How Does One Actually Buy Gold?

[Fife]

Here's an interesting question posed by your Crazy Uncle Ron on the Twitter this afternoon:



There's obviously no "correct" answer. I guess if we assumed some constant for the grantee (age, family, wealth, health, &c) we could try to work towards a "best" answer. I would definitely argue that there are one or two "terrible" answers. YMMV.

For me, I would lean to the gold for some personal family reasons; but the bitcoin is pretty attractive if you are willing to take a substantially non-zero risk of having a worthless payout.

What say ye?

[Smitty-48]

What say ye?

I'd say blockchain currency is the future, but likely a more distant one, ultimately, the powers that be wont be able to stop it, but that doesn't mean they wont spend the next couple of decades trying, it's not Dutch Tulips, but it's not stable yet neither, so I would approach it as long term speculative rather than as a nest egg.

Personally, I don't expect to live to see blockchain become the dominant currency on earth, but that being said, whenever it is, mid century or so, when they mine the last Bitcoin, I betcha it's gonna be worth a staggering amount.

Make no mistake tho, blockchain is a technological marvel, doesn't seem that astounding to us in this digital age, but if you went back just a couple of decades it would be science fiction.

[heydaralon]

Ron Paul doesn't even know what a checking account is.

(neither do I)

[TheReal_ND]

I'm rather uninformed on this, and would appreciate some expertise. How does one actually buy physical gold?

Yes, any idiot could walk to a jewelry counter, and get a gaudy chain or something, but I don't want to pay the markups for making it into jewelry. Some actual gold coins would be useful in a Collapse scenario, but they're incredibly difficult to actually find, without paying absurdly high markups.

Buy over 1k worth in cash money. Tax free in Texas.

[Speaker to Animals]

Here's an interesting question posed by your Crazy Uncle Ron on the Twitter this afternoon:



There's obviously no "correct" answer. I guess if we assumed some constant for the grantee (age, family, wealth, health, &c) we could try to work towards a "best" answer. I would definitely argue that there are one or two "terrible" answers. YMMV.

For me, I would lean to the gold for some personal family reasons; but the bitcoin is pretty attractive if you are willing to take a substantially non-zero risk of having a worthless payout.

What say ye?

What do you think the results would be if you changed the question to increase the amount tenfold and included a choice for "land"?

With a small amount like that and no option for land, anybody with an IQ above 100 is going with gold. But make the changes above and I think most go for the land. Land is better in every way right now.

If gold falls in price, then sure, it could flip. The way I used to look at gold is it's worth in acres of productive land away from urban land speculation. That tells you the story.

[Speaker to Animals]

Anyhoo..

GCF, gold is not a terrible place to park some money for your kids' college funds. Just physically buy it and store it in a safe deposit box.

[TheReal_ND]

It has appreciated above inflation I think. It's just the matter of buying and selling where you stand to get knocked around. Honestly, I wouldn't be opposed to speculating on paper gold if I had money to play with. There are also investment vehicles for saving for your kids college tuition. I can't remember what it's called.

[Alexander PhiAlipson]

I'm rather uninformed on this, and would appreciate some expertise. How does one actually buy physical gold?

Yes, any idiot could walk to a jewelry counter, and get a gaudy chain or something, but I don't want to pay the markups for making it into jewelry. Some actual gold coins would be useful in a Collapse scenario, but they're incredibly difficult to actually find, without paying absurdly high markups.

I understand finding gold coins with a metal detector may be difficult, but ain't you got coin stores in the mistake by the lake? It was always easy for me and I used to buy a lot. StA and I disagree on what kind to buy, but I think he'll remember my being a very strong proponent of owning physical gold and silver way back when a good chance of "making" money on metals existed (I realized substantial gains).
Simply walk into the store and ask after the markets have closed for the day--or better still, the week--know the spot price and pay cash to avoid tax. It used to be that purchases of precious metal for fewer than ten-thousand dollars didn't require transaction statements, but Obama ended that, adding a "markup" to the dealer which, of course, gets passed on to the consumer.
Unless you've got some good reason for doing otherwise, you should buy at least one ounce at a time. StA likes the numismatic value of coins, but for me, the simpler, the better. Chinese Pandas, American Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, and Mexican Pesos are all very pretty, all pure gold, and all comparatively pricier than the standard South African Krugerrand. Strictly speaking, this is not a truly numismatic difference as none of them are rare (except in Cleveland, perhaps) but there is a clear difference in price above spot, and bars are cheaper still. So, I'd go with the Krugerrand, if I were you; Englehard silver bars are nice, too.
So, there's your advice--go to a coin store knowing spot, pay with cash.

[Smitty-48]

Ron Paul doesn't even know what a checking account is.

(neither do I)

He also doesn't apparently know that $10,000 doesn't even buy you one bitcoin right now, they're going for over $15,000 CAD, so that's like what? $12,000 USD?

Never mind bitcoins, they're gonna start making bitcoin futures contracts next.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm rather uninformed on this, and would appreciate some expertise. How does one actually buy physical gold?

Yes, any idiot could walk to a jewelry counter, and get a gaudy chain or something, but I don't want to pay the markups for making it into jewelry. Some actual gold coins would be useful in a Collapse scenario, but they're incredibly difficult to actually find, without paying absurdly high markups.

I understand finding gold coins with a metal detector may be difficult, but ain't you got coin stores in the mistake by the lake? It was always easy for me and I used to buy a lot. StA and I disagree on what kind to buy, but I think he'll remember my being a very strong proponent of owning physical gold and silver way back when a good chance of "making" money on metals existed (I realized substantial gains).
Simply walk into the store and ask after the markets have closed for the day--or better still, the week--know the spot price and pay cash to avoid tax. It used to be that purchases of precious metal for fewer than ten-thousand dollars didn't require transaction statements, but Obama ended that, adding a "markup" to the dealer which, of course, gets passed on to the consumer.
Unless you've got some good reason for doing otherwise, you should buy at least one ounce at a time. StA likes the numismatic value of coins, but for me, the simpler, the better. Chinese Pandas, American Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, and Mexican Pesos are all very pretty, all pure gold, and all comparatively pricier than the standard South African Krugerrand. Strictly speaking, this is not a truly numismatic difference as none of them are rare (except in Cleveland, perhaps) but there is a clear difference in price above spot, and bars are cheaper still. So, I'd go with the Krugerrand, if I were you; Englehard silver bars are nice, too.
So, there's your advice--go to a coin store knowing spot, pay with cash.

What did you typically pay above spot? 5%? More?