Has anyone tried to buy gold lately?

[peteb]

or try here ...

An online precious metals trading company is planning to install 500 gold-dispensing ATMs in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.


TG-Gold-Super-Mark.de plans to roll out the machines at airports, railway stations and shopping malls in a bid to encourage ordinary people to invest in physical assets.

The ATMs will dispense tin boxes containing one gram, five gram and 10 gram pieces of gold, made by Belgian precious metal recycling company Umicore, along with a certificate of authenticity.

Each machine will cost the company around EUR20,000 and can hold up to 1500 pieces of gold.

The firm recently showcased a machine at Frankfurt railway station, where a one gram piece costs EUR31 - a 30% premium to the spot market price.

However, in future the ATMs will be equipped with technology to make sure prices are aligned with those on its Web site.

The firm's chief executive, Thomas Geissler, told Reuters the ATMs were more than a gimmick and that everyone should have up to 15% of their liquid assets in gold.

He says that although demand for gold in Germany is still "tiny", his company has seen a dramatic rise in inquires in recent weeks.

Geissler also claims the machines have the potential to help relationships, telling Reuters: "I have yet to meet a woman who does not like a gift of gold. It's better than flowers. Flowers are more expensive. They wilt and you (as a man) don't get as many points at home as if you bring gold."

 

[Player]

Hi Cherrypro,

I bought from these guys in Sydney and it was hassle free:

Australian Bullion Company

Cheers,
Michael

Michael,

Did you have them store and insure it for you?

 

[Monty Burns]

Michael,

Did you have them store and insure it for you?

I have brought gold from their shop in Sydney almost got run over by
a person who had brought 5x10kg silver bars and was moving it down to
their car on a trolly.

My first purchase was on site at their shop, just to make sure, but all others
will be over the phone.

I store my gold off site.

while we are at it does anyone know where to get other gold coins like the
Canadian maple leaf etc in Aust.

 

[Rob Williams]

Lots of talk about buying gold. Has anyone tried to sell when the market reaches dizzy heights?
Went through that in the late 70's. Final year of high school and I needed to offload some of the bullion I'd been accumulating for a few years so I could buy a car.
Not sure if it's different now (I suspect not) but the it's not a particulary liquid market when the sellers come out of the woodwork.
You certainly can't sell it for the US$ price you see it quoted at in the press and evening news. AND bullion trading companies are under no obligation to buy your gold bars. You could be faced with a "no we are not buying any more gold today" line.
We all know what happens to markets that reach dizzying heights, too. Not a time you want to be hearing that from a bullion dealer while you're holding and the market is folding.

 

[Ausprop]

while we are at it does anyone know where to get other gold coins like the
Canadian maple leaf etc in Aust.

ebay perhaps?

 

[BayView]

I just went to buy gold from my friends broker and was shocked to find you can no longer get gold/silver.

Apparently the governement 3 months ago stopped the sale of gold bullion/ingots.

Has anyone else seen this?

What am I missing about buying gold?

To me, it's parking money in something and hoping the cap gain will be good, but getting no income and/or tax breaks in return. yeah, right.

I can think of far better ways to make my money work and help me to exit the rat-race sooner.

Surley there's more to it than what I (don't) see?

 

[Rob Williams]

What am I missing about buying gold?

To me, it's parking money in something and hoping the cap gain will be good, but getting no income and/or tax breaks in return. yeah, right.

There was a lot gold talk at the RK seminar. I thought it odd that half the seminar sentiment was about investing in CASH FLOW and the other about how the US$ is about to collapse and gold & silver is the best investment going.
Gold has had a great run over a long period of time. Not sure why the herd is still attracted by the glitter.
To answer your question - no I don't think you're missing something. I think you're right on the money.
You missed one, though. No LEVERAGE!

 

[steveadl]

I'm just thinking of buying an ounce each for my boys in lieu of them having their money sit in a bank account.

What am I missing about buying gold?

