At Cost Metals fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

A visit to At Cost Metals reveals a simple homepage design, on which you’ll find an affiliate signup link, AI avatar hosted marketing videos, PDF presentations and metal pricing.

The use of AI avatars in At Cost Metals is an instant red flag. AI avatars are typically used by scammers trying to hide ownership.

Further research reveals promoter marketing videos citing Justin Davis as At Cost Metals’ founder.

BehindMLM first came across Davis as owner and President of Preservation of Wealth in 2012.

Preservation of Wealth was an MLM pyramid scheme hidden behind a precious metals ruse.

In paying affiliates directly on the recruitment of new members Preservation of Wealth pretty much boils down to being a pyramid scheme attached to an irrelevant Numismatic storefront which, doesn’t seem to be available to anyone except company members.

Today Preservation of Wealth doesn’t exist. It appears to have collapsed circa 2014.

Preservation of Wealth has cheques bouncing, coins not being delivered, is failing to answer customer support emails and failing to pay commissions.

This leaves us with a ten-year gap in Davis’ MLM career I wasn’t able to fill in.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Davis is a US resident of Texas.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.

At Cost Metals’ Products

At Cost Metals’ website details pricing of various metal products.

None of the listed products appear to be purchasable by retail customers.

At Cost Metals’ Compensation Plan

At Cost Metals affiliates sign up and pay membership fees.

Commissions are paid on recruitment of others who do the same.

At Cost Metals Affiliate Ranks

There are three ranks within At Cost Metals’ compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  1. Affiliate – recruit two At Cost Metals affiliates
  2. Silver Affiliate – recruit six At Cost Metals affiliates and have at least two Affiliate ranked affiliates in your downline
  3. Gold Affiliate – recruit twelve At Cost Metals affiliates and have at least two Silver Affiliates in your downline

Note that in order to count towards rank qualification, recruited At Cost Metals affiliates must be “active”.

Being active requires an At Cost Metals affiliate to generate at least 20 sales volume (BV) over a rolling 32 day period.

BV is generated by recruiting At Cost Metals affiliates and/or purchasing metals from the company.

Direct Recruitment Commissions

At Cost Metals affiliates sign up for either a Metals Package ($149) or Metals Plus Package ($399).

  • recruit a Metals Package affiliate and receive $25
  • recruit a Metals Plus Package affiliate and receive $50

Residual Recruitment Commissions

At Cost Metals pays residual recruitment commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

As At Cost Metals affiliates are directly and indirectly recruited into the binary team, sales volume (BV) is generated:

  • recruitment of a Metals Package affiliate generates 30 BV
  • recruitment of a Metals Plus Package affiliate generates 100 BV

For every 500 BV matched on both sides of the binary team, a $500 residual recruitment commission is paid out.

Note that At Cost Metals caps weekly residual recruitment commissions by rank:

  • Affiliates can earn up to $2000
  • Silver Affiliates can earn up to $10,000
  • Gold Affiliates can earn up to $30,000

Matching Bonus

At Cost Metals pays a 10% match on residual recruitment commissions earned by personally recruited affiliates.

Note that only Silver and Gold ranked affiliates qualify for the Matching Bonus.

Joining At Cost Metals

At Cost Metals affiliate membership is $149 or $399.

  • Metals Package – $149 annually
  • Metals Plus Package – $399 every 18 months, includes “3 perfect MS70 graded numismatic 1 oz silver coins”

At Cost Metals Conclusion

At Cost Metals is an obvious reboot of Preservation of Wealth, “preserving” the latter’s regulatory compliance issues.

With nothing marketed to or sold to retail customers within At Cost Metals’ MLM opportunity, it operates as a pyramid scheme.

The FTC has made it very clear that MLM companies that don’t generate significant revenue via retail sales are operating as pyramid schemes.

As with all MLM pyramid schemes, once affiliate recruitment dries up so too will commissions.

This will see existing affiliates stop paying fees (and/or making purchases to qualify for commissions), eventually resulting in an irreversible collapse.

In the original Preservation of Wealth, only Justin Davis and top recruiters made any money. The same will be true for At Cost Metals.