7K Metals Review: Is 7K Metals a Scam or Pyramid scheme?

Welcome to my 7K Metals MLM review.

You probably came to this page because you wonder if 7K Metals is legit, a pyramid scheme, or any other sort of scam.

No need to worry you’re in the right place for the answers to these questions.

Over the last few years, I’ve been busy creating reviews about all kinds of online products.

Some turned out to be fake others were legit ways to make money online but in the process, I learned how to spot scams.

In this post, I’ll show you absolutely everything you need to know about 7K Metals and after reading it you’ll know exactly if you should give it a chance.

What is 7K Metals?

7K Metals is a company that sells products made out of precious metals founded by Zach Davis, Roger Ball, and Richard Hansen in 2016.

Aside from directly selling the products they also use the multi-level marketing model to distribute all their products.

7K Metals headquarters is located at 3640 S Yellowstone Hwy, Idaho Falls, ID 83402, United States. 

BBB has given 7K metals an A+ and has almost no complaints as a distributor of precious metals but is it a pyramid scheme? Let’s find out.

What are precious metals?

Precious metals are metals that have high economic value. A few examples of precious metals are Gold, Silver, and Platinum. In the past, they were used as a currency similar to money but are now mostly regarded as an investment or are used as raw materials. 

How does 7K Metals work?

MLM (a.k.a network marketing or direct selling) stands for multi-level marketing.

According to Wikipedia, multi-level marketing is a marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue is derived from a non-salaried workforce.

As a part of this workforce, you sell the products from the company and/or you recruit people to do the same thing. This group of people you recruit will work under you and is referred to as your downline.

The bigger your downline is the more money you can earn passively (in an ideal world) because you’re also getting paid a percentage based on the performance of your downline.

This also means the person that recruited you which is called your upline is making money based on your performance.

Recruiting turns an MLM company into a pyramid-shaped organization where the first people to join make the most and are at the top of the pyramid and those last to join are at the bottom.

Source: Wikipedia

MLMs have been around for a long time. There are Multi-level marketing companies active today that were founded in the 1950s. The Multi-level Marketing business structure has a lot in common with pyramid schemes. This is why scammers often use MLM to disguise their pyramid schemes.

Is it absolutely necessary to recruit people while working for a legit MLM company? No.

You can also stick to just selling products you can order at wholesale price (25% discount) and re-sell to make a profit. 

This is easier said than done for multiple reasons which is why most members try to recruit others so they can earn more money.

How to join 7K Metals

7K Metals has a simple 3-step process that anyone can follow to join. Most people join through a sponsor but you can also sign-up by sending an email to their  Member Support Team at support@7kmetals.com.

The 3-step process goes like this: 

1. Purchase a membership 
2. Receive your back office & Qualify for associate rank
3. Sign the Associate Agreement to become eligible for commissions

1. Purchase a membership

7K Metals only offers annual memberships to their members. 

They have 2 types of memberships that they offer. 

The Standard Membership, $199
The standard membership allows you to buy products made by precious metals direct from the dealer at a reduced price and you’ll also be able to refer others to buy 7K metals products and earn points.

You will also receive:

• Access to your online “Back office,” where you will find special training and our Buyers
  Certification program. 
• 3 months of free technology credits that can be used for the 7k app and advanced business tracking.
• 1 Year Membership
• Buyers Certification
• Collector’s Training

The Premium Membership, $499
The premium membership allows you to do everything you can do with the standard membership but it also gives you access to the collector’s program, “Coin of the Month” AutoSaver.

You’ll also be able to receive: 

• 12 months of free technology credits
• Strategy books
• Travel savings card
• business cards

2. Get access to your online back office and qualify for associate rank

After you’ve become a member you’ll get access to your online back office which you can log into through their website. In the back office, you’ll find training modules that’ll help with teaching you how everything works. 

You’ll also be able to join the 7K Metals buyers certification program which is a special training after which you’ll get a certificate and you’re able to work to become an associate.

3. Sign the Associate Agreement to become eligible for commissions

When you reach the associate rank, you can become eligible to earn commissions. 

