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Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

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Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#41

Post by defrost »

xcdzvyn wrote: post #31
defrost wrote: post #7

Pfft, why settle for a 1oz bar when you can get a Mother and Baby Kangaroo 2023 2oz Gold Bullion Coin https://www.perthmint.com/shop/bullion/bullion-coins/mother-... from the Perth Mint? ( Or Dillon Gage, Texas: https://dillongage.com/coins/perth-kangaroo/ ) Buy one for your mother and two for your girlfriend, they're so cute you'll want more! Don't turn over if you're not into monarchies Caveats when biting the gold…

I like that Perth Mint considers "Australian legal tender" a feature of a $6,000 coin

It's a 'feature' 49 coins @ $200 each is less than $10,000 in legal tender and doesn't have to be declared as a cash transaction or carry on cash.

Also handy for reducing transfer taxes on house purchases - you can have a higly qualified QC (fancy lawyer) swear affidavits that they witnessed the purchase of a house for an absurdly low amount and therefore the required tax is correct despite being so low.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#42

Post by philwelch »

ggm wrote: post #8

I'd love to see an economists take on the value to a consumer of holding gold in this form, at the price. Investment gold is usually kept in vault, and you trade ownership arms length. Direct gold ownership is rife with risks: fineness, substitutions and overpriced purchase. Yes, you can always sell at a mall gold trader but that's way way off market price. So it's an inflation hedge with a lot of cost and risk and d…

When I looked into this, the consensus seemed to be that the best form of gold, if you want to physically hold it yourself, is gold coins minted by reputable national mints. American Gold Eagles, South Africa Krugerrands, etc. These trade at close to spot.

And a 1 oz Krugerrand or Gold Eagle is about $20,000. If you can afford enough volume of those that it’s difficult to secure them, you can afford to secure them.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#43

Post by thaumasiotes »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #35
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

I don't understand why people keep thinking that a financial meltdown means societal meltdown. There's plenty of places where the economy is or has already melted down even right now -- Sri Lanka, Argentina, Venezuela, etc. We can observe what happens when political institutions completely and utterly collapse, because it's happened multiple times already . What happens is not immediate apocalypse where people riot a…

> The prepper scenario of "I've gotta defend myself against mobs out to raid for food" really doesn't happen.

> Maybe a civil war breaks out, maybe there are food shortages, but for the most part if violence breaks out, it's organised, mainly in the form of civil wars.

If a war breaks out, the tradition is that the armies will raid you for food. The issue was never that other locals would do it. A war breaking out is what people are afraid of.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#44

Post by olivermuty »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #35
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

I don't understand why people keep thinking that a financial meltdown means societal meltdown. There's plenty of places where the economy is or has already melted down even right now -- Sri Lanka, Argentina, Venezuela, etc. We can observe what happens when political institutions completely and utterly collapse, because it's happened multiple times already . What happens is not immediate apocalypse where people riot a…

I think that prepper scenario is way more likely in a «I got mine, screw you» society like the US. All the countries you list have their issues, but their base level of societal egalitarism is orders of magnitude higher.

I would not be surprised if the US is one of the few countries to end up like Mad Max if the world order should fully collapse due to climate change or other large scale events.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#45

Post by bilekas »

codersfocus wrote: post #30

A couple days ago I was admiring the heavy aluminum pan I was throwing out because of nonstick coating issues. Over a hundred years ago, that pan would have been something only for the most wealthy in the world. Only a matter of time before the same happens to gold

I'm no so sure. Gold has always been used as a mechanism for intrinsic value. While the dollar is not backed by the dollar anymore there is still sentiment around the world that gold is the relaible asset.

Gold has an important economic role as a means of exchange should currency collapse. So I wouldn't see it going anywhere anytime soon. Until maybe i have a gold skillet that I'm throwing out someday!

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#46

Post by ArtTimeInvestor »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #22
ggm wrote: post #8

I'd love to see an economists take on the value to a consumer of holding gold in this form, at the price. Investment gold is usually kept in vault, and you trade ownership arms length. Direct gold ownership is rife with risks: fineness, substitutions and overpriced purchase. Yes, you can always sell at a mall gold trader but that's way way off market price. So it's an inflation hedge with a lot of cost and risk and d…

You can see it happening right now in Argentina: the local currency is worthless, and people are flocking to ... US Dollars. Not gold, not bitcoins, but good old benjamins. So gold isn't even a good inflation hedge: if you walked the streets of a failing economy (pick one: Argentina, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, there's plenty more) and tried to exchange gold for goods, you're not gonna get far (and will probably get mugged…

Why do you think that people in Argentina are flocking to Dollar and not to Bitcoin or Gold?

