Dealer Spread Calculator
Model the round-trip cost of buying and selling bullion. Defaults come from live Texas Precious Metals bid and ask quotes; adjust the sliders to test any dealer.
Texas Precious Metals is quoting gold at $4,369.73 to buy and $4,347.73 to sell as of 4:58 PM ET on September 22, 2026, a live dealer spread of $22.00 (0.50% of the $4,358.63 spot price).
Dealer spread calculator
Defaults from live Texas Precious Metals dealer quotes · adjust to model any dealer
Why the spread matters
Spot is the wholesale reference price. A dealer sells above it (the premium) and buys back below it (the discount). The gap between those two numbers is the round-trip cost of owning physical metal, and it is the first hurdle any price move has to clear before you break even.
What moves premiums
Product type (coins carry more than bars), size (small units cost more per ounce), mint, and market stress. Silver premiums are usually a much larger percentage of spot than gold because the metal is cheaper per ounce and the fabrication cost is similar. The defaults here come from live Texas Precious Metals quotes.
How it’s calculated
Dealer buy price = spot × (1 + premium %); dealer sell (buy-back) price = spot × (1 − discount %); round-trip spread = buy − sell.
Prices are live spot from Metals.dev; dealer bid and ask from Texas Precious Metals; crypto from CoinGecko. Every figure on this page is timestamped and nothing is estimated when a feed is unavailable.
Frequently asked questions
What is a dealer spread?
The gap between the price a dealer sells metal for (spot plus a premium) and the price it pays to buy metal back (spot minus a discount). It is the round-trip cost of owning physical bullion.
What is a typical premium on gold?
Roughly 2–5% over spot for one-ounce sovereign coins and 1–3% for bars in normal markets, higher for fractional coins and during shortages. Silver premiums are proportionally larger.
Where do the default percentages come from?
From live Texas Precious Metals bid and ask quotes for each metal, rounded to the nearest 0.5%. Move the sliders to model any other dealer.
All calculations use live market prices and are estimates. Actual dealer prices, premiums and refining charges vary. Nothing on this page is investment advice.