SilverStack's methodology for comparing silver prices across tracked dealers.
Spot prices refresh continuously. Dealer listings refresh multiple times daily.
These commitments apply to all current and future ranking behavior:
Every listing is ranked by premium percentage -- the markup a dealer charges above the current spot price of silver.
Dollar premium varies with spot price. A $3 premium means different things at $25 spot vs $90 spot. Premium percentage normalizes this so comparisons stay meaningful regardless of where spot sits.
Most dealers offer two price tiers:
SilverStack tracks both prices separately. The payment toggle on the deals page switches between them. Default view shows check/wire prices. Rankings are calculated independently for each payment method -- switching payment type may change the ranking order.
Rankings are based on premium percentage. The green Best Entry badge is based on the lowest estimated buyable cost within a product group, including published minimums and below-threshold shipping when available.
In most cases these align, but not always -- especially when products differ in weight normalization, minimum purchase rules, or shipping thresholds. The ranking tells you who has the best value relative to spot. The badge tells you which listing currently looks cheapest to actually enter when SilverStack can model the dealer's published rules.
Each listing is color-coded by premium percentage:
| Premium | Rating | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 3% or less | Excellent | Very close to spot. Rare for government-minted coins. |
| 3% - 6% | Good | Competitive. Typical for generic rounds and bars. |
| 6% - 10% | Fair | Normal range for sovereign coins (Eagles, Maples). |
| 10% - 15% | High | Above average. May reflect limited supply or dealer markup. |
| Over 15% | Extreme | Significantly above market. Compare alternatives. |
Every in-stock listing receives a Deal Score from 0–100 that combines three signals into a single at-a-glance quality rating.
| Signal | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Rank | 60% | Where this listing sits relative to other dealers selling the same product. Lower premium = higher rank. |
| Freshness | 40% | How recently the price was collected. Newer data = higher confidence the price is real. |
| Shipping Penalty | 0–7 pt deduction | Friction from the dealer's shipping policy at this product's price point. |
Listings are grouped by product type (e.g., all American Silver Eagles together). Within each group, a tie-aware percentile ranks every listing from best (lowest premium) to worst. If only one dealer carries a product, an absolute premium tier is used instead:
| Premium | Score |
|---|---|
| ≤ 3% | 95 |
| ≤ 6% | 75 |
| ≤ 10% | 55 |
| ≤ 15% | 35 |
| > 15% | 15 |
Price data decays in value over time. A recent scrape gets full credit; stale data is penalized:
| Age | Score |
|---|---|
| ≤ 2 hours | 100 |
| ≤ 6 hours | 70 |
| ≤ 24 hours | 40 |
| > 24 hours | 0 |
A dealer's shipping policy creates real friction for buyers. If a product's price already exceeds the free-shipping threshold, the penalty is zero — you'd get free shipping anyway. Otherwise, the penalty scales with how high the threshold is:
| Shipping model | Penalty | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Always free | 0 | Texas Precious Metals |
| Low minimum + free shipping (no flat rate) | −1 | WCD ($99 min) |
| Under $150 threshold + flat rate | −2 | Hero ($149), BullionStar ($98) |
| $199–$249 threshold + flat rate | −3 | APMEX, Bold, SD Bullion, SGB |
| $300–$399 threshold + flat rate | −4 | FirstMint ($300) |
| $499–$500 threshold + flat rate | −5 | JM Bullion, Scottsdale, BEX, GSM |
| $5,000+ threshold | −7 | Kitco ($5,000) |
Why this matters: A low minimum with free shipping (like $99 with no flat rate) is better for most buyers than a $499 threshold where every order under that amount pays $8–$10. The penalty reflects this — high thresholds with flat-rate charges hit harder than low minimums.
The final score maps to a grade shown on each listing:
| Score | Grade | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 97–100 | Steal | Exceptional value. Top premium percentile, fresh data, low shipping friction. |
| 90–96 | Great | Strong deal. Among the best-priced listings with current data. |
| 80–89 | Good | Competitive pricing. Worth a look. |
| 70–79 | Average | Middle-of-the-pack premium or somewhat stale data. |
| Below 70 | Subjective | High premium, old data, or significant shipping friction. Compare alternatives. |
SilverStack collects prices directly from dealer websites using automated collection. No dealer-provided data feeds, no manually entered data. What you see on the dealer's site is what we capture.
SilverStack groups listings into standardized product categories so equivalent items can be compared across dealers. Examples: American Silver Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, 1 oz generic rounds, 10 oz bars, kilo bars, 90% junk silver. Each product has a defined troy ounce weight used in premium calculation.
These checks reduce bad scrapes, misclassified products, and obviously wrong prices before they ever reach the deals page:
| Gate | Rule | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Product match | Must match a recognized product in our taxonomy | Prevents blog pages, accessories, or misclassified items from appearing |
| Stale data filter | Listings that haven't been refreshed recently are excluded | Ensures prices reflect current market conditions |
| Unusually high premium filter | Extreme premiums are flagged and excluded | Almost certainly a parse error or misclassified product |
| Below-spot anomaly filter | Prices significantly below spot are excluded | Silver doesn't sell below spot. Indicates a collection error. |
| Per-ounce sanity check | Price must fall within a reasonable range of spot | Server-side sanity check before data reaches the frontend |
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| In Stock | Dealer shows the item as available for immediate purchase. |
| Pre-Order | Dealer is accepting orders for future delivery. Price is locked at time of order. |
| Back Order | Item is temporarily out but dealer is accepting orders for when it returns. |
| Out of Stock | Not currently available. Shown in results but filtered out by default. |
The deals page defaults to showing in-stock items only. Use the availability filter to include pre-orders or out-of-stock listings. Stock status reflects what the dealer's site showed at scrape time and may change before the next refresh.
SilverStack is designed to compare dealer pricing fairly, but today's rankings do not yet include every real-world cost. Here is what is still outside the model:
When landed-cost sorting ships, the existing premium-based ranking will remain the default. Landed cost will be an additional sort option, not a replacement.
| Data | Frequency | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Spot price (silver, gold, platinum, palladium) | Continuously | Market data feeds |
| Dealer prices (tracked set) | Multiple times daily | Direct collection |
If something about the ranking doesn't look right, or you want to suggest a dealer we should add, let us know.
Last updated: April 2026