Was just thinking about Amelia's post and coming back to say the same thing.

Amelia, if you want to invest your boys money - why gold? I'm no guru, but generally isn't is a store of wealth? And especially buying it now when it's relatively high?

If it was my kids I'd rather choose a healthy prospect on the ASX to sink the few $k into, with good growth prospects and a healthy and increasing dividend.

 

[landlubber]

How much and to whom ?

Has anyone tried to sell when the market reaches dizzy heights?...

Rob,
Since I'm "sitting on" quite a bit of bullion that I bought at circa USD400/oz I'm very interested in hearing more from you. PM me if you wish. How much were you trying to sell ? Was it bought from recognized industry players "? Like Aust. Bullion Co. or Perth Mint ? Was it coins or bars? (I'm in bars). Who did you try to sell it to ? At what price etc ? Very interested in your experience.
As gold struggles continually to break the USD1,000 barrier, I get tempted.
Thanks
LL

 

[Rob Williams]

LL, I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning and you want details of my investment transactions back in the late 70's?
As best as I can recall, I started buying in the US$300 range and stopped around US$400. Can't remember the quantity. Maybe around 3 ingots of around 2.5oz each. OK, so I wasn't going to corner the market, but I was only in high school and working a part time job, so cut me some slack.
I was able to sell one bar quite easily (at around US$650 an ounce, although there was a gap (can't remember how much, but it was significant) between the quoted spot price and the dealers buy price.
By the time I got around to selling the last one, they stopped buying. I must have sold it eventually, but can't remember how. I've not invested in bullion since, so it must have left me with a bad vibe.
Yes, the dealer I bought and sold with was one of the big players. Don't want to name names.
I think gold ran up to around US$850 or so an ounce before it tanked.

 

[landlubber]

Thanks Rob ... Good recollection and an interesting "hobby" for a high-school lad.
LL

 

[Piston Broke]

What value does a piece of gold or a tulip that's dug out of the ground have other than perceived value?
And just because it costs money to dig rocks out, don't mean they too have value.
Gold is worth $1000oz because someone else is willing to pay $1000oz.
And if he convinces others that gold is more, than they happily pay $1000oz.
Just like RIO shares are worth $140 because someone else is willing to pay $140.
And if he convinces others that RIO is more, than they happily pay $140.

If was going to put away $10,000 for 5-10yrs, I'd see no point buying gold.
I'd most likely buy ASX50 shares (the ones with least debt), put in a Aus equity fund, or split it between an Aus equity fund and a China blue chip fund.
While I have an acute aversion for managed funds, buying at 40-50% off peaks is still not too shabby. Don't mean there's no downside, could be another 20-30% down, so I'd ease in.

 

[ColonialBoy]

Have just returned from the Kiyosaki seminar and have been made aware of the possibility of long term investing in bullion.

You should have bought gold stocks 8 years ago, they are a proxy for call options on gold. All the small Aust gold producers were taken over then.

If you got information now you are WAY out of date, I made money then & quit the market. There is still the possibility to make money in physical silver, but again everyone knew this 8 years ago.

 

[Cherry Pro]

Thanks Steve, Piston Broke and Colonial Boy for your inputs.

I'm not going out buying huge amounts of gold/silver - plan to invest less than 2k for each of them and they're keen to hold long term.

And yes, am also buying shares for them in small amounts - both of them lost some money in Australian Unity Property Funds and CFS Geared Funds, so prefer stock picking but every trade costs. Toying between SFY and STW as well. Diversification has to be the name of the game and at 16 and 19, they have plenty to learn.

 

[Rob Williams]

I'm not going out buying huge amounts of gold/silver - plan to invest less than 2k for each of them and they're keen to hold long term.

