From Investor Crate

We want you to know how your subscription box is priced, what goes into it, how orders are prepared, and how we source and check our products. Here’s the plain-English version.

As a veteran-owned company, we understand, for newcomers, this can be confusing. We want to uphold the values instilled to us by our service to our country. One of those values is hyper important, that is integrity.

So, we wanted to take the time to explain what goes into our service and we hope you read it until the end.

Pricing and service fee

You choose the monthly box amount. We use it to build that month’s box, with most of the amount going toward bullion and a small service fee remaining for us.

We aim for a service fee of about $5 per order. The exact amount can vary because bullion comes in set products and prices. For example, the fee might work out to $4.38 in one box or $6.12 in another if there isn’t a suitable product to use for the remaining amount. It’s a small difference that comes from building the crate—not an extra fee added on top of your selected amount. We do not hold over any remaining value into subsequent months.

Could you spend hours deal-hunting online and maybe save that $5 service fee? Sure. If that sounds worth your time, go for it. We work on tight prices, but we’re a business and need to earn enough to keep it running. If a small service fee is a dealbreaker, we urge you to shop elsewhere. This service is totally optional.

Below is a chart comparing markups or "premiums" for the following online industries compared to ours.

These figures show gross margin and don’t include operating overhead. Running a bullion business also brings industry-specific costs—such as specialized insurance, physical security, product QC and authenticity screening, fraud prevention, and compliance expenses—that many ecommerce categories don’t face at the same level. 

Spot price and finished bullion

Spot is a market benchmark for physical metal available for immediate delivery. It is not the retail price of a finished coin, round, or bar—and it is more akin to raw unrefined ore. Finished bullion has to be refined and manufactured. Depending on the product, that can include casting or rolling the metal, forming and striking it, checking it, packaging it, and distributing it.

That’s why finished bullion products generally cost more than the spot price of their metal content.

Think of coffee: the price of coffee beans is not the price of a brewed cup at a coffee shop. Or think of crude oil versus the gasoline that has been refined and delivered to a gas station. The final product includes more than the raw material.

Because our crate lineup changes, the specific products, quantities, and premiums can vary from month to month.

Billing and shipping schedule

We bill subscriptions on the 1st of each month and prepare orders to ship on the 15th.

Order cutoff and preparation

The 5th is the cutoff for an order to be included in that month’s shipment. Orders placed after the cutoff are scheduled for the next monthly cycle.

That window gives us time to source and allocate products, prepare orders, and review transactions for potential fraud. Fraud is a real problem in ecommerce, especially with high-value products, so we take time to check transactions before they ship.

Who we are

Investor Crate is a U.S.-based, veteran-owned business founded in 2017. We started in college, as a small group of veterans, while the Global War on Terror era was winding down. We’ve built the company around monthly shipments of physical gold and silver, and we work to keep the process straightforward.

Sourcing and authenticity checks

Our primary supply comes through the three (big 3 - as referred to in our industry) wholesale importers and distributors that source directly from mints. We also sometimes obtain secondary-market bullion from them. Our suppliers test secondary-market pieces, and we conduct random batch testing as an additional check.

These layers are designed to reduce the chance of counterfeit bullion reaching a customer. We take authenticity seriously, but we won’t claim that any testing process makes the risk zero. If you have a concern about an item you receive, contact our support team so we can review it. With this said, we have been in this industry for over 10 years and have never seen a counterfeit piece come through our QC and to date, every single piece that we have XRF, sigma tested, acid tested, magnet tested and weight and dimension checked have all passed with flying colors.

Licensing, insurance, and compliance

Investor Crate maintains the business registrations, permits, and insurance applicable to its operations. We also maintain an active anti-money-laundering compliance program and follow the federal and state requirements that apply to our business.

In addition to this, we are real people. Every word written, every picture taken or edited, has been by a human. Our support team is also human, comprised of real Americans who work right here at our facility. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out by email to support@investorcrate.com. We look forward to doing business with you for years to come.

Thank you.