Buying Gold / Silver / Precious Metals

[CardMinger]

Guys,

I want to buy some kind of precious metals in bars or coins. Has anyone done this before? I know you have to pay a little premium to actually get the metal in your hand but buying ETF's / mining companies in this case is not an option.

Any suggestions?

Also does anyone have any thoughts on if this is good/bad time to be buying precious metals?

Thanks a lot!
CM

[kfellmy]

Just check the going prices and wait until it drops. I buy silver all the time. Some here will tell you about ETFs but I know nothing about them. I buy and take physical possession of them and can sell them whenever I think the price won't get much higher or I make a minimum of 100 dollars per 100 ounce bar.

Try Northwest Territory Mint or Bullion Direct.

[gull]

Why do you want to buy metals?

[CardMinger]

Keith,

Do you buy from bulliondirect.com?

Who do you sell them back to when you are ready to sell? How much of a premium do you think you are paying to hold the actual metal? Can you sell them back for the exact amount of gold/silver at the time of sale or do they buy it for slightly below the going price?

Thanks for the help!
CM

[kfellmy]

Northwest Territory has free shipping but Bullion Direct sells the actual product cheaper but you have to pay shipping. So it evens out.

I resell on Ebay. Seems like the buyers still pay more than the actual spot price.

[john kane]

its hard for non-US people to invest in gold given that most gold is traded in dollars. if gold goes up, its primarily due to the weakening of the dollar, and so when we sell out dollar holding it is sold at a far worse exchange rate than our purchase exchange rate.

any ideas? any ideas on how to buy gold bars/bullion? the only listed companies in london are all small mining companies. if i were to go down that route id want a number of mining companies which im struggling to find.

any help appreciated.

[john kane]

holla. just found the london ETF in gold. GBS.L.

my one concern though is this:

from moneyweek.com:
Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs):
Stamp duty is applicable and there is an annual administration fee of between 0.4% and 0.5% per annum. Thus every year the amount of gold or silver backing an ETF share shrinks by that amount. This makes them unattractive as a medium or long term way to invest in gold. They are derivative contracts and one does not own or have title to the underlying asset. Thus they are primarily used by day traders, hedge funds and institutional players going long and short and speculating on short term movements in the gold price.

I am thinking of going for this:
Precious Metal Unit Trusts or Mutual Funds
Instead of personally selecting individual shares, some investors spread their risk by investing in collective investment vehicles specialising in investing in the shares of gold mining companies. These include mutual funds, open-ended investment companies (OEICs), closed-end funds, unit trusts. Two of these funds are the UK-based Gold & General Fund by Merrill Lynch or the Canadian Sprott Gold & Precious Minerals Fund by Sprott Asset Management. There are many precious metal funds in the US but investors assume US dollar currency risk when buying them.

this is it: http://webfund5.finexprestel.com/ampleis...b--1&hn=www

my only concern is the ETF is up just under 40% in the last 52 weeks yet that fund is down 7.1%. plus fund is 1.75% yearly.

given what ive read gold should be good for at least the next few years.

what do you guys think?

i'm planning to invest heavily in gold, the more i read the better it seems. im thinking of investing around $40K in gold. i have $100K net worth. but i hope to make around $80K this summer through poker, so even if it halfed in value, it would only be a month of online gone, plus i dont think it will.

[john kane]

and despite the 1.75% in annual fees, it would cost me more than that in fees to have a diversified portfolio of exploration gold mining companies etc.

i like this idea.

[CardMinger]

Keith,

I want to buy 50-100K of gold coins so I don't think reselling via eBay is an option...

Have you sold back to any brokers etc in the past?

Thanks alot!
CM

[lambdb]

Wow..cannot believe this.

Why would you rather purchase metals then invest in stocks?

Golds going up, but not faster then any guaranteed investment.

40k into Google is a better return then gold.

40k into producing copper and moly mines and you will be loving Q2's results. Gold is just behind these mines..

I don't know why your worried about the fees John, you can trade your own stocks for 20 bucks a trade.


lambdb