If I held the gold I sold 30 years ago (at US$850 per ounce)and tried to sell it today for around US$980 per ounce, then I'd be a very unhappy camper. I would have followed the "long term view" rule, but I would have made a lousy US$130 an ounce after waiting a third of a century. In that time it would have paid me no rent and there's the opportunity cost in having that money tied up for all those years.
If there is one lesson to be learned from my experience it's that when something has had a solid bull run over a number of years and seminar spruikers tell people to invest in it and everyone at the seminar starts getting excited and goes in, then it's time to sell.
I remember a stock trader once saying that the time to sell out of the market is when the cab driver and doorman start giving you stock tips.
Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me.
If I were looking for a long term investment for my kids, I'd be looking at what's been oversold and undervalued by the market, not what's had the dream run and looking strong.
Then again, I've never run with the herd, so ignore me

 

[steveadl]

Diversification has to be the name of the game and at 16 and 19, they have plenty to learn.

There's also a lot to be said for specialising, but perhaps that's more a mindset thing.

 

[Rob Williams]

There's also a lot to be said for specialising, but perhaps that's more a mindset thing.

I'm struggling to think of one very wealthy individual who became so through diversification.
Bill Zheng, among others promotes the idea of specialisation to become wealthy and diversification to protect the wealth against market fluctuations and inflation.
Most commentators argue that specialisation is one of the keys to wealth creation.
Ingham - Chicken
HL Hunt - Oil
Packer (Snr) - Media
Murdoch - Media
Pratt - Cardboard
Lowry - Retail Commercial
Chan - Retail Commercial
Buffett - Shares, Shares and more Shares
Bill Gates - Software

It's a big list ..

 

[MichaelW]

Some insight into the Gold situation:

A golden era beckons
By Charlie Aitken
May 29, 2009


PORTFOLIO POINT: Gold’s bull market has some way to run and could take the price above $2000 an ounce.


There is no doubt the strong and timely action of the US Federal Reserve and the US Treasury saved the world’s financial system from a systemic meltdown. In addition, the US bailouts and the unlimited liquidity for the US investment banks, commercial banks and insurance companies prevented a cascade of bankruptcies and corporate failures.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the massive debts and liabilities of the private sector have merely been transferred to the government’s balance sheet. The historic surge in global government spending will manifest over the long term in the form of rising bond yields, increased inflation, falling sovereign credit ratings and a significantly higher gold price (see The bullish bullionaire).

...

That's one of many. I've got a lot of these from very conservative portfolio managers and almost every single one of them suggests this is "early days" in golds new bull market. She hasn't even left the station yet.

Cheers,
Michael

Disclosure: I hold Avoca (AVO) and hard bullion.

 

[steveadl]

I'm struggling to think of one very wealthy individual who became so through diversification.
Bill Zheng, among others promotes the idea of specialisation to become wealthy and diversification to protect the wealth against market fluctuations and inflation.
Most commentators argue that specialisation is one of the keys to wealth creation.
Ingham - Chicken
HL Hunt - Oil
Packer (Snr) - Media
Murdoch - Media
Pratt - Cardboard
Lowry - Retail Commercial
Chan - Retail Commercial
Buffett - Shares, Shares and more Shares
Bill Gates - Software

It's a big list ..

Spot on Rob. But it also works on a smaller scale as well. Not saying diversification is bad, it's certainly safe, but it can also take the edge of and give you a good performance instead of a great performance.

For example in this case if I only had $2k to invest in the ASX, I would be finding a company I believed had great growth prospects and worldwide potential (if the company itself has it's own methods of diversification like servicing multiple industries to ensure that high growth, all the better). Plus if you can get it undervalued in the current environment and have a great starting yield to boot - all the better.

For my money that's a better place to park it then an index fund/share that will no doubt recover from the current lows, but not offer you exponential growth.

 

[Piston Broke]

If there is one lesson to be learned from my experience it's that when sometting has had a solid bull run over a number of years and seminar spruikers tell people to invest in it and everyone at the seminar starts getting excited and goes in, then it's time to sell.

And the same goes for RE and shares etc.

MichaelW I'd call that an opinion, not an insight.