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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

#181

Post by oblio »

rchtwlm wrote: post #57
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…

>t for the most part if violence breaks out, it's organised, mainly in the form of civil wars or local power struggles. Yes, as we all know Sri Lanka, Argentina and Venezuela are all known for their low degree of violence.

Violent places are not violent all the time, to all the people, in all the regions. Violence is frequently very localized, even in those very violent places.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#182

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

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.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#183

Post by robertlagrant »

defrost wrote: post #179
robertlagrant wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The line crossed, in the view of many people who might have otherwise supported them, was the nature of their protest Am I understanding this right? They think the government should step in and freeze the bank accounts of people who haven't been tried or found guilty of a crime, and who just inconvenienced them?

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

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#184

Post by defrost »

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…

> I’m drawing conclusions from your statements.

Flawed conclusions.

> What do you mean “blocked off transport”

See the upthread link to the Canadian Charter. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_2_of_the_Canadian_Ch...

Follow the links to see how "freedom to assemble" allows the "Right to protest" but doesn't guarantee the a right to "substantial disruption".

Unions (for example) have (location dependant) a right to strike, to protest, but not a right to block access to a business.

> Do you not think rioting in commercial centers and setting fire to businesses ...

For which specific protest was this a stated core goal of that protest? Surely these were incidental actions by third parties that happened coincidental with otherwise peaceful protests?

In the Canadian case under discussion the entire purpose was specifically to blockade, inconvenience, and shutdown key areas until their demands were met - this took place over the course of a month.

Again, which which specific protest in the US continuously occupied and blocked off major transport thoroughfares in the USofA for a month?

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#185

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

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-...

Funny thing is I'm still getting between 3% and 5% cashback on my US cards that I use in the EU. Those interchange fee limits are probably EU issued cards only.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#186

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

atdrummond wrote: post #68
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.

I’ve lived in two dozen countries and the US is the most community oriented of them all outside major cities. US charitable giving alone suggests your view of the country as individualism run amok is likely not the whole story.

The biggest share of US charitable giving goes to megachurches and other religious institutions who don't need it.

A fair amount of the rest goes on political lobbying and influencing.

The proportion that goes on direct no-strings plain simple humanitarian work is not all that huge.

Most of the US population lives in cities. If the US wasn't "individualism run amok" it wouldn't have tent cities of homeless people, and its health industry wouldn't be bankrupting half a million people a year. (For example.)

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#187

Post by arcticbull »

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…

> If I had an hour, I'd like to expound on the significance of Americans buying precious metal at a loss through a giant vertical monopoly.

Costco occasionally sells gold below spot if Reddit is to be believed. Most of the time it's right around spot. These 1oz bars were going for $1900 give or take, which is spot give or take. It's fairly common to see a small ~$50 ish premium on small quantities like this, around 2-3%.

Costco is also not a monopoly, and it's not really vertically integrated - these bars come from PAMP, a Swiss company.

You can get gold for exactly spot if you have a lot of money - just buy a futures contract and stand for delivery.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#188

Post by lotsofpulp »

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…

> 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.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#190

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

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…

Surprised you didn't go with the 5oz 'Super Pit' at $9,500 USD.

https://www.perthmint.com/shop/bullion/bullion-coins/super-p...

The regent on the obverse is a standard feature of all Australian coins.

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