gut & not the snake oil salesman account rep i would have been up 12k rather than 1k! an expensive learning lesson
I lost my shirt buying “rare” numismatic 1oz gold coins. DO NOT BUY THESE COINS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. All you will do is PAD the pocket of the coin dealer, sales person pressuring you to buy them. PLEASE educate yourself BEFORE buying gold. I got my education AFTER. I am IN THE HOLE BIG TIME. PAID 2650 for PCGS graded ms 64 liberties. Dates 1900. Gold bullion is at 1509 and oz. and I can’t even break even on the cost of my coins till bullion reaches 1900 to 2000 dollars an oz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I had bought gold bullion coins back in september 2011 when gold was 1360 an oz. my profit would be about 1500 dollars a coin instead I have LOST 500 dollars per coin as my coins are only bringing 2150 apiece in todays market! BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I starting to buy gold coins in 1974, when only gold Krugerrands were available. Then along came Canadian Mapleleafs. Bought those around1980. With enough gold to keep in safety deposit boxes, I realized that the REALLY sensible investment today is SILVER. I have bought bags of “junk silver coins.” Today, a pre-1965 dime is worth over $4.00. A quarter is worth $12.00. When US currency soon blows up (hugely-inflated dollars), that old dime might be worth $40.00. Gold is like jewelry. Silver is like future purchasing power and trading forms of money.
I lost our savings buying from goldline. Their people are very well trained, they seem to be empathetic, caring and genuinely good people. It is all BS. I called to buy bullion and was talked into numismatic coins. I was advised by a very kind,charamistic woman to speak to one of their financial advisors before making my decision on what to purchase (I wasn’t sure whether to go with Eagles, Canadian Mapleleafs etc, some kind of gold bullion.) This guy was so good he convinced me to buy old coins despite the fact I had previously spoken to and left other companies trying to do the same thing! Stupid? Yes! These people are some of the best cons that exists. I cannot explain it, even now. He presented himself as an advisor, in fact when I was transfered to him he was called a retirement advisior or specialist. He was just going to make sure I was not making a mistake with my purchase. STAY AWAY!!!! These guys are trained cons. No one is born knowing how to lie and cheat and hurt people like this. However it takes a special kind of heartlessness and evilness to know what you are doing and continue to do it. Former employee, I have nothing but respect for you for leaving what had to be well paying job. Goldine does a very good job of scrubbing the internet, I have discovered. Don’t stop putting out your message.
On any investment where you are investing significant dollars, you have to assure yourself that you are getting in a a fair price, and have an idea of what you could immediately liquidate that investment at. If you need a 30% increase to break even, it is a suckers trap and there are probably better places to buy that product or better investments to make. Stocks are normally easy unless you are buying penny stocks where the spreads can be enormous.
When buying bullion coins you need to check multiples sellers and also see what the coins are being sold on Ebay, remembering that sellers must pay fees on expensive coins equal to 3% + $50 plus a smaller listing fee, so a $1500 coin can cost the seller $100 to sell.
I am saddened to see that I am not the only one who was scamed out of the hard earned money I had it invest in gold to try to grow my savings. It makes me wonder with all the people buying so called “rare” coins at HUGE mark ups from gold line, and other companies, how are they still in business? Why isn’t the truth OUT THERE? It is very dishearting and alarming that people are STILL getting ripped off everyday. BUY BULLION NOT OLD COINS! And never pay attention to the shim sham about government confiscation of gold unless its those rare gold coins that are exempt. That is a bunch of gobbly gook.
Goldline is a scam. Plain and simple. They sell bullion Swiss Franks and other coins at twice their value and then tell you their difference between their bid and ask is 35%. BS ! It’s 54%. They sell at 100 and buy back at 65. Do the math. Your gold has to go up 54% for you to make profit by selling back to them. DUH !
They treat their account executives like crap. The give a few of them all the best calls and give them access to the new class so they get TO’s and make money while treating the rest like crap. If a wire comes in and you’re not there, do you think it goes to your back up? NO. It goes to R. Fazio’s buddies. Calls come in and people say they want to buy right now? Think it’s fairly distributed? NO. Goes to Bobby’s little friends.
R. Fazio is only there to humiliate and mistreat people because he can. His actions only hurt the company but the company doesn’t know it because they are all in the right place at the right time. Want to know why people go to Mr. Albarian? They are sick of Bob Fazio’s crap. Unfair lead distribution, unfair TO distribution and Fazio giving people crap over petty nonsense and blatant favoritism to his buddies.
Goldline can increase its sales immediately and retain it’s employees just by changing Fazio’s behavior or firing his ass. Look at the rash of AE’s going to other gold companies. Why? Robert Fazio.
I work for Goldline right now and I agree with the above post. Robert is an ass. On the one hand, he has a hard job and Mark Albarian gives him a hard time and over manages but Robert walks around and harasses people and demeans them. Then he comes back and apologizes. He knows he’s an ass. I’m surprised he hasn’t been punched out by someone there. One of these days, Robert is going to get decked.
The lead distribution is so unfair. I get one lead a day while the guy across from me gets 15. But he’s a ‘superstar’ and earns 7 times more than I do. Gee, he gets 15 times more leads yet earns 7 times what I earn. Who’s the superstar?
No wonder people go to Merit.
I to have been suck in by goldline i bought 62 of the 20swiss franc for $402 i will have to make it up to at lest $804 to break even and that’s not to mention 1% lucdtion fee $15 and 28% TAX i have to pay so i guess i lose out.
I was overcharged by Goldline. What are my options….
To Anonymous: I think the best thing you can do is like a lot of folks you just keep your fingers crossed and hope the gold market will go up, I still think it can, we will see in 2012.
But what about these Cental Banks..?? are they keeping gold price’s down.