(Kitco News) – Costco, the warehouse-style retailer famous for its unlimited samples, cheap hotdogs and bulk quantities, began selling gold bars to its members during the second half of last year. Now, they’re stocking silver as well.
The retail giant has been offering one-ounce bars of 24-karat gold from South Africa's Rand Refinery and from PAMP Suisse for purchase through their website since summer 2023, and they’ve typically sold out in a matter of hours.
“I've gotten a couple of calls that people have seen online that we've been selling one-ounce gold bars,” CFO Richard Galanti said during the retailer's fourth-quarter earnings call in September. “Yes, but when we load them on the site, they're typically gone within a few hours, and we limit two per member.”
During Costco’s Q1 earnings call on Dec. 14, Galanti said that they sold $100 million in one-ounce gold bars between July and September. When asked what consumer trends Costco was seeing over the holiday season, he answered: “They're buying gold.”
Now, the same thing is happening with silver coins. Costco recently began selling tubes of 25 one-ounce Canada Maple Leaf silver coins priced at about $680, Galanti told CNN. Once again, they’re selling out quickly online.
During the company's second-quarter earnings call on March 7, Galanti said that growth in e-commerce sales during the quarter ending Feb. 18 was “led by sales of gold, and very recently, silver.”
But unlike the gold bars, the new silver coins, which feature a maple leaf design on the front and a silhouette of King Charles III on the back, are also available for purchase in-store, where they are priced lower than through the website.
Members can buy a maximum of five tubes of coins at a time, and the purchases are non-refundable.
