Costco says its 1-ounce gold bars are real and have been selling out in hours

• Costco has been selling one-ounce gold bars.
• The retailer limits them to two per member but they typically sell out "within a few hours," its CFO said.
• Rand Refinery gold bars cost $1,950 each, while PAMP Suisse bars cost $1,980.

Costco has been selling one-ounce gold bars that it says get snapped up in hours.

"I've gotten a couple of calls that people have seen online that we've been selling one-ounce gold bars," CFO Richard Galanti told investors Tuesday at the retailer's fourth-quarter earnings call.

"Yes, but when we load them on the site, they're typically gone within a few hours and we limit two per member."

Costco's website shows that the company sells one-ounce bars of 24-karat gold from South Africa's Rand Refinery for $1,949.99 and from Swiss supplier PAMP Suisse for $1,979.99. Both products have been given average 4.9-star ratings on Costco's website.

The products include insured, signed-for air shipping via UPS. The listings for both products say they can't be returned or refunded. As Galanti said, customers can only buy two of each item per membership.

At the time of writing, an ounce of gold on the open market was worth just under $1,890.

Some Reddit users have spoken about struggling to get their hands on the bars.

Customers with an executive membership are still eligible for 2% cash back, Reddit users say.

"It's heavier than I thought," one TikToker said in a video unboxing two bars of gold she bought from Costco."