Review: Kitco

Website: https://online.kitco.com/

Location: Montreal, Quebec (Canada) and Hong Kong

Shipping: $15 for orders less than $5,000, free for orders greater than $5,000

Insurance: 0.65% of the total metal value ($6.50 per $1,000)
Washington State: 0.80% of the total metal value ($8 per $1,000)
Texas State: 0.99% of the total metal value ($9.90 per $1,000)

Payment Options: Bank wire, Personal/ business check, Bank check (draft, certified, cashier, money order), Credit card, PayPal, Funds on Account (FOA), Online Bill Payment

~~~

Kitco has been around for a long time. I don't have any personal experience buying or selling with them.

 

[nickndfl]

Kitco is full setvice, but not cheap.

I like SD Bullion, Bold and Silver Gold Bull the best.

 

[jrog100]

Plus their forum blows

 

[pmbug]

Kitco home page right now:

Kitco.com and our Online Store are Temporarily Unavailable​

Our website is currently experiencing a disruption due to a cyber security incident. Our team is actively working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We are committed to ensuring the security and integrity of our services and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

What This Means for You:

As a precautionary measure, we have temporarily suspended our website services.

Please be assured that we take the security of your information and our systems very seriously. Our team is working diligently to address the situation.

For urgent inquiries, please contact customer service at <redacted>

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your continued support. We are committed to restoring full functionality as soon as possible.

 

[pmbug]

They must have had a serious hack or something. They are still offline (everything except their forum which runs on a sub-domain).

 

[Voodoo]

I was gonna say... how on earth are they still down? Unless they've been working with the nefarious players and got taken down, on purpose.

 

[Casey Jones]

I have bought quite a bit from them...but my last purchase was 2009.

They always came through. In those years, I didn't have a resource like PMB or GIM...I was going off the advice of friends. I was paying above spot; probably way too much...not highway robbery; not double the price; but I later found (with a couple of moves, to different areas) coin shops that could beat Kitco's vigorish.

I always got the product. In those days, they would hold shipment until payment was secured, and didn't allow credit-card sales. A credit-card number could lock in a price, but the payment had to be by wire or official check.

 

[Voodoo]

Seriously Kitco... you just giving up or did the whole server farm burn down?

 

[Voodoo]

Ok they are still not up. I'm going to go out on a limb and make some wild speculation. This is Not just a normal IT hack. I have a feeling they went belly up out of business. Possibly they were working with the shorters (or short themselves) and things are starting to break.

 

[Casey Jones]

Ok they are still not up. I'm going to go out on a limb and make some wild speculation. This is Not just a normal IT hack. I have a feeling they went belly up out of business. Possibly they were working with the sorters (or short themselves) and things are starting to break.

Entirely possible. Businesses change with time; and my experience is almost a generation old.

Times change. Canada went from veddy-British mannerly, to a flippin' police state, in the space of about 20 years.

Kitco may have been pressured by the antigold authorities (as gold promoters face in Australia) sold out to scammers...and the scammers have taken their chance to crash it and run with the money.

 

[Curly]

I have been using this lately.

Live Gold Spot Price Chart | BullionVault

Stay informed with real-time charts of international precious metal prices. Monitor spot prices for Gold in USD, GBP, and EUR. Access live updates here >>

www.bullionvault.com

 

[Curly]

Now this:

404 Not Found​

 

[Casey Jones]

Now this:

404 Not Found​

I went over to kitco.com, and got a bland entry page. It had a rolling banner of pricing, and a link to download the Kitco app for a phone, but also a notice that "We are experiencing cybersecurity attacks."

Could be your area. Also, could be government or NGO in nature, ergo not easily cleared up.

I would think if Kitco were looking at pulling off some sort of fraud, they'd have pulled the plug on their site by now.

 

[itsamess]

You PM people have been outed including your addresses. Expect visitors, just kidding sort of

 

[Casey Jones]

View attachment 11402
You PM people have been outed including your addresses. Expect visitors, just kidding sort of

My records are 15 years old. I'd be surprised if they kept them.

 

[Voodoo]

Well it looks like there is a new site up on Kitco. But it's none of the old stuff and some knockoff tradingview like charts. I'd bet Money they went out of business or at least they were sold.

There is a new knockoff site that is kinda like the old one. Goldprice.org or SIlverprice.org.

 

[Voodoo]

Who wants to speculate that they were involved/working with the LBMA?

 

[pmbug]

It just looks like a landing page is up at the moment - not a full site yet. What I find curious is that the landing page does not encourage visitors to call them to buy precious metals. They are not marketing their bullion store at the moment.

 

[Voodoo]

How many PM dealers have fallen victim to taking orders and then not being able to fulfil? I lost count. I doubt there is a store anymore. I never trusted them for some reason.

 

[pmbug]

...
According to a representative from the company's customer service division, the breach did not compromise any sensitive credit card details or financial information, as this data is managed by a separate third-party entity. ...
...
Looking ahead, Kitco Metals is poised to launch a comprehensive investigation spanning the next 24 to 48 hours. The primary objective of this inquiry is to ascertain the full extent of the incident's implications, ensuring that no other facets of the company's operations or customer interactions have been adversely affected.

Cybersecurity breach impacts operations at Kitco Metals' online platforms

Kitco Metals, a prominent North American entity renowned for its specialization in trading precious metals and refining gold, found itself grappling

menafn.com

Bloomberg also has a report on the story

...
An investigation is underway into the episode, which is being conducted with the help of third-party experts, according to a spokesperson for the company. The time line for the investigation hasn’t been determined, the spokesperson said.
...
A customer service representative had previously told Bloomberg News that the incident didn’t impact client’s credit card and financial information and that the investigation would extend for 24 to 48 hours. The spokesperson said that information wasn’t accurate, adding that the company can’t yet rule out whether financial information was impacted and is still being investigated.
...

Gold Retailer Kitco’s Website Disrupted in Cybersecurity Incident - BNN Bloomberg

The website for Kitco Metals Inc., a North American precious metals retailer that also refines gold, continued to be disrupted Wednesday after a cyber incident temporarily disabled the site and online store.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

Kitco has two X/Twitter channels - one for Kitco Metals and one for Kitco News. Neither account has commented on the issue.

 

[Voodoo]

They gone.

 

[pmbug]

They back. Website is working again.

 

[Voodoo]

That's an entirely new site. I'll stand by my opinion they went out of business or got sold. Some transfer of ownership.

 

[Casey Jones]

That's an entirely new site. I'll stand by my opinion they went out of business or got sold. Some transfer of ownership.

Still using the old trademark.

Could be they're sold, but since they're a Canadian company with significant presence in the USA, I'd have thought we'd have heard of a sale or reorganization.

They may have been redoing their website - possibly for added security - or changed hosting companies.

In any event, in this New Normal...I would suggest that anyone who buys online and sends money via EFT, had better have a GOOD reason for it. Seems like the time is coming where bullion is going to be subject to either some sort of Asset Tax or outright confiscation.

If you buy cash at a PM store, you're probably as un-detectable as any holder can be. But if you buy online with Kitco...it's all there. Canada is now a police state. The US is not much better, and Kitco's American offices are in Rouses Point, NY. New York is most-assuredly morphing into a police-state tyranny within the union of states.

I remember Kitco as being helpful and pleasant for a n00b to work with, but that was another era.

 

[pmbug]

They changed the structure of the new site and it's not 100% working (yet?) . Their new news feed URL is not working.

 

[pmbug]

Oh dear... It's down again...

 

[pmbug]

... and they're back. The RSS feed for their news page still isn't working though...