How to evaluate bullion dealers in New York City, licenses, complaints and COMEX ties

What to take away

What a New York City bullion dealer check should cover

A dealer check in New York City answers four questions. Who is the legal entity? Which regulator can discipline it? What do past customers say, and did the dealer respond? What happens when you try to sell back?

Start with the entity name on the invoice, not the sign above the door. Manhattan storefronts often trade under a brand while the contracting party is a separate LLC registered in New York or Delaware.

Federal agencies police securities, futures and consumer fraud, while New York State polices retail sales practices inside its borders. The split between federal and state authority explains why a dealer can be clean with one office and under investigation by another, as set out in the branches of the U.S. government overview.

The regulators you will actually use are the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA and the New York attorney general. A full list sits in the A-Z index of U.S. government departments and agencies.

This is the same ground covered in our bullion formats guide, which applies to online sellers as well as counters.

Checking COMEX membership and clearing relationships

COMEX is the metals exchange operated by CME Group in New York. Its members can trade and clear futures and options contracts. A retail coin shop is almost never a member.

When a dealer says it is "COMEX connected," ask a direct question: is your firm a clearing member, a non-clearing member, or simply a customer of a member? Only the first two carry exchange status.

Dealers that hedge large inventory use a clearing member to offset price risk. That relationship is normal and says nothing about how the retail side treats you. It does tell you the firm trades at institutional size.

Ask for the name of the clearing firm and confirm it on the CME Group member directory. If the dealer cannot name one, treat the COMEX claim as marketing.

COMEX membership is not a consumer protection badge. It does not cover a storefront's buyback policy, shipping insurance or grading disputes. Use it as one signal among several.

BBB ratings, complaint patterns and how to read them

A BBB rating is a letter grade built from complaint volume, response behavior, licensing and time in business. The grade alone is weak evidence. The complaint file is stronger.

Open the dealer's BBB profile and read the last two years of complaints. Look for three patterns: complaints about delivery delays, complaints about buyback prices, and complaints the dealer never answered.

The BBB search page at https://www.bbb.org/search returns a profile by legal name and by brand.

A dealer with many complaints and replies is often healthier than one with few complaints and silence. Replies show a working dispute process, which matters if your order goes wrong.

Check whether the profile is accredited and whether the business address matches the storefront. Unaccredited profiles with a mailbox address in another state deserve a second look.

BBB ratings are self-reported in part, so use them alongside the bullion marking problems steps rather than on their own.

New York State attorney general complaints and enforcement history

The New York State attorney general enforces the state's consumer protection and securities laws. Precious metals dealers that misrepresent purity, weight or buyback terms can be sued under them.

Search the attorney general's website for the dealer's legal name, then for its brand name. Press releases and filed complaints name the parties, the conduct alleged and the relief sought.

Filed actions and press releases are searchable at https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases, and consumer complaints go through https://ag.ny.gov/complaints.

One documented federal case shows how such filings read. In 2011 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Monex Deposit Company and Monex Credit Company, alleging the firms defrauded retail customers who traded precious metals on margin.

New York has pursued metals dealers over unregistered securities offerings tied to stored bullion. If a dealer sells pooled metal with a promised return, that is a securities question, not a coin sale.

Also check the New York Department of State for the entity's registration status and its registered agent. A dissolved LLC still taking orders is an immediate stop sign.

New York assigns every registered entity a DOS ID number, and the public database at https://apps.dos.ny.gov/publicInquiry/ returns that number beside the status. Match it to the name printed on your invoice.

New York does not issue a general bullion dealer license. Beyond entity existence, check for a Certificate of Authority if the company is incorporated outside New York, and for an assumed name filing behind the storefront brand. Firms that sell investment products register through FINRA and the SEC, not through the state.

Federal cases against precious metals fraudsters are searchable in the FTC cases and proceedings library, which is worth a look when a dealer markets heavily by phone.

FINRA records and broker registration checks

FINRA regulates brokerage firms and their registered representatives. Use FINRA BrokerCheck when a dealer, or the parent company, sells securities, metals IRAs or investment contracts.

BrokerCheck shows registration history, exams passed, disclosures, customer disputes and regulatory actions. Search the individual salesperson, not just the firm, because conduct often follows the person.

FINRA assigns a CRD number to each firm and each registered person, and the lookup at https://brokercheck.finra.org shows that number beside the record.

A clean BrokerCheck record means no reported disclosures. It does not mean the dealer's retail coin business is sound. Those are separate businesses under one roof.

If a salesperson is not registered and is pitching a metals investment account, ask who the broker of record is. Get the answer in writing before you send funds.

The Consumer Sentinel Network, described in the FTC complaint data pages, aggregates fraud reports from across the country and can show a pattern behind a single storefront.

NYC dealers to check and where to start

These are long-established names in the New York market. Verify each one yourself using the steps below, because records change.

Manfra, Tordella & Brookes has traded from Midtown for decades and is a name retail buyers encounter. Confirm the current corporate entity on your invoice matches the one on file with New York State.

A-Mark Precious Metals is a publicly traded wholesaler with SEC filings. Its filings disclose trading relationships and risk factors that retail shops do not publish, which makes them useful reading even if you never buy from it directly.

Dillon Gage is a national dealer with exchange and clearing ties. Ask any dealer of this size for its buyback spread in writing before you buy, since that number drives your exit cost.

Typical buyback spreads on one-ounce gold coins run about one to three percent below spot at large dealers, and wider at small counters.

Diamond District storefronts on 47th Street vary enormously. Some are family firms with decades of BBB history. Others are short-lived counters. Check the entity, not the block.

Red flags in Manhattan and midtown bullion storefronts

Midtown rents are high, and that pressure shows up in premiums and in sales tactics. A storefront near Grand Central is not automatically safer than an online dealer.

Cold calls offering bullion at below spot are a standard fraud pattern. Spot is public, so a below-spot retail offer means the metal, the delivery or the counterparty is not what it appears.

If an order goes wrong, keep every message and invoice. Our bullion pricing guide shows how a paper trail shapes the outcome.

A repeatable dealer evaluation sequence

Run this sequence before any purchase, and repeat it for any dealer you have not used in a year.

Two more habits help. Ask for the buyback spread in writing at the time of purchase, and pay by a method you can reverse or trace.

New buyers should work through the first bullion purchase checklist before their first wire. It covers storage, insurance and record keeping as well as dealer checks.

Common questions