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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

#131

Post by NoNotTheDuo »

Dig1t wrote: post #27

>Rose noted that the company seems to have accelerated its offerings of dried foods and other survivalist goods at a time when worries about the future are running high >For example, the company markets a 150-serving emergency food preparedness kit that could come in handy, you know, just in case. Gold meshes with that type of product. >“They’ve done their market research. I think it’s a very clever way to get their…

> At $60 each (in the store, the online price is higher for some reason)

Shipping is included in the online price.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#132

Post by pjc50 »

rullelito wrote: post #72
nly wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of wealthy buy these by the tube. Being legal tender they are free of VAT and CGT on sale, which isn't true of investment grade gold biscuits.

False, you pay CGT on investment gold in almost all countries.

But not on UK gold, silver, and platinum coins in the UK. https://www.royalmint.com/gold-price/capital-gains-tax-on-in... ; mine have, to my surprise, done better than my stock portfolio and almost as well as my house as investments.

(just don't buy new ones, you have to pay 20% VAT on those which is silly)

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#133

Post by herbst »

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…

Holding Gold is kinda just like holding a foreign, well accepted, currency. As many unofficially countries use dollars because they are more stable than their own currency.

You can buy and sell gold anytime at the bank (at least here in central Europe) just like any other currency.

So if you don't trust your own currency it kinda seems like a logical next step. Should the dollar crash it's likely gold won't crash at the same rate, at least not for long.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#134

Post by herbst »

rullelito wrote: post #70
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…

Its value has gone up in most currencies in most time frames. People don't buy gold to buy groceries, to eat it, or to use it as a tool. They buy it so that 20 or 30 years later it has roughly kept its value, i.e. it has performed much better than holding currency. Buying land requires maintenance, and probably comes with some ongoing tax implications.

Also 'anyone' knows which land you own, nobody knows how much gold you hide in your closet.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#135

Post by worstestes »

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…

"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 credit card policy

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#136

Post by defrost »

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…

> blue collar workers uniting and striking

don't get to close off access to and from work sites for days and weeks on end, nor do they get to block customers.

> protesting government authoritarianism is

A-OK in my book - but blocking intersections and pissing off fellow citizens and stopping their free travel is not.

The line crossed, in the view of many people who might have otherwise supported them, was the nature of their protest - not the fact that they were protesting and not the words that they were saying.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#137

Post by nwiswell »

worstestes wrote: post #135
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…

"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.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#138

Post by adamredwoods »

mrkeen wrote: post #103

> Regardless of the price, gold is selling like hotcakes This is symmetrical / zero-sum, right? Consumers are (allegedly) buying lots of gold for $x. And Costco is getting rid of lots of gold for $x.

I think Costco is making profit from selling these, but their margin is smaller than other places. I wonder how they paid for transportation? Gold is not light.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#139

Post by AdamN »

ifdefdebug wrote: post #87
jansan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Doubling your money over 15 years is a pretty low ROI. Even conservative investments are expected to double every decade.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#140

Post by pjc50 »

Symbiote wrote: post #21
spapas82 wrote: post #9

Here in Greece when people want go they'll go to a bank and buy British gold pounds ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_(British_coin) ). I'm not sure there's a limit; you can buy as many as you want.

In Britain they're called "gold sovereigns", though I've never heard of anyone owning one — only from references in James Bond films and so on. I wasn't aware the nominal value was £1.

The Q suitcase with the 50 gold sovereigns from From Russia With Love, was it?

Ironically the plot of Goldfinger relies on something which no longer exists: capital controls. The evil Auric Goldfinger was trying to circumvent British control of the export of money by hiding gold in car panels.

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