Only Gold Review

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Only Gold operates as the online storefront for CMI Gold & Silver Inc, a Phoenix, Arizona precious metals dealer that has been buying and selling bullion since 1973.

The company sells gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bars, and it also buys these metals back from customers who want to liquidate.

Unlike many online bullion sites, Only Gold does not run a shopping-cart checkout. Instead, customers call a broker, get a live quote, and lock in a price over the phone.

That structure is unusual in 2026, when most competitors let you buy in three clicks, so it's worth understanding what you're actually getting before you pick up the phone.

Key Takeaways

• Only Gold is the retail site for CMI Gold & Silver, a Phoenix dealer founded in 1973 with an A+ Better Business Bureau rating.
• Orders are placed by phone with a non-commission broker rather than through an online checkout, which slows purchases but adds a human pricing conversation.
• Gold traded around $4,001 per troy ounce as of July 20, 2026, up roughly 17.7% year over year, which matters directly for anyone pricing an order through this dealer.

Who Actually Runs Only Gold

CMI Gold & Silver was started by Bill Haynes, a Phoenix native connected to Arizona's mining industry, at a time when silver traded near $2 an ounce.

The firm opened when the U.S. was easing restrictions on private silver ownership in the 1970s, and it built a client base of long-term buyers rather than one-time speculators.

The company's office sits on the 11th floor of a downtown Phoenix building at 3800 North Central Avenue. It is not a mall kiosk operation or a telemarketing outfit.

It's a small, established dealer with roughly 5 to 10 employees according to Bullion.Directory's listing data, which tracks precious metals dealers across the U.S.

That size matters. A ten-person shop can't compete on marketing spend with the big national bullion retailers you see advertised on cable news.

What it can do is answer the phone with someone who has been quoting metals prices for years, not reading from a script.

Product Lineup

Only Gold's catalog covers the standard bullion categories that most serious buyers look for. Here's the breakdown:

They also carry pre-1933 U.S. gold coins and numismatic pieces through a linked catalog, which appeals to collectors as much as investors. Most competitors focus on bullion alone and treat numismatics as an afterthought.

Only Gold leans into it, probably because Haynes built the business during an era when rare coin collecting and bullion investing overlapped more than they do today.

How Pricing And Buying Actually Works

Here's where the site departs from what most online shoppers expect. You don't add items to a cart. You call 1-800-800-4485, a broker gives you a live quote tied to the spot price at that moment, and you lock it in on the phone.

The company states its brokers work without commission, meaning the person quoting you a price isn't paid based on pushing a higher markup.

Whether that claim changes your final price compared to a commissioned dealer is hard to verify from outside, but it is at least a different incentive structure than the boiler-room model that gave the bullion industry a bad reputation in the 1980s and 1990s.

Only Gold's own site references "gold telemarketers" and warns against overpriced coins sold through high-pressure calls, a pointed jab at a sales practice the company is trying to distance itself from.

Hours are limited compared to an always-open web checkout. The desk runs Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain time, and Friday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There's no weekend coverage. If you want to buy gold on a Sunday afternoon because prices are moving, you'll need to wait until Monday or go elsewhere.

Reputation Check

Ratings on Only Gold (operating as CMI Gold & Silver) are consistent across platforms, though the review volume is smaller than you'd see for a large national dealer.

CMI Gold & Silver has stated it has never had a complaint filed against it with the Better Business Bureau of Central and Northern Arizona in 45 years of membership, dating back to 1999.

That's a specific, checkable claim rather than vague self-praise, and it lines up with the BBB's own A+ rating. Customer reviews collected by the BBB mention specific staff members by name, including Dean and Aaron, and several reviewers describe relationships with the company spanning 15 to 20 years.

One reviewer flagged slow shipping on a past order, which is the kind of complaint you'll find at nearly every bullion dealer during high-demand periods when mints can't keep pace with orders.

The Market Backdrop Right Now

Gold closed at roughly $4,001 per troy ounce on July 20, 2026, down about 0.4% on the day and down 4.55% over the trailing month, according to Trading Economics.

Despite that pullback, the metal is still up close to 17.7% compared to a year earlier.

The recent softness has tracked rising oil prices tied to escalating conflict between the U.S. and Iran, which has pushed inflation expectations higher and raised the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike. 

Markets were pricing in roughly a 53% chance of a September rate increase as of mid-July, up from 47% the day before, based on Fed funds futures data cited by Trading Economics.

Zoom out and 2025 was a record year for the metal. Gold set 53 new all-time highs last year and the World Gold Council recorded total gold holdings surpassing 5,000 tons for the first time on record.

The annual average price rose 44% over 2024, closing out the year at $3,431 per ounce.

Forecasts for the rest of 2026 vary by bank. Standard Chartered projects a full-year average near $4,488 an ounce, with Q4 climbing toward $4,750.

JPMorgan has floated a more aggressive $6,300 target by year-end, citing continued diversification away from paper assets. 

Deutsche Bank's call sits above $6,000. These are projections, not guarantees, and precious metals forecasting has a spotty track record even among major banks.

 But the point for a buyer reading an Only Gold review is simple: pricing here isn't static. 

It moves with the spot market throughout the trading day, and whatever number a broker quotes you on the phone reflects that day's conditions, not a fixed catalog price.

Strengths And Tradeoffs

What works in Only Gold's favor:

What might frustrate a modern buyer:

None of these tradeoffs are dealbreakers on their own. They just mean Only Gold suits a particular kind of buyer better than others.

Who Should Consider This Dealer

If you want a fast, app-based gold purchase at 11 p.m. on a Saturday, this isn't your dealer.

If you'd rather talk to a real person, ask questions about premiums over spot, and build a relationship with a broker you can call again in five years, Only Gold's model starts to make more sense.

Long-time customers in the BBB reviews describe exactly that pattern: they call the same rep repeatedly over a decade or more rather than shopping around every time.

That's closer to how precious metals dealing worked before the internet, and CMI Gold & Silver, having launched in 1973, has simply kept that structure rather than rebuilding around e-commerce.