You’ll be asked to sign the Associate Agreement electronically. After it has been processed you can start earning commissions based on your sales and referrals.

After that, you have to earn 15 points every 36 days to stay eligible.

Basic requirements for joining 7K Metals

There are some additional requirements for becoming a 7K Metals member. I have listed all of them below.

• You must be of legal age in your country of residence;
• Be a legal resident and have the legal capacity to enter into the 7k Agreement in
  the United States or US Territories or Other Country where 7k is officially open for
  business
• US associates must provide 7K with a valid Social Security number or Federal Tax ID.
• Associates outside the US require proof of residency and tax status in the country you reside in or the country you are enrolling in.
• Submit a completed 7K Independent Associate Application and Agreement to 7K Online.

Is 7K Metals a pyramid scheme?

To answer this question we need to know what a pyramid scheme is.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A pyramid scheme is a type of scam where people are promised money for joining the scheme and recruiting other people. No selling of a product or service is involved whatsoever.

So you might be wondering where the money comes from.

The people that join are expected to pay a one-time fee and in exchange for that, they get a percentage of the fee of everyone they recruit after that.

The problem is from a mathematical standpoint it’s impossible for everyone to make money because you run out of people.

Take a look at this picture below showing how it’s impossible for everyone to earn money.

Source: Wikipedia

As you can see, in this pyramid model, every person is required to recruit 6 people. You’ll notice from the 12th level and further, it’s not possible anymore for everyone to earn money.

The 2.2 Billion people on the 12th level need 13.1 billion recruits in total for them all to make money which is more people than there are currently on Earth.

Looking at the description of what a pyramid scheme is, 7K Metals can’t be classified as a pyramid scheme from a legal perspective. 7K Metals has given people a method to make money without recruiting people.

Has 7K Metals been involved in Lawsuits and the FTC?

Most MLM companies I have reviewed in the past almost always had a past. 

They could’ve been accused of being a pyramid scheme or they had to rebrand the company because of some scandal. 

That doesn’t seem to be the case with 7K Metals.

7K Metals hasn’t been involved in any lawsuits or controversies. 

Who can benefit from 7K Metals?

Who would benefit from joining the 7K Metals MLM program:

• Expert salesmen
• Expert recruiters
• People that want to purchase 7K Metals products
• People that are older than 18

Who shouldn’t join the 7K Metals MLM Program:

• People that hate sales jobs.
• People that hate recruiting
• People that expect to earn passive income
• People that expect to earn a full-time income

7K Metals products

A company is only as good as its products this is why I wanted to spend a bit of time researching what they offer. Here’s what I found out. 

7K Metal products can be divided into 3 categories: 

1. Coins 
2. Bars
3. Jewelry 

The cheapest product is the  Valkyries Hildegard 1 oz Silver Coin BU 2022 for $43,37

The most expensive product is the Real Heroes Fighter Pilot 1 oz Gold Coin PF70 2020 for $4,499.99 USD

As you can expect, the products for sale at 7K Metals aren’t for those with a small budget. Most of these products are also bought with the intention of keeping them while the value increases.

In recessions, people often set their sights on precious metals since they’re a great asset that can be cashed out almost anywhere in the world, unlike stocks or bonds.

That being said,  7K Metals products seem to be priced above market value in the sector of precious metals. This might make it hard for you to get sales.

The auto saver coin of the month

This is basically an auto-shipment membership that’ll purchase coins for you every month.

This membership is where most people get their residual income from. 

The auto-save coin of the month program has the benefit that you can get paid every week but in exchange, a portion of the money you pay will go to your upline. 

You’ll also get that same amount of money from your downline if they join the auto saver coin of the month program.

You might be wondering right now if you basically buy a coin every month and a part of the money spent is going to your upline how is 7K Metals making a profit?

Well, they do it like this.

They overcharge for the coin and the difference is sent to your upline. 

1 oz Silver Eagles online is around $40.

