What does spot price actually mean?
Spot price is the live wholesale reference for one troy ounce of a metal, gold, silver, platinum, or palladium, emerging from continuous trading on global exchanges. It moves all day, every trading day, and it is the number every legitimate dealer quote starts from.
A troy ounce, the standard unit, is about 31.1 grams, slightly heavier than the kitchen ounce. When a dealer says 'gold is at' some number, they mean the spot price per troy ounce at that moment.
Why isn't spot price the price you pay?
Spot is a wholesale reference for large, unfabricated metal. Turning that metal into a coin or bar, moving it, insuring it, and selling it all cost money. Those costs, plus the dealer's margin, form the premium you pay above spot.
Anyone claiming to sell you physical metal 'at spot' is either losing money on the transaction or making it back somewhere you haven't seen yet. Treat that claim as a question, not a bargain.
How does spot price show up in practice?
A proper written quote states the spot reference it was priced against, the premium per item, and the time the quote expires. Because spot moves constantly, quotes carry short expirations, minutes on a live phone call, sometimes longer in writing.
When you compare two dealers, compare premiums over the same spot reference at the same moment. Comparing total prices an hour apart tells you nothing, because spot itself moved in between.