Full review
Hero Bullion was founded on July 1, 2020 by Jake Haugen in Plano, Texas, with the stated vision of making gold and silver "easy, simple, and accessible." It is by some margin the youngest dealer in our review set — every other dealer was founded between 1999 and 2012 (APMEX is the oldest at 1999; Money Metals 2010, JM Bullion 2011, BGASC and SD Bullion both 2012). Hero Bullion crossed $100 million in cumulative transactions in three years and logged its first $1 million sales day in 2023, which is real growth, but the operational track record is short. Customers comparing across our review set should treat Hero Bullion as the youngest counterparty — promising and fast-growing, but with materially less operating history through varying market conditions than peers.
The most distinctive structural fact about Hero Bullion is that it is not BBB-accredited. A BBB profile exists for the company in Plano, TX, but Hero Bullion has not gone through BBB's accreditation process. This is not the same as being illegitimate — BBB accreditation is voluntary, and many young companies choose to defer it. But every other dealer in our review set has chosen to accredit, four of them with A+ ratings going back 11+ years. For customers who use BBB accreditation as a fallback complaint-resolution channel, Hero Bullion's absence from that channel is a real consideration.
On pricing, Hero Bullion follows the same 4% cash-equivalent discount structure as peers (paper check, money order, cashier's check, eCheck, or bank wire saves 4% off the credit-card price). The crypto discount is 2%, lower than the 3% offered by APMEX, BGASC, JM Bullion, and SD Bullion. Our snapshot data shows Hero Bullion's premiums competitive on standard bullion, particularly on the silver-round category where Hero is one of the more aggressive dealers. The payment list itself is the narrowest in our review: credit/debit (Visa, MC, Discover only — no Amex), bank wire (only for orders $2,000 and above), eCheck (up to $10,000), personal check, money order, cashier's check, and Bitcoin/cryptocurrency (capped at $20,000 with the 2% discount). PayPal is not accepted at all, nor are Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, or USD stablecoins. Tied with SD Bullion on raw method count but practically narrower because SD Bullion does accept PayPal at a small-order cap.
Shipping is the strongest part of the policy. Most orders ship within one to three business days, competitive with JM Bullion and SD Bullion and faster than BGASC. Free shipping kicks in at $149, the lowest threshold in our review set ($199 is the peer standard). Shipments are fully insured for the locked-in product price, and the lost-package reporting window is 30 calendar days from shipment — significantly more generous than JM Bullion's 2-calendar-day window or BGASC's 3-business-day window. A shipping-snippet contradiction (the policy also references 5–10 business days in one passage) suggests the human editor should verify the actual ship-out window in a live browser before publishing, but the 1–3 business day standard appears to be the dealer's intended primary commitment. Hero Bullion ships within the United States.
Returns are the policy's weakest area, and the cost stack is meaningfully harsher than peers. Returns must be initiated within five business days of delivery (the same window as BGASC and JM Bullion), and orders are subject to a 10% restocking fee — the highest in our review set. The market-loss policy is standard (customer pays the difference if spot has fallen between order and return) but Hero Bullion uniquely adds a $50 cancellation fee on top of market loss for cancelled orders. The full cost stack of a returned or cancelled order can therefore be: 10% restocking + market loss + $50 cancellation + return shipping. On a $500 order with a 5% spot drop, this can easily exceed $100 in fees. Compare against JM Bullion (no explicit restocking) or BGASC (5% restocking on CC/PayPal only). Hero Bullion's return mathematics is the harshest in our review set; this is worth knowing before placing a marginal order.
Customer service is structurally adequate but the narrowest in our review. The phone line (214-210-9948) is staffed Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM Central — 40 hours per week versus the 50+ offered by every other dealer in our set. Email response is advertised at 24 hours, and Hero Bullion is the only dealer in our review to offer text-based support (text HELP to +18339803793). The text channel is a real modern feature peers don't match, and is worth specifically flagging if you prefer asynchronous contact over phone calls. Team size is smaller than peers (proportional to the under-six-year age and $100M revenue band) and there is no weekend coverage.
Hero Bullion is the right dealer if you place small-to-mid-size orders that benefit from the $149 free-shipping threshold, value the 30-day lost-package reporting window over peers' tighter clocks, prefer text-based customer support, or specifically want to support a younger founder-led independent operation. Hero Bullion is the wrong dealer if you require BBB accreditation as a complaint-resolution backstop, want a generous return window, use PayPal or Apple Pay or Amex routinely, expect peer-standard crypto discounts (you'll get 2%, not 3%), or place orders where the 10% restocking + $50 cancellation fee structure could matter on a possible return. Compare with SD Bullion if you want a fellow narrow-payment-list independent; compare with JM Bullion if shipping speed matters most.