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APMEX sells physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bars online to investors and collectors.
APMEX is an online metals dealer. It sells physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium — mostly in the form of coins and bars — to two kinds of customers: investors who want to own metal as a store of value, and collectors who want specific coins for their design, rarity, or history.
The business is essentially a high-volume shop with a warehouse. Customers go to the website, pick a coin or bar, and APMEX ships it to their door or stores it for them. APMEX makes money on the spread — the gap between what it pays to buy metal and what it charges customers — plus volume. It is one of the largest precious-metals retailers in the United States, and scale matters because thin margins only work with lots of transactions. Precious metals appeal to people who worry about inflation, currency debasement, or financial instability. That makes demand spike when markets get scary and sag when everything feels calm. APMEX also faces competition from other big online dealers and from local coin shops, so trust and inventory depth are its main selling points.
The company was founded in Oklahoma City in 2000 and is headquartered there. It remains privately held, so it does not report detailed financials the way a public company would.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026