The auto saver coin of the month program charges $105 to get 1 oz Silver Eagles’ but in return as I said, you’ll be eligible for residual income and weekly payouts.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Products have tangible benefits
  Some of these MLM companies sell products that you don’t know if they’ll benefit you until you use them. An example of this is essential oils. Its never been concluded from a scientific perspective that they work which limits you in promoting their benefits. 7K Metals has the advantage with their products that what you see is what you get. People know exactly what they’re buying.
• Products should increase in value
  If a limited set is made of the products in theory the value of it should increase with time. This is a hell of a pitch you use to recruit and sell products.
• It’s a young MLM company
  Some MLM companies have independent sellers around every corner which makes it hard to find people to recruit and sell products to. 7K Metals is a relatively young company which means there will be more opportunities to find people that haven’t heard of 7K Metals.

Cons

• Expensive products
  7K Metals products sold are insanely expensive making them hard to sell to others. I can imagine associates having a lot of trouble with getting rid of the products they purchased with the goal of reselling.
• You have to pay to play
  You have to purchase a specific amount of Associates products to stay eligible for getting commissions based on your downlines. The higher the rank, the more you have to purchase.
• It is incredibly time-consuming
  You have to spend a lot of time recruiting people and afterward monitor your downline to keep earning money. You’re also dealing with a binary compensation plan which means if just 1 person from your first generation quits you immediately stop getting residual commissions. 

7K Metals Compensation Plan

In a lot of ways, 7K Metals can be considered a traditional MLM company.

&K Metals can be considered a traditional MLM in its compensation plan. You either re-sell their products for profit or you can recruit people and receive residual income, climb up the ranks, and earn bonuses.

In total there are 7 ranks that all come with their benefits such as getting a higher commission percentage of all your sales starting at 25% to a max of 40%

Associate
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Executive Gold 
Presidential Gold

How do you get paid?

7K Metals has what they call a binary compensation plan.

This means you’ll have a maximum of 2 legs with all your recruits.

To get paid both of the legs must get the required points to get paid out at the rank they’re at.

Points are acquired by selling products such as memberships, the auto-saver coin of the month, or other products from your eCommerce website.

You get paid $500 per 500 points every time both your legs fulfill the requirements for a rank.

How much can you earn with 7K Metals?

The 7K Metals income disclosure

As you can see from a theoretical standpoint the earning potential with 7K Metals is insanely high but how does that translate to reality? 

7K Metals has published an income disclosure that shows the numbers of how much their social marketers are earning which you can see below. 

Taking the median into account 95% of the members (that are getting paid) aren’t making anywhere close to an average US income which is $5000.

For 83.33% of the members, the median is $225 a month.

This table doesn’t disclose monthly costs from the quota or the time you spend recruiting and developing your downline and holding them accountable.

Why aren’t people earning decent money with MLM companies like 7K Metals?

You might be wondering why there’s such a big discrepancy between how much people can earn and how much most members earn in reality.

Technically, the sky is the limit but in reality, we know because of factors such as your ability to recruit, your competition, and the performance of your downlines there’s is often a limit.

7K Metals also shares the same “handicaps” most MLM companies have which prevents members from earning decent money.

1. MLMs are often associated with pyramid schemes

MLMs have a pyramid recruiting structure that you often have to join to be able to make decent money or at the very least not lose money. The problem is a lot of pyramid schemes disguise themselves as MLM programs making it difficult to differentiate the two.

This is the biggest problem why most distributors have a difficult time recruiting people. The moment people hear about how you can make money by recruiting people red flags appear in most people’s minds.

2. You have to consistently invest money to earn decent commissions
The bigger the bonuses the more product you have to buy. and the more you have to recruit. You do get discounts but if you can’t sell the products I can see you easily fall into a financial deficit (which happens to the majority of MLMs).

3. The price of the product often isn’t aligned with the market

It’s hard for a multi-level marketer to sell products because most MLM products tend to be a lot more expensive than similar products sold by non-MLM companies.

This means even if you’re really good at recruiting your downline still needs to sell those same expensive products for you to make decent money.

You can see that translated in these statistics I found about Multi-level Marketing.

