Ask Price
Also: Ask, Offer price, Dealer selling price, Offer
The ask price is the price at which a dealer or market maker sells a precious metal - the lowest price at which a buyer can purchase immediately in the market.
The ask price (also called the offer) is one of the two central quotes in precious-metal trading. It is the price at which a dealer, bank or market maker is willing to sell a precious metal. So anyone looking to buy gold, silver or platinum today pays the ask - not the keener spot price in the narrow sense, but the selling price the provider quotes.
Ask and bid - the quote pair
Professional trading always shows two prices side by side:
| Term | Meaning | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Bid | Price at which the dealer buys | Seller hands over metal |
| Ask | Price at which the dealer sells | Buyer receives metal |
The gap between the two is the spread, which is the intermediary's trading margin. The more liquid the market and the more standardised the product, the tighter that spread.
Spread = ask price - bid price
How the ask price is formed
On the spot market for precious metals (for example the LBMA in London or COMEX in New York) the price arises from supply and demand. Market makers - typically large banks and bullion dealers - post bid and ask quotes continuously. The ask price for a retail investor builds up, in simplified terms, like this:
- Spot reference price (international market price in USD/oz)
- + currency conversion (for example EUR/USD, see exchange rates)
- + dealer premium (manufacturing, logistics, margin)
- = ask price (what you pay as the buyer)
The premium varies widely by product: standard bars carry smaller mark-ups than bullion coins, special strikes or small denominations.
What it means for buyers
When buying precious metals from dealers, banks or online platforms you normally see only the selling price - that is the ask, inclusive of all mark-ups. The underlying spot price can be viewed on pricing pages such as the gold-price overview.
Useful rules of thumb:
- Tight spread (say 0.3-0.5 % on large bars) -> an efficient, liquid market
- Wide spread (say 3-8 % on small coins or special items) -> higher trading costs
- Price on sale = bid (lower than the ask you paid to buy)
You can estimate the buying price - what you would receive on resale - with the purchase price calculator. The melt value calculator works out the pure metal worth of your piece.
Ask price versus the fixing
The ask is a continuously updated trading quote and differs from the twice-daily LBMA fixing, which serves as the official reference price for delivery contracts and valuations. During the day the ask can move noticeably away from the fixing.
In a nutshell
The ask price is what buyers pay - always above the bid that dealers offer on buy-back. The difference (the spread) is the invisible trading fee: the wider the spread, the more expensive both entering and leaving a precious-metal position becomes.