Minimums for Gold IRA - What's realistic?

• •I've been looking to roll some more of my traditional IRA into a Gold IRA, specifically targeting physical gold for that long-term inflation hedge.
• •I'm sitting on a portfolio north of a million, but definitely not in that $5M+ whale territory.
• •I noticed a few of these custodians advertise pretty low minimums, sometimes as low as $5-10k.

I've been looking to roll some more of my traditional IRA into a Gold IRA, specifically targeting physical gold for that long-term inflation hedge. I'm sitting on a portfolio north of a million, but definitely not in that $5M+ whale territory. I noticed a few of these custodians advertise pretty low minimums, sometimes as low as $5-10k. That sounds almost too good to be true for actually getting a decent allocation of physical metal, especially considering storage and transaction fees can eat into smaller amounts.

My first foray into precious metals was with a chunk of my retirement 5 years ago, when I transferred about $150k. My sense from that experience, working with a reputable firm that has good reviews for Admiral-level clients, is that to really make it worthwhile for a substantial portfolio, you're looking at something closer to $50k or even $100k for a meaningful chunk of gold. The cost of doing business, the setup fees, annual storage, etc., just seems to make those lower numbers less efficient.

For those of you who've actually gone through the process, especially if you're like me with a disciplined, long-term approach to wealth preservation from decades of service, what did you find to be a realistic minimum investment to really get the benefits? I'm not looking to put my entire retirement into gold, but I do want it to be a significant diversification play. Trying to get a sense of what others have done in practice down here in Virginia Beach and elsewhere. Appreciate any insights.