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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

#191

Post by defrost »

robertlagrant wrote: post #183
defrost wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the personal accounts of people - the accounts used to land donations in to fund the continued blockading of public thoroughfares.

I mean, that's still terrible, but how do they feel about the freezing the personal accounts of people[0]? [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60383385

Actually freezing or potentially freezing?

As I mentioned in a comment above I'm not aware of any individual that had their personal savings frozen.

I recall a lot of reporting that it might happen and I recall a question time in which the accusation was made that it had happened but when pressed no actual details of to whom could be provided.

That dates back to about the time of your linked reporting which also talks about the potential for abuse but does not cite an example of abuse.

If you have an actual verified account of this actually happening it would be of interest.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#192

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

localplume wrote: post #94
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.

except prepping mostly isn't "I got mine, screw you" but "I need to protect myself and my family". even then, US society isn't even "I got mine, screw you". I don't understand where that even came from because its not even close to true. maybe europeans thinking they're somehow more collectivist even though I've found Americans to be far more friendly and collectivist than europeans.

The US is the only major Western country where its citizens buy guns to protect themselves from other citizens with guns.

I'm not really seeing how that counts as "friendly and collective", but I live in the EU so perhaps I just don't understand these things.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#193

Post by lotsofpulp »

doctoboggan wrote: post #62
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…

When smaller countries collapse (as measured by percentage of global GDP) then the IMF, neighboring allies, etc can step in and keep things stable. If the US economy collapses, that's 25% of global GDP, not to mention the ripple effects on other economies and possible power struggles as countries try to adjust to a post US world. If you think the US is at risk of collapsing however I would suggest you buy a gun befor…

> If you think the US is at risk of collapsing however I would suggest you buy a gun before gold

You need friends and allies before you need guns.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#194

Post by tialaramex »

oblio wrote: post #177
noduerme wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly. I just sent this link to my (Argentine) friends with a different observation. My observation was: The United States is starting to look like Argentina. You must understand: Most Americans are not accustomed to shoving a third party currency under their mattress, or buying physical gold. The phenomenon of hyperinflation is foreign to them, and there's a steep learning curve. The actual significance of thi…

> The phenomenon of hyperinflation is foreign to them, and there's a steep learning curve. LOL. What the US has is in no way, shape, or form hyperinflation. I've lived in a place with hyperinflation and less than 10% ain't it, chief :-)

Just as with the people who wake up every morning expecting the Second Coming, or indeed a Nuclear War, these folks fixate on a hyperinflationary US economy so much they begin to hallucinate.

Everything must be a sign. Strong job figures? Those are a precursor to hyperinflation. More mortgages fail than average? Hyperinflation on the horizon. Trump gets elected? He'll certainly cause hyperinflation. Trump loses? Democrat policies lead to hyperinflation.

They're not capable of understanding that they're wrong. JWs for example believe that the end of the world is extremely imminent... and it has been for over a hundred years. I know JWs who were taught as kids that their grandparents would live to see "God's Kingdom" and now, having lost those grandparents, they're still preaching the same nonsense and their own grandkids will be brought up to do the same.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#195

Post by lotsofpulp »

nwiswell wrote: post #137
worstestes wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Costco's credit card policy is all about saving money. It negotiates a partnership agreement with a single payment network in exchange for much lower processing fees. As part of its current deal with Visa, it pays transaction fees of only 0.4%. By saving on fees, Costco is able to keep prices low." https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/credit-cards/articles/why-do... They actually secure a very nice low rate via their cre…

Fascinating. Visa-subsidized gold I guess.

Visa never takes on any risk, the card issuing bank would be subsidizing, if that.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#196

Post by [deleted] »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #182
nwiswell wrote: post #122

This is strange, apparently they're selling at a significant loss? Current online price, $1930. Spot gold, $1872.59. So a little less than a $58 premium. My credit card gives me 2% back, and my Costco membership 2% on top of that, for a total of 4%. I assume that Costco probably pays a bit more than 2% for card processing, and of course they're the ones actually paying me the 2% back from the membership. So that's at…

The cashback from cards isn't pad by the retailers, it paid by the issuing bank and consequently by the poor sods who carry a balance at rates up to 36%. Costco's cashback is probably some variation of the same scheme, or a similar loyalty scheme. So ultimately Costco only pays the processing fee of 0.4% or whatever.

[deleted]

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#197

Post by mcbrienollie »

I think there are two perspectives on this. Either this is a very good PR campaign so that these retail companies can sell literally anything to any customer. Or people are concerned about the inflation rates so that they went back to the roots of the USD which is gold. In both of the cases, this should be researched in-depth

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#198

Post by tialaramex »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #188
noduerme wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly. I just sent this link to my (Argentine) friends with a different observation. My observation was: The United States is starting to look like Argentina. You must understand: Most Americans are not accustomed to shoving a third party currency under their mattress, or buying physical gold. The phenomenon of hyperinflation is foreign to them, and there's a steep learning curve. The actual significance of thi…

> I'd like to expound on the significance of Americans buying precious metal at a loss through a giant vertical monopoly. I am more interested in when Costco got into the gold mining business.

A truly vertical business would own the stars manufacturing gold, and cut out the middle man entirely.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#199

Post by j7ake »

I wonder if one can arbitrage using credit card to buy gold then sell it back later.

If you assume gold prices can fluctuate a few percent, one can imagine making profit purely through the credit card rewards.

Essentially credit card funded benefits.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#200

Post by SilverBirch »

ZiiS wrote: post #164
eva_cananim wrote: post #162

My understanding is that holding physical gold is a big hassle when you want to sell. Sensible buyers will want to verify that it is real and not gold-plated tungsten. Fake gold bars are common. If you want to hold gold as a hedge against high inflation then you want "good delivery" gold, which stays in a vault with chain of custody records.

Unless high inflation topples the banks.

And if the banks topple... good luck finding someone who will take your gold.
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