Forget groceries, Costco sells up to US$200M of gold bars and silver coins every month

Costco has been selling up to US$200 million worth of gold bars and silver coins each month, according to a Wells Fargo analysis.

The warehouse started selling gold bars last year. Since then, online forums and Reddit threads have emerged where customers exchange advice on how to buy the bars before they run out of stock.

Costco is selling 1-oz., 24-carat gold bars, according to its online store. It has also increased the maximum number of bars that can be purchased at once from two bars per customer when the product was first introduced to now allowing five bars per customer.

As of Thursday, the bars were sold out for members online, but The Wall Street Journal reported that shoppers had purchased them for around US$2,000 in December.

Costco has also been selling silver coins, advertised as 99.9% pure silver, since January, according to an analyst report from Wells Fargo.

The growing sales have followed a surge in the gold price. The metal has registered all-time peaks for eight straight sessions, including US$2,365.35 an oz. on Tuesday. Since mid-February, gold has gone up by nearly 17%.

Given its pricing and shipping costs, however, it’s likely a “very low-profit business at best,” analysts with Wells Fargo wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.

“The reason that we looked at this is that it’s becoming a larger contributor to sales for them,” said Edward Kelly, managing director of equity research at Wells Fargo.

“It’s not that US$100 million or US$200 million a month is a lot for Costco, but it’s new business and they didn’t have that business last year.”