• Nearly half (47%) of MLM participants reported that they lost money.
• One in four (27%) MLM participants reported that they broke even (made no money).
• MLM participants are 7% more likely to declare bankruptcy during their lifetime.
• Direct sales have risen 79% in the last decade, but MLM participants continue to lose money.
• 90 – 99% of distributors in multilevel marketing only receive a couple of hundred dollars commission per year.
• Out of 33,000 interviewed, 90 people made enough money to cover the costs of building their business.
• 50% of the people who start a network marketing enterprise abandoned it in the first year.

Sources:
FTC
AARP
Jobsinmarketing.io

7K Metals Reviews, Opinions, Ratings, and Complaints

Collectors seem to be satisfied but those that want to take advantage of the MLM opportunity seem to not be as thrilled with 7K metals.

After going through a lot of reviews, ratings, and complaints I noticed that most people shared the same thoughts but in opposite directions. Here’s a summary of those thoughts. 

• 7K Metals is great to join as a collector but if you purely want to earn money it might not be ideal.
• Support outside of the US seems to be a bit lower in quality
• A great place to learn about sound money
• Commissions are paid weekly which is great
• The financial risk is a lot higher than they make it seem 

My Personal Take

What I like:

1. 7k Metals uses a simple compensation plan 
Most MLM companies come up with complicated compensation plans which often have a number of things worked in to get the most out of their independent workforce while simultaneously paying the least amount of money. 

I review at least 2 MLM companies a week and directing the compensation plan always is a pain in the butt. 7K has made a very simple compensation plan that you can go through within a few minutes.

2. Weekly payout
Every Saturday at midnight 7K Metals reviews how many recruits you have and their performance where after they pay you what you have earned. If you by any chance don’t have enough points, the points will be brought over to the next week as long as you’re active. 

What I don’t like:

1. High start-up costs & high financial risk

Just becoming a member is very expensive. At the very least you’ll be spending $199 and also spend money on the order you’re going to resell without any guarantee of making money.

It’s not rare for multi-level marketers to not be able to resell their orders and lose money, especially with auto-shipment.

2. A recruit dropping out has a big influence on your earnings

7K Metals uses a simple compensation plan but it does have 1 big drawback compared to other compensation plans. Just losing 1 recruit can drastically decrease your earnings.

An example of that could be a bronze member losing a recruit. From that point, he qualifies for payment at the level of copper which means he lost 50% of his earnings.

Imagine counting on the money to come in and right before midnight on Saturday a recruit from your team quits. It’s pretty scary when you think about it.

3. Full potential earning requires Recruiting

This might not be a turn-off for others but I’m not a fan of recruiting people especially when it comes to MLM.

Just the thought of pitching this to my friends and family and trying to convince them that even though it has a pyramid structure it isn’t a pyramid scheme doesn’t sound appealing. 

I do know people that excel in this but most of the time these are expert recruiters and salesmen.

Verdict

Is 7K Metals A Pyramid scheme? No. 7K Metals can’t be considered a pyramid scheme because even though they use a pyramid structure they still sell a fully functional product. That being said, it can’t be considered a great business opportunity.

There are just too many roadblocks you have to overcome to succeed. The only people I see succeeding with &K Metals are expert salesmen, recruiters, and influencers.

If you’re simply trying to collect coins it’s not a bad option but becoming an associate isn’t anything I’d recommend.

7K Metals Alternative

Unfortunately, 7K Metals isn’t for everyone. 

It comes with significant financial risk and it’s hard to scale because most of the marketing is done face-to-face and you can’t be at multiple places at once.

This is why I suggest those that don’t want to deal with these 2 factors an alternative.

It is called affiliate marketing. 

It’s the method I use to earn most of the money I earn online.

How do you earn money with affiliate marketing?

You don’t have to sell products or services and you don’t have to recruit people.

The only thing you’ll be doing is referring people (that already are interested) to merchant websites such as Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. 

When people buy something based on your recommendation you’ll get a percentage of the purchase.

My #1 recommendation is an affiliate marketing training platform with more than 1.5 million members. 

Memberships are basically an all-in-1 package that comes with expert-level training, resources, and support from a community of people doing the same thing. 

Want to learn more? Take a look at my comprehensive review of the affiliate marketing platform.