What premium is
Spot is a screen price for a paper ounce. The product in hand is fabricated, shipped, insured, and sold by someone who must buy it back later. Premium is the difference. It is not automatically a trick. It is fabrication, distribution, and the bid–ask of a physical market.
A coin can carry a large premium and still be a clean product. A bar can be near spot and still be hard to resell. Compare it to the bars vs coins trade-off, not to a morality tale.
Bid, not only ask
The number that matters later is the dealer’s buy price — the bid — not only what you paid. A thin product with a fat ask and a poor bid is expensive twice. Ask what they will pay today for the same item, before you care about the story on the reverse.