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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

#81

Post by dep_b »

dh5 wrote: post #64
ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How are search trends the same as ownership of the currency? Also in Argentina it's "dólar," not "dollar": https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=AR&q=g...

Good to see that myth busted.

Having spent enough time in the country people buy dollars to save money, there is no other way except investing in real estate and other large investments that are typically only available to people that are already rich.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#82

Post by [deleted] »

meheleventyone wrote: post #65
olivermuty wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I also think that the fact the prepper vision is a large part of the cultural zeitgeist makes it somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[deleted]

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#83

Post by Hendrikto »

febeling wrote: post #63
aspyct wrote: post #60

I struggle to find the value in keeping gold. You can't eat it. You can't use it as a tool. You can't even buy groceries with it (well at least today. Point is: it's not a liquidity). But yes, maybe you'll be able to make a profit in the future, by selling it to people who can't eat it or use it as a tool either. Or I guess trade it to save your life in a hypothetical future scenario. It's just a weird way of keeping…

Durable, portable, no counterparty risk.

Not printable at will, fungible.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#84

Post by rewmie »

dvh wrote: post #38
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

Aluminum is 3rd most abundant element in earth crust. Gold is 75th most abundant. I don't think so. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Ear...

> Aluminum is 3rd most abundant element in earth crust. Gold is 75th most abundant. I don't think so.

If you want to cite wikipedia, you might want to cite the article on the history of aluminium, where it says in no uncertain terms that aluminium was more expensive than gold prior to the development of industrial refinement methods in the 19th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aluminium

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#85

Post by dep_b »

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…

People do have an interest in Bitcoin as it's the only way to do transfers abroad that really works. But typically they just hoard dollars. Bitcoin also fluctuated way more than dollars in the last few years, people that buy dollars are typically middle and higher class people that want to save money for their house, going on vacation and that kind of stuff. Risk avoiding people.

There are a variety of dollars, the one most people talk about is the "blue" (meaning black market). It trades for twice the official rate, but since you can also sell it at around that price it doesn't impact you that much when you're saving in it. It does hurt when you want to spend that money when for example traveling abroad.

https://dolarhoy.com

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#86

Post by Dylan16807 »

cpursley wrote: post #77
Dylan16807 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "supporting the free speech rights"?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_2_of_the_Canadian_Ch...

That's the rights, I'm asking about the supporting.

I heard about freezes for people doing the protesting (including organizing). But that's an extremely different thing from supporting the free speech rights of the protesters.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#87

Post by ifdefdebug »

jansan wrote: post #20
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…

Before 2008 quite a few people around me were purchasing physical gold. I even know of one guy who bought 20000€ worth of gold. AFAIK none of them had any idea afterwards what to with that stuff. I assume it is rotting (or keeps on shining) in their basements and will only be touched when they die or move out.

Just looked it up, if that one guy needs money today his 2008 €20k gold would buy him >€40k today. Not so bad.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#88

Post by churchill »

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…

Nope. Searches for oro (Spanish for gold) and dólar (dollar?) far outstrip Bitcoin. Searches for gold and dollar (English) terms are effectively flat and paint a very different picture.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#89

Post by anonzzzies »

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…

The only reason for keeping it personally would be barter in case of a total economic collapse. I mean; my precious metal ETF, nuclear energy ETF and accidental USD currency purchase at the right time kept me fully clear of any inflation here in the EU, but I doubt physical gold would do anything like it. However for barter….

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#90

Post by leni536 »

anonzzzies wrote: post #89
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…

The only reason for keeping it personally would be barter in case of a total economic collapse. I mean; my precious metal ETF, nuclear energy ETF and accidental USD currency purchase at the right time kept me fully clear of any inflation here in the EU, but I doubt physical gold would do anything like it. However for barter….

That still assumes that gold would hold its value in a total economic collapse. Why would it?
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