Buying Gold for Your IRA Is Easy. Selling It Back the Smart Way? Not So Much!

You’ve probably seen the ads: “Protect your retirement with gold!”

And it is surprisingly easy to buy physical gold or silver for your IRA. What they don’t tell you? Selling it back—and getting your funds into an easily accessible, IRA-compliant money market—can be confusing, slow, and costly if you don’t know the tricks.
I learned the hard way… and spent days on the phone with dealers, custodians, and brokerages. Luckily, I had one thing on my side: my AI sidekick, ChatGPT, who helped me untangle the process. Now, I want to pay it forward. (Note: I’m not a financial advisor, just someone sharing what worked for me.)

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The Gold Buying Hype (and the Missing Fine Print)

Most precious metals IRA companies are excellent at one thing: selling. They’ll walk you through how to buy, they’ll guide you to “approved” products, and they’ll emphasize their “guaranteed buyback” programs.

What they won’t explain upfront:
• Which forms of gold are easiest to sell later
• What kind of fees or markups you’ll face when trying to cash out
• That your IRA custodian might not accept all metals from all holding companies.

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Coins vs. Bars (What I Learned)

A crucial tip? Go with bars, not coins. Coins often carry higher premiums when you buy—and worse rates when you sell. Bars (especially from recognized mints like Istanbul or Perth) are far easier to liquidate and offer tighter spreads between buy/sell prices.

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My Step-by-Step Strategy for Selling My Gold Back (Without Getting Ripped Off)

Here’s exactly how I moved my physical precious metals into an IRA to a cash-equivalent IRA Money Market account:
1. Open an IRA Money Market account with a trusted investment firm. It’s free to open and doesn’t require an initial deposit. This is where you’ll eventually receive your funds.
2. Shop the Buyback Market
After some research (and ChatGPT’s help), I found that SD Bullion offered me the best deal—just a 2.17% spread, compared to other dealers who were quoting 5% to 10% (or more!).
3. Change Your Preferred Dealer
I went into my holding company’s system and set SD Bullion as my preferred dealer. This made it easy to direct the sale through them.
4. Instruct the Sale + Transfer
Once the sale went through (it took about 14 days), I coordinated with my investment firm to ensure the funds were sent directly into my IRA Money Market account. Since it’s still an IRA, no tax event is triggered—until you take a distribution.

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Final Thoughts from Northpoint
By Justin Patellaro

Precious metal ETFs offer a streamlined way to diversify your IRA—without the storage fees or liquidation delays of physical gold. Unlike owning bars in a vault, ETF shares are bought and sold on public exchanges, giving you instant access to real-time pricing and liquidity. You don’t own the physical metal directly, but the trade-off is often worth it. ETFs are typically backed by gold or silver held by large, regulated custodians. That means fewer logistical headaches, no premium markups, and tighter spreads. In today’s market, convenience, transparency, and flexibility matter. If you’ve already decided to add precious metals to your retirement mix, ETFs can offer the exposure you want with the simplicity you need.

Always do your research and understand your exit strategy—but for many investors, ETFs strike just the right balance between security
and accessibility.