On the June 4 edition of The Glenn Beck Program, while reading ad copy presumably provided by Goldline, Beck praised the company for allowing investments in “physical gold. Not gold stock, not a gold fund, not paper gold.” He added, “I don't believe in paper anymore.” Watch:

What I don't believe in is Goldline. The company has been accused of abuses ranging from using “misleading sales techniques” to deceiving consumers with “egregiously high” markups.

Indeed, contrast Beck's advice with that of financial news analyst Dennis Gartman, who warns consumers that those interested in buying gold “would be wise to avoid many of the big-advertising American gold coin retailers, because they typically sell coins for many times the value of the gold they contain.”

What alternatives does he suggest? The very “paper gold” that Beck derides. Gartman explains that investors opt for a “gold fund traded on the New York Stock Exchange, which invests in physical bullion -- but does not provide it to buyers -- and is intended to track the price of gold” as well as funds that “invest in gold mining and production companies, and gold-intensive manufacturing.”

You may not get to hold it in your hand, but at least you won't encounter what Gartman calls a markup “so egregiously high the only thing you can call them is shysters.”