The best gold deal in America is at Costco.

On October 19, spot gold stood at $4,141.90 an ounce. A one-ounce PAMP Suisse bar sold for $4,229.99 in a Costco warehouse. That is about 2.1% over spot. Online, the same bar was $4,239.99, about 2.4% over.

For a retail buyer, that is unusually close. Small bars from many bullion dealers carry noticeably higher premiums, and the smaller the bar, the bigger the markup.

Then the membership pays you back

Costco Executive members earn a 2% annual reward on most purchases. Put a 2% reward against a 2.1% premium and the effective premium nearly disappears. Pay with a cash-back credit card on top of that, and some buyers end up holding a bar they paid less than spot for.

That is why the bars sell out. People are not only hedging. Many are running a rewards trade: buy gold at the price of gold, collect the points, keep the metal.

Check the details before you count on it. The reward has an annual cap, purchase limits apply, and card rewards depend on your issuer’s rules.

What the price hides

A low premium tells you the entry is cheap. It tells you nothing about the exit.

Costco sells gold. It does not buy it. When you want cash, you take the bar to a dealer or a pawn shop, and they decide what to pay. That gap between what you paid and what they offer is the real cost of owning physical gold, and it only shows up on the day you sell.

So the best gold deal in America is a good deal on half of a round trip. That is still worth knowing, as long as you know which half.