Is APMEX Legit?

Reviewed by the Safe Silver Guide Editorial Team · Updated October 28, 2026

Quick answer: We read APMEX's BBB profile on October 28, 2026 and could not read APMEX's own website, because its pages refused our automated reader. So history, returns, buyback, shipping and payment are all marked CAN'T BE CHECKED below. What follows is what the BBB page shows and a method you can run yourself.

What we checked, and what blocked us

Every page we tried on apmex.com answered our reader with an access-denied error on October 28, 2026. That covered the home page, the about page, the returns page and the shipping page. We did not try to get around the block. A person in an ordinary browser may see all of it, and we would rather leave a gap than guess.

That leaves one primary source we could open: the listing for the business on the Better Business Bureau site. It is a third party's record, not APMEX's own statement, so it answers a narrower question. It tells you how a bureau describes the business, not what the business promises you at checkout.

The table below shows every topic we set out to check, the status word for each, the source and the date. Three words are used. STATED means a page we read says it. NOT STATED means we read a page and the point was absent. CAN'T BE CHECKED means we could not open the page that would answer it.

STATED: a page we read says it. NOT STATED: we read a page and the point was absent. CAN'T BE CHECKED: we could not open the page that would answer it. Counts and terms move; check the source before you rely on a row.

Read the CAN'T BE CHECKED rows as open homework, not as bad news. A blocked page says something about our reader and nothing about the company. Equally, an empty row is not a pass. If you plan to order, the rows that matter most are returns, shipping and insurance, payment methods and buyback, and you can fill each one in with a few minutes on the company's own site.

What the BBB listing shows

The profile lists the business under a longer legal-style name than the brand most people use. It shows that the bureau lists the business as accredited, gives a rating letter, states a years-in-business line and prints complaint counts for two periods. We keep the actual figures inside the table, with the read date beside them, because bureau numbers move and a figure typed into a paragraph goes stale without anyone noticing.

Two cautions apply to complaint counts for any large seller. First, a company that handles a great many orders will usually show more complaints than a small shop, so a count has little meaning without the volume behind it. Second, the profile shows complaints filed, not a finding about who was right. Read the type of complaint and how the business responded, which the bureau page lets you do, before you draw anything from the number.

We also searched three federal regulators' sites by web search for a page naming APMEX in an enforcement matter and did not find one. That is a search result, not a docket check. The regulators' own search tools did not load for us, and we did not search state attorney general pages. Treat it as a starting point, then run the lookup yourself.

How to check any dealer in ten minutes, applied to APMEX

The value of this page is the routine, because it works on a dealer we read in full and on one we could not. Here is how each step stands for APMEX today.

1. Find the business on the bureau site. Done for APMEX, with the read date in the table.
2. Read the company's own returns page before you pay. Open for APMEX. We could not read it, so we say nothing about the window, the conditions or any charge.
3. Find the buyback terms. Open for APMEX. If a buyback exists, look for how the price is set and when you are paid. If the page is silent, ask in writing.
4. Read the shipping and insurance page. Open for APMEX. Note who signs, when cover ends, and what the page says about a damaged package.
5. Check the payment methods and any limits. Open for APMEX. Compare them with the FTC's published warning about sellers who accept only wires, crypto or gift cards.
6. Get the total price in writing, compare it with live spot, and note the premium. This is a per-order step. Our guide to silver premiums shows the arithmetic.
7. Search the regulators and your state attorney general. Partly done by web search, as described above. Do the direct lookups yourself.

The seven steps match the checklist on our safest place to buy silver online page, which explains why each one is there. If the arithmetic in step six is new to you, work through it with an example before you ever place an order.

The open items, in plain terms

We will not infer any APMEX policy from what other sellers do, from search snippets or from what a review site says. Dealers differ on exactly the points that cost people money: how long you have to return an item, whether a charge applies when you cancel after locking a price, who pays to ship it back, and whether a buyback quote can change before you ship.

So here is what to do with each open item. Open the page on the company's site. Copy the sentence that matters into a note with the date. If two pages seem to disagree, ask the company which one governs your order and keep the answer in writing. A short written exchange before you pay is worth more than any rating, ours included.

How this compares with the other dealers we checked

We were able to read the company's own pages for JM Bullion and for SD Bullion, so those pages carry policy rows that this one cannot. Some rows there are still marked NOT STATED or CAN'T BE CHECKED where a page was missing. We make no ranking from that, since a dealer we could read is not better for it. If you want the two readable-versus-unreadable cases lined up in one table, see JM Bullion vs APMEX, which compares only what is stated for both.

For the general warning signs that apply to any seller, our silver dealer red flags page covers pressure, odd payment demands and missing written terms. For the wider question of whether an online purchase can be made carefully, start with is it safe to buy silver online.

A different kind of buyer

Most readers of a dealer page want a one-ounce coin or a small roll. A smaller number are planning a purchase large enough that a personal phone relationship matters more than a website cart. For that second group, Augusta Precious Metals for silver explains what that company does and who it suits. Augusta states a $50,000 minimum initial purchase, so it is a poor fit for a first-time buyer of a few ounces, and the dealer checks above are the better route for that reader.

What this page can't tell you

This page cannot tell you how APMEX treats returns, shipping, payment or buyback, because we could not read those pages. It cannot tell you what is in stock or at what price today. It cannot tell you whether a particular order of yours will go smoothly. The bureau profile is a snapshot from one day, and the open items stay open until someone reads the company's own pages and writes the result down with a date. We will update the table when we can read them. For the wider routine behind every dealer check, the home page on buying silver online safely pulls it together.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• JM Bullion vs APMEX: what can be set side by side and what stays unchecked
• the JM Bullion check: a dealer whose policy pages we could read, row by row
• warning signs of a bad silver deal: the generic red flags to test any seller against