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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

#201

Post by [deleted] »

tialaramex wrote: post #194
oblio wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? Demo…

[deleted]

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#202

Post by Radim »

didntcheck wrote: post #119
defrost wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the free speech rights of the truckers that was the issue in Canada. The problem came with the freedom of assembly, which is bound up with the right to protest ... and long curtailed with restrictions from causing substantial disruption. That last part was the line crossed when roads were shutdown for days on end, horns blared round the clock, etc. Additionally, IIRC, the Canadian Gov't didn't debank individ…

"Protests are meant to be disruptive". It was a very effective protest, and from my memory almost entirely peaceful, which is way more than can be said of other protests in 2020-21. Honking horns somehow caused more media outrage than actual riots It was surprising to see how quickly people turned around into saying that blue collar workers uniting and striking was a bad thing (with several suggestions that they be f…

> I have no faith in "yes the law has technical pathological cases but obviously nobody would do that". I used to, but I've just seen enough cases of the letter of the law being twisted with complete disregard to the spirit. E.g. practically any law to do with terrorism

I actually count this as the primary positive outcome of COVID.

So many people woke up to the reality of state power during that period. No more "this couldn't possibly happen here" or "they'd never!".

And even more after COVID, once the propaganda relented and the veil dropped even further. You'd have to be really obtuse (or otherwise invested) to not get the memo by now.

The pool of people who got a taste of the oppressive medicine has extended from "fringe" / "criminal" to wide swathes of "normal", middle class population. A costly lesson for sure, but extremely valuable.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#203

Post by jtc331 »

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 :-)

You’re absolutely correct.

It’s just irrelevant since you don’t need anything even approaching hyperinflation to have real world impact on people, and the real wage loss over the past several years is clearly in that category.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#204

Post by hliyan »

brutus1213 wrote: post #156
hliyan wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sri Lankan here. I personally experienced this last year and was very surprised. We Sri Lankans love to criticise ourselves for our wonky moral compasses, so when the early protests started, I stocked up on food and installed an extra CCTV camera, expecting widespread riots and looting. They never came. There were many organised protests, and protesters did clash with riot police around government buildings, but peop…

Very positive post. Thank you for sharing. My spouse and I both had a short part of our childhood in a poor and wonky South Asian country. We both feel that people (and ourselves) are far less helpful to our neighbours and strangers in the west vs. back home. It actually felt different in the 90s vs. today. I recall being in the west and someone offering me a ride when the subway was closed (like 25 years ago). I jus…

Thanks for sharing. That reminded me of another experience: around 2012, the front left wheel of my car ended up in a ditch by the side of the road. I was considering calling a tow truck, when a crowd gathered and told me to get in the car and hit reverse when they gave the signal. Then they proceeded to literally lift the car out of the ditch. I had barely enough time to mumble thanks before the crowd dispersed as quickly as it had assembled.

On the other hand, once in the New York subway, I was running toward the closing doors of a train, and some of the folks inside tried to keep the door open (which was not really possible) and clapped when I made it in by a hair's breadth. But then again it was a Friday night and many passengers at that time were a bit sloshed and quite friendly.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#205

Post by L_226 »

SilverBirch wrote: post #200
ZiiS wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless high inflation topples the banks.

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

I think you mean "finding someone who will pay you for your gold". WROL means people will just be looting your corpse.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#207

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

Gold is a scam. It’s an awful inflation hedge.

Success in the market as far as selling it to retail is more a demonstration at how successful certain elements in society have been peddling fear.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#208

Post by infecto »

noduerme wrote: post #111
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…

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…

No. The easier explanation is that Costco whose customers are regularly middle class and above, love to buy whatever Costco shoves in front of them. There are other observations to be made based on cultural demographics that could also explain why these get sold so quick. I don’t think any of it has to do with your conspiracy theories though.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#209

Post by chewmieser »

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…

I was wondering why these were selling out like that… I see gold for sale occasionally @ spot price but I’m not personally interested.

But with the 4% you mention it makes a lot more sense.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#210

Post by Ferret7446 »

leni536 wrote: post #90
anonzzzies wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's a relatively rare element that has a lot of practical and social value, consistently throughout almost the entire history of humanity. It is also extremely stable compared to things which may have more practical value such as food or water, which grants it a unique value as bartering currency without central governments. It is also fairly easy to appraise to a rough degree of purity due to its stability, softness, and density.
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