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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

#331

Post by aeyes »

altacc wrote: post #243
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…

I notice this when travelling the world and it's one of the main reasons I think the many of the arguments for cryptocurrency are flawed. I've used decades old dollar bills in SE Asia that have been pretty much detached from the US economy for decades and have held value better than bitcoin ever has. The value of the dollar is linked not just to the US economy but also a global black economy and that has some unoffic…

That might be a thing in countries with less stable currencies. You won't see anyone with dollars in Europe or Japan.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#332

Post by jonathanstrange »

spuzz wrote: post #289
kotaKat wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hi, Costco. We would like to subpoena you for the customer records for every person that bought gold. Note that 'would like to' means 'are going to, and you will comply'. Love, the US Government."

"Hello I'm agent smith from federal agency group, costco said you bought some gold, where is it?" "lost it" "Mind if we search your house?" "i've known you were going to ever since I bought the gold; knock yourself out. Just please don't disturb my antique collection of locked filing cabinets. They're all empty but the keys are in that big pile over there"

You sound overly confident. It's not as if federal agents never had to look for hidden money stashes before...

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#333

Post by pjc50 »

noduerme wrote: post #304
pjc50 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argentina has 100% annual inflation and going up while the US has less than 10% and going down. The USD is not going anywhere spectacular, because there is no more stable country to flee to. The one thing that can reliably trigger inflation in almost any country is oil/gas shortages on the global market, and you can't hedge that with precious metals nor store a 20 year supply in your house.

>> the US has less than 10% and going down First of all, there's no evidence it's going down. Secondly, 10% is a wild figure. That's far over the breach for the population to begin to alter their behaviour by either hoarding or spending. My point was, the mentality of coping with even 10% inflation is very foreign to Americans. But it's a learned skill, and people will learn it. When they do, it will resemble Argenti…

> there's no evidence it's going down

https://www.statista.com/statistics/273418/unadjusted-monthl...

Prices won't go down, but the rate of change of prices can go down.

> begin to alter their behaviour by either hoarding or spending.

Median savings is not huge: https://www.usnews.com/banking/articles/the-average-savings-...

Not to mention that middle America has fixed rate 30 year mortgages, an absolutely extraordinary product that means their payments are fixed in nominal dollars for a huge length of time. So if they get a raise that keeps up with inflation, inflation actually makes them "richer".

The effects are largely dominated by gas and energy prices, which Americans really will get upset over but seem to be recovering. I don't think there's any realistic way you can prevent against 10% gas price jumps and still have a free market.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#334

Post by trgn »

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…

Maybe it's better understood as plate, not coin. Dishwear put it in a burghers display case most of the year, that can, in times of war or distress be used as money. It has a sentimental value primarily, nonetheless, it has a veneer (pun intended) of true intrinsic value as well.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#335

Post by noduerme »

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…

Poster you're responding to, here. I completely agree that the US is not in imminent danger of hyperinflation, so long as it continues to assert itself through foreign policy and maintains the bully pulpit of democracy and the inertia of empire it's developed by putting boots on the ground anywhere its material interests are seriously threatened. Do you see me buying Argentine bonds? No, I have a Roth and a 401k.

Does that mean that I don't believe this country is trending - psychologically in terms of its money supply - toward an Argentine way of thinking and battling?

To become Argentine isn't a total collapse in any sense. It's the disappearance of trust in the currency - on and off, slowly, over years - without actually ceasing to use the currency for day to day transactions. That is what I'm referring to, and that is what is indicated by people buying gold bars at Costco. So yes, I agree that there isn't a better economy or market to put my money in. But that's not a ringing endorsement, either.

[edit] Also, to portray what I made as a fairly nuanced argument about Americans losing faith in the dollar, as if I were a Watchtower devotee or a maniacal doomsday conspiracy theorist, is disingenuous, and a poor-faith argument.

Truly, you don't really get how it works in Argentina or how similar it is to 10% inflation here, unless / until it were to hit 20% inflation here, and smart people would begin to look at what the dynamics were in a similar scenario, in another western country, and how they played out economically and politically. It's something you should look at whether you believe it's possible here or not. There's a vast degree of hubris associated with your declaration that it can't happen in America.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#336

Post by dahfizz »

xnorswap wrote: post #142
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…

By not demanding better legislation, you're still being ripped off. What you describe as a "very nice low rate" is higher than the legislated EU wide limit. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/fees-for-...

But I get minimum 2% cash back when I use my card. Prices are 0.4% higher because of the fee, but I still come out way ahead. You can easily get 5% back on gas, groceries, Amazon purchases, etc. American credit cards are awesome if you know how to use them.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#337

Post by albert_e »

supermatt wrote: post #149
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 love the idea of coins, but I wish they didnt have a value written on them - 200 AUD in that case - about 30x less than its material value. I can just imagine someone inheriting my coins and spending them for face value!

> I can just imagine someone inheriting my coins and spending them for face value!

self-deprecating joke about your genes :)

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#338

Post by pjc50 »

mistrial9 wrote: post #275
pjc50 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argentina has 100% annual inflation and going up while the US has less than 10% and going down. The USD is not going anywhere spectacular, because there is no more stable country to flee to. The one thing that can reliably trigger inflation in almost any country is oil/gas shortages on the global market, and you can't hedge that with precious metals nor store a 20 year supply in your house.

> the US has less than 10% if you read the plea from the Argentine above.. they say "peer networks to measure value" .. it implies that the entire inflation is NOT one single number. It is in sector by sector, with local "shadows" .. In the USA, it is housing obviously in large populated areas, but also health care and the cost of a University education. Those measures have climbed triple digits while yes, petrol and…

Sectoral inflation is a real issue! But that's the one thing that buying gold can't help you with, because it necessarily means there's something different about that market rather than the money supply as a whole.

> health care and the cost of a University education

See "Baumol cost disease" - things which require highly skilled human inputs tend to get more expensive as automation makes everything else cheaper.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#339

Post by eloisant »

altacc wrote: post #243
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…

I notice this when travelling the world and it's one of the main reasons I think the many of the arguments for cryptocurrency are flawed. I've used decades old dollar bills in SE Asia that have been pretty much detached from the US economy for decades and have held value better than bitcoin ever has. The value of the dollar is linked not just to the US economy but also a global black economy and that has some unoffic…

The USD retains its value because it's used as a global currency, it's as simple as that.

Not because US bills are used in SE Asia or other places but because big transactions (like oil) are done in USD.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#340

Post by RandomLensman »

noduerme wrote: post #304
pjc50 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argentina has 100% annual inflation and going up while the US has less than 10% and going down. The USD is not going anywhere spectacular, because there is no more stable country to flee to. The one thing that can reliably trigger inflation in almost any country is oil/gas shortages on the global market, and you can't hedge that with precious metals nor store a 20 year supply in your house.

>> the US has less than 10% and going down First of all, there's no evidence it's going down. Secondly, 10% is a wild figure. That's far over the breach for the population to begin to alter their behaviour by either hoarding or spending. My point was, the mentality of coping with even 10% inflation is very foreign to Americans. But it's a learned skill, and people will learn it. When they do, it will resemble Argenti…

A fair amount of Americans where adults in the second half of the 1970s and early 1980s... it isn't that new of an experience for them.
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