When I look at the search trends in Argentina, I see Bitcoin in a very volatile longterm uptrend, Gold in a longterm downtrend and the Dollar being constantly a distant third:

https://trends.google.de/trends/explore?date=all&geo=AR&q=go...

Over the 20 years which the Peso has been devaluing, Bitcoin has outpaced the others by far in terms of searches.

What other indicators could we look at to get a better picture?

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#47

Post by qp11 »

ggm wrote: post #8

I'd love to see an economists take on the value to a consumer of holding gold in this form, at the price. Investment gold is usually kept in vault, and you trade ownership arms length. Direct gold ownership is rife with risks: fineness, substitutions and overpriced purchase. Yes, you can always sell at a mall gold trader but that's way way off market price. So it's an inflation hedge with a lot of cost and risk and d…

In most of the under developed world were financial systems are unstable/dont control the economy, they dont convert gold into local currency. They use it as currency. "You want that cow, give me that nose ring".

Ofcourse in the "developed world" the problem is, one fuckhead will show up, who wants to own all the cows, for no logically reason other than he just has too. Naturally gold wont work.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#48

Post by defrost »

ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #46
e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see it happening right now in Argentina: the local currency is worthless, and people are flocking to ... US Dollars. Not gold, not bitcoins, but good old benjamins. So gold isn't even a good inflation hedge: if you walked the streets of a failing economy (pick one: Argentina, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, there's plenty more) and tried to exchange gold for goods, you're not gonna get far (and will probably get mugged…

Why do you think that people in Argentina are flocking to Dollar and not to Bitcoin or Gold? When I look at the search trends in Argentina, I see Bitcoin in a very volatile longterm uptrend, Gold in a longterm downtrend and the Dollar being constantly a distant third: https://trends.google.de/trends/explore?date=all&geo=AR&q=go... Over the 20 years which the Peso has been devaluing, Bitcoin has outpaced the others by…

They don't think people in Argentina are flocking to Gold, they wrote:

> and people are flocking to ... US Dollars. Not gold,

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#49

Post by sambazi »

wodenokoto wrote: post #37
ggm wrote: post #8

I'd love to see an economists take on the value to a consumer of holding gold in this form, at the price. Investment gold is usually kept in vault, and you trade ownership arms length. Direct gold ownership is rife with risks: fineness, substitutions and overpriced purchase. Yes, you can always sell at a mall gold trader but that's way way off market price. So it's an inflation hedge with a lot of cost and risk and d…

I have some friends who are into owning gold. Their rule of thumb is: You can own gold mines on paper, but gold, only in hand. There is a belief that there exists a lot more paper gold than actual gold. So when the run on the reserves starts, the price of gold will explode as billions of dollars worth of gold in the market disappears. Although I’m not sure if Costco buyers are thinking like that.

> There is a belief that there exists a lot more paper gold than actual gold. So when the run on the reserves starts, the price of gold will explode as billions of dollars worth of gold in the market disappears.

very good sales pitch!

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#50

Post by e63f67dd-065b »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #43
e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people keep thinking that a financial meltdown means societal meltdown. There's plenty of places where the economy is or has already melted down even right now -- Sri Lanka, Argentina, Venezuela, etc. We can observe what happens when political institutions completely and utterly collapse, because it's happened multiple times already . What happens is not immediate apocalypse where people riot a…

> The prepper scenario of "I've gotta defend myself against mobs out to raid for food" really doesn't happen. > Maybe a civil war breaks out, maybe there are food shortages, but for the most part if violence breaks out, it's organised, mainly in the form of civil wars. If a war breaks out, the tradition is that the armies will raid you for food. The issue was never that other locals would do it. A war breaking out is…

Ah yes, my gun and my gold will protect me against the organised army out to raid for food.

That's what I meant -- people get organised very quickly. In Rwanda, people quickly formed armies and militias, the same in Ethiopia, Columbia, and literally every other time this has happened before. One guy is not gonna accomplish much.

Civil war is also, by most measures, the least likely outcome. Usually civil war causes the breakdown, not the other way around. Usually it's really a deterioration of state capacity that leads to a powerless central government (see Venezuela, Yemen, Syria), or repeated coups that lead to unstable governance (all of west africa basically). Things are mostly stable, by and large.

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