Platinum bars are now part of Costco's precious metals selection.

• Platinum bars were added to Costco's website at a price of $1,089.99, expanding the company's precious metals offerings to include gold bars and silver coins.
• In August 2023, gold bars were introduced at Costco and sold out within hours of a restock in just two months.
• Although gold's value has increased steadily over the past five years, platinum's performance has been lackluster. While platinum's value has increased by over 10% since last year, it has decreased by more than 8% since May.

The precious metals market continues to be a valuable resource for the wholesaler, who is now expanding its offerings to include Swiss-made platinum bars.

On Wednesday, Costco announced the sale of 1-ounce platinum bars on its website, priced at $1,089.99. These bars are only available online and cannot be delivered to Louisiana, Nevada, or Puerto Rico. To purchase the platinum bars, interested buyers must have a Costco membership, which costs between $65 and $130 per year.

The company's continued exploration of the precious metals market is unsurprising, as evidenced by the rapid sales of gold bars at Costco. In August 2023, gold bars were launched at Costco and sold out within hours of restocking. According to analysts at Wells Fargo, Costco was selling as much as $200 million worth of gold bars per month in April.

"Richard Galanti, then-Chief Financial Officer of Costco, stated on the company's earnings call in September 2023 that he had received calls about people seeing online that they were selling 1-ounce gold bars. He explained that when they were loaded on the site, they would typically sell out within a few hours, and they would limit each member to two per purchase."

While the value of gold has increased by more than 40% in the past year and over 70% in the last five years, the price of platinum has been more volatile in recent years. Specifically, the value of platinum has risen by more than 15% in the past 12 months, but it has since dropped by over 8% since reaching a high of $1,100 earlier in 2024.

— CNBC's Jeff Cox contributed to this report.