At first glance, selling precious metals online seems simple. In reality, it’s one of the hardest categories in e-commerce.
The first—and biggest—challenge is pricing. Precious metals are priced off live spot markets, with razor-thin margins often measured in 1–3%. Building a back-end that accurately tracks spot prices in real time, applies the correct premium, and updates inventory without error is incredibly sensitive. A small lag, rounding error, or de-sync can turn a profitable transaction into a loss. Unlike traditional retail, there has never been a true “Shopify-for-bullion” platform that automates and safeguards this process end-to-end.
Even if pricing is solved, security becomes the next hurdle. Precious metals are a constant target for fraud, charge-backs, and identity-based scams. Dealers need robust KYC, transaction monitoring, and risk controls—systems that are rarely baked into off-the-shelf e-commerce tools. Selling bullion online without these safeguards isn’t just risky; it can be catastrophic.
Then there’s payments. Because margins are so thin, standard credit-card processing often defeats the entire purpose for the buyer. A 3–4% card fee can erase the value proposition of staying close to spot. That’s why serious dealers rely on alternatives like ACH, wire transfers, and checks—methods most e-commerce platforms weren’t designed to handle cleanly or transparently.
Until now.
The team at Lone Star Coins presents CoinDuffle. A new platform built from the ground up specifically for precious metals—one that integrates live spot pricing, premium controls, fraud-aware workflows, and multiple payment options including ACH and wire. It’s not adapted from retail e-commerce. It’s purpose-built for bullion, by people who actually trade bullion.
Most importantly, CoinDuffle does not layer additional platform fees onto transactions. In a market where margins are already measured in basis points, even a modest platform take-rate can distort pricing, widen spreads, and ultimately harm both dealers and consumers. By eliminating per-transaction fees, CoinDuffle allows dealers to maintain their true commercial premiums—keeping pricing honest, competitive, and tightly anchored to spot. This fee-neutral structure is not a feature; it is a prerequisite for functional precious-metals e-commerce.
This is what modern precious-metals e-commerce was always supposed to look like.