XAG Network Review
XAG Network is a precious metals site which has proven its honesty in the past, but which is unfortunately burdened with a poorly designed website found at www.xagnetwork.com. The site is clean and cheerful enough, but looking at the home page gives one a sinking feeling. The chaos and clumsiness of the whole site is clearly visible in this disorganized, overlong, meandering landing page.
The range of coins found on the XAG Network could be very charitably described as “sparse”. Silver and gold bullion are the meat and potatoes of any precious metals site, and, using that metaphor, the XAG Network is a very strict diet from a starvation-based health spa. Only the most recent coins from the major mints of the western hemisphere are featured, for the most part. If you are looking for a series of coins, such as the Chinese Lunar series, then you will be out of luck on the XAG site.
The XAG premiums above spot seem to run rather on the high side as well.
The Burden of Ordering from the XAG Network
Buying from the XAG Network is a burdensome process, though it can be done with a stout heart and a certain measure of persistence. You cannot search for coins using a search function on the site, which is annoying, but there are so few coins to look through that examining the whole stock of the site does not occupy more than a quarter of an hour. In light of the absence of a search function, the XAG Network site’s lack of a wide range of products actually becomes a backhanded advantage.
The listing of the coin does not give a current spot price of the included silver. This necessitates remembering the current spot price, or opening a different window to check it – a small inconvenience, but one which must be counted as one of a swarm of minor irritants that may be too much for some potential clients to put up with.
Clicking on a coin to purchase it brings up a login screen with room for your username and password, as well as a seemingly superfluous Turing number of five digits. The Turing number used is so simple that it offers basically no protection from determined hackers, and even some automated programs could bypass it in a moment. Additionally, all it is “protecting” is a shopping cart, which means it is simply a needless speed bump between you and a page that requires no security anyway.
Conclusion: A Good but Amateurish Site
In summary, it may be said the the XAG Network (www.xagnetwork.com) is an honest website that offers genuine coins from around the world, but is still a relatively amateurish website, with many disadvantages lacking from slicker sites. The XAG Network is a possible source for silver and gold bullion coins, and is worth a look just in case they have something you want, but there are also much better precious metal sites (check out the APMEX review and Bullion Vault review, both of which we’ve covered on our site).
The site design ranges from clumsy to outright painful, depending on what part of the pages you are negotiating. As just one example of this, consider the lack of a search function on the site, meaning that you will need to browse through every page when you are looking for a specific coin. Would it, we must ask, have been that difficult to include a search function on the site, especially in light of the profits that companies earn on selling precious metals?
The paucity of coins on the site is also discouraging. Some of the most popular types are covered, but there are very few overall. You are unlikely to find the coin you are looking for unless you want a recent Eagle, Maple Leaf, or Kookaburra. The “World Coins” section currently contains nothing except three coins – a Mexican Libertad, an Austrian Philharmonic Coin, and what is probably a Chinese coin but which is not identified as such.
With a drought of coins, a total lack of ingots, and clumsy, hard to use controls and links, as well as rather high premiums above spot, the basic honesty of XAG Network is basically its main redeeming feature. The XAG Network has considerable potential, but until its website is completely redesigned, its product selection expanded greatly, and several annoying features stricken from its pages (such as the necessity to register before you can view any ordering information), it will remain in the category of the precious metal also-rans.
