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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

#381

Post by BeFlatXIII »

defrost wrote: post #147
alsodumb wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something I haven't thought of! Growing up in India, I know that majority of the Indians have their gold in the form of jewelry, and man I've seen people with so much jewelry it's borderline insane (coming from a guy who'd call himself minimalist). I certainly haven't seen people in any other country use gold/jewelry as much as Indians do.

If you'd travelled to Africa prior to 1930 (ish) you'd have seen many areas where copper and bronze bangles, rings, Manilla's were worn on the body being a dominant form of currency in a number of regions for some centuries. With gold, IIRC, some 45% of annual extraction goes to jewelry {decoration | investment}, roughly 10% goes to actual 'practical' use , and the rest goes to pure investment hoarding. In many ways…

So there's more parallels between PoW cryptocurrency and gold than the skeptics claim. TIL.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#382

Post by caeril »

refurb wrote: post #174
defrost wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't paraphrase and assume my position, it weakens your position to strawman in that manner. Depends on the circumstances - which specific protest in the US continuously occupied and blocked off major transport thoroughfares in the USofA for a month?

I’m not paraphrasing and assuming, I’m drawing conclusions from your statements. What do you mean “blocked off transport”? Is that the only form of protest deserving of harsh measures? Do you not think rioting in commercial centers and setting fire to businesses would rise to a similar level as blocking downtown streets as was done in Ottawa? Clearly you feel blocking city streets is sufficient, so burning down busin…

You can't have this discussion on HN.

It is firmly established precedent here that murdering people and burning down buildings is a superior form of protest to slightly inconveniencing commerce.

I don't know what you thought you'd accomplish arguing on the basis of net harm on this site, but that doesn't happen here. You need to only understand the oppressor/oppressed dynamic. Protesting injustice against ten million gainfully employed oppressors is unacceptable. Protesting injustice against a single violent criminal is praised.

Your downvotes are well and truly deserved. Not for being wrong, which you're not, but for not knowing your audience.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#383

Post by lesuorac »

bluGill wrote: post #341
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to sound hyperbolic but I feel once the US Dollar crashes entirely to the degree that it no longer serves as a "default currency" of sorts, that society will have broken down far enough that even the gold will be relatively worthless and the predominant goods of choice will be cans of dog food and beans.

For a year you will be correct. However after a year what is left will start to rebuild, and gold works better than beans (remember the cans are all eaten by now - we are talking beans someone actually grew). The problem with beans is they spoil (even carefully stored): eventually someone says "I have all the beans I need now, but I still want to sell my shoes". Using something like gold as an agreed medium of exchan…

Or instead of gold they can just trade the empty cans and if you happen to have enough of a functioning society they can also just trade on debt (see Tallysticks [1]).

Investing in gold as a hedge for the collapse of society is imo a really piss-poor idea. Either invest in stuff you can use (i.e. food) or stuff that will be demand (Ham radios, firearms). Gold is just not going to be the future medium of currency there isn't enough of it in practical sized values.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_money#Overview

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#384

Post by _8j50 »

sambazi wrote: post #52
_8j50 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shiny metal is better for trade than bartering because it is rare and easy to break down into smaller chunks. Its value is that people other than the persons trading with it are also willing to trade with it. Guns and ammo sound like a better alternative but their rarity is unknown and unpredictable and even less people might be willing to trade with them on a regular basis unless it's a literal warzone. Food perishe…

paying with a gun seems like a perfect recipe to get hold up for the things you just bought.

You don't load them with bullets and you load your gun (not the one you are trading) and be ready to fire it western style.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#385

Post by f33d5173 »

VHRanger wrote: post #272
idiotsecant wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will be true right up until the point it is not. The US dollar dominance is not a feature of the universe, it's a social agreement that, like any such agreement, will eventually come undone.

Cryptocurrencies are inherently bad currencies because of price volatility (except stable coins). That also makes them good speculative assets fwiw

The price volatility is an aspect of the fact that existing cryptocurrencies aren't very useful for paying for things, so that the only thing they're useful for is speculating. A cryptocurrency that lacked speculation and which was widely used for payment would be much more stable.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#386

Post by _8j50 »

bombcar wrote: post #228
sambazi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

paying with a gun seems like a perfect recipe to get hold up for the things you just bought.

When society gets to that point looters and robbers get bullet. There’s a class of crime that can only really exist in a rule-of-law situation, without that people just get summarily executed.

But what if the looters are all armed? Their power in numbers means if you shoot one the resr will overwhelm you so they can expect to not be shot for that reason alone. In reality, the looters become gangs you pay for "protection" and they will be your "police" against others

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#387

Post by caeril »

cammikebrown wrote: post #326
Aeolun wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t imagine you’d ever sell these, but what beats having a gold bar in your home? A very tiny one, but still.

Anything with utility? Anything at all?

Most people have things in their home, that they paid for, that have negative utility.

Televisions, video game consoles, etc.

A 1/2 oz gold coin is a superior investment to a PlayStation 5. Sure, it won't generate any yield, and has some degree of illiquidity, but it won't waste N hours per day of your limited, and rapidly expiring life, that you could have spent on more productive pursuits.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#388

Post by cammikebrown »

caeril wrote: post #387
cammikebrown wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything with utility? Anything at all?

Most people have things in their home, that they paid for, that have negative utility. Televisions, video game consoles, etc. A 1/2 oz gold coin is a superior investment to a PlayStation 5. Sure, it won't generate any yield, and has some degree of illiquidity, but it won't waste N hours per day of your limited, and rapidly expiring life, that you could have spent on more productive pursuits.

Yeah, why have fun when I could be Generating Profit? Sorry I enjoy recreation.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#389

Post by tim333 »

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.

You can buy things like GLD https://www.spdrgoldshares.com/

an ETF backed by physical gold. Probably safer and cheaper than getting bars from Costco.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#390

Post by marcosdumay »

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…

People value those when they don't trust the finance institutions to keep their paper-gold promises.

Why people are distrusting those institutions, and on the US for all places... that's a question for sociology or psychology. I strongly suspect the social network cultural bubbles are behind this, but don't have much to say there.

(Anyway, I'm not an economist, but I've studied it a bit. This question is quite simple anyway, and it's something that has happened before, so it's pretty well covered.)

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