              Buying gold and silver today is relatively easy due to the internet. With a simple google search you can find multiple dealers that could sell you anything from bars, coins, leaves and other forms. However, as with buying anything online, you need to research and look at reviews of the precious metals dealer beforehand. Some examples of dealers that I think are good candidates to buy from online are Lear Capital and Schiff Gold. At least those are two places where I learned how to buy physical gold and silver. I have some trust in them because they focus on educating you as well.
There are other online dealers that are probably reliable, but Lear Capital and Schiff Gold are two that do a lot with just gold and silver bullion. Bullion derives its value only from the value of the gold or silver that it is made of. It does not have any increase in price due to it being a collectable item.
Numismatics
Other than bullion, there are numismatics. Numismatics are mostly coins and other forms of currency that gain value due to their scarcity, condition, and other characteristics. This is analogous to baseball or Pokémon cards that get their value from the player or Pokémon on the card. Essentially, numismatics are collectable items that happen to be gold or silver.
In my opinion, it is best to stay away from numismatics unless you want to study the coins and make it more of a hobby. If you are not going to collect the coins in your free time, then you are just paying extra for the gold or silver that the coin consists of. This makes it best to just stick with buying bullion if you are just trying to invest in physical gold and silver. The online dealers will normally put (BU) or (Bullion) at the end of the name of the product so it can be distinguished from numismatic.
Example of a bullion coin. Notice the condition as it was not created for circulation (Left). Example of a numismatic coin. It is rather worn and is of Claudius II who was a roman emperor (Right). Both photos from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullion_coin
Walk-in Dealers
Another option is to go to an in-person dealer. Those can be found by simply searching for gold and silver shops on google. One of the advantages with an in-person shop is that you can walk out of the store with your precious metals that day. Whereas online dealers must ship the product to you. However, depending on the size of the shop, location, reputation, and other factors, in-person dealers may not be worth that perk.
One disadvantage of physically going to a shop is the supply of that shop. Depending on how much you want to buy, they may not have enough for you. It is also possible that some of the not-so-good ones will charge you more premium than others. All dealers will charge some form of premium above the spot price since they are a business, and they must make money too. However, most of the time the online dealers are much larger than your local walk-in dealer, so the online dealer may be able to still profit from charging a lower premium due to their selling of a higher volume.
Advantages of Online
There are some advantages to using the online dealers that you do not really get with walk-in dealers. I know Lear capital will give you a free brochure and a couple PDFs after you give them a call. The brochure that they send you is full of a lot of the basic information about gold and silver that you need to know before you start buying gold or silver.
On top of the brochure, you also actually talk to a real person on the phone. When you can, you work with a representative and they are the person that you call whenever you have questions or want to buy and gold or silver.
The other online broker I mentioned was Schiff Gold, which is owned by Peter Schiff. Peter Schiff has a free podcast and YouTube channel. Both are great sources of information, and he goes into a lot more than just precious metals investing. He also puts out content pretty frequently and can be rather entertaining to listen to.
It’s all up to you
If you want to buy precious metals, or anything in the realm of investing, you need to be educated. This is not the type of education that can only be found in schools. All you need is the internet and the will to learn about something and it is possible. Whenever you have a question, use google or another search engine to answer it, read multiple articles, and/or watch YouTube videos. By expanding your base of knowledge, you are gaining a deeper understanding of the topic. From there you can make more informed decisions. Risk is relative to the individual, not the asset. If you do not know what you are doing, do not do it. You can also learn how to do it. But all of that is up to you because no one else can do the studying for you.
To your wealth and future,
James Forsythe
Lear Capital website
Schiff Gold
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