Anyone else seriously confused by gold IRA fees?

• •My grandfather always stressed tangible assets, and frankly, he wasn't wrong about much.
• •The thing that's absolutely baffling me is the fee structure across these Gold IRA companies.
• •One minute it's an annual storage fee, then a "maintenance" fee, then a percentage of assets, then a flat rate.

I've been looking into moving a more significant chunk of my retirement portfolio into a Gold IRA, maybe another $50k-$75k on top of what I already have. Currently sitting around $300k total, with about $50k in physical gold and silver I've accumulated over the years from various family gifts and what not. Mostly in traditional stocks and bonds, but with the way things are going, especially with the timber market being so volatile, I'm feeling increasingly uneasy. My grandfather always stressed tangible assets, and frankly, he wasn't wrong about much.

The thing that's absolutely baffling me is the fee structure across these Gold IRA companies. One minute it's an annual storage fee, then a "maintenance" fee, then a percentage of assets, then a flat rate. It feels like they're just inventing new ways to nickel and dime you. I'm trying to compare Augusta Precious Metals vs. Goldco vs. Birch Gold Group, and honestly, each one has some nuance in their fee schedule that makes apples-to-apples comparison nearly impossible. I'm trying to think long-term here, you know, for my kids and grandkids, and these fees can really eat into generational wealth over decades.

My biggest concern is getting stuck with hidden costs. I'm in Spokane, and frankly, I'd prefer a company that's transparent and doesn't require me to become an accountant to figure out what I'm actually paying. Are there any tricks to comparing these fees that I'm missing? Is a flat annual fee always better than a percentage, or does it depend on the size of the portfolio? For someone like me, looking to potentially put another chunk in, say, another $70k, what should I really be looking out for?

I've been playing around with that Retirement Planner tool I found – it's actually pretty good for seeing long-term projections with different growth rates, which helps put the fee impact into perspective. But even with that, it's hard to input the exact fee structure because it feels so opaque from the brokers themselves. Any advice from you seasoned investors on how you navigated this? Feeling pretty frustrated and just want to make a solid, well-informed decision.