Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

Post by m101 » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 11:34 AM UTC

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…

Post by hcks » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 11:39 AM UTC

bsder wrote: post #143

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'm really left scratching my head about people who buy gold to hold physically and personally rather than as an investment. In any situation where it might be relevant, how are you going to sell your gold? For example, if you bought one of those bars right now , how would you then sell that bar again right now ? And, if things really are completely collapsing, nobody wants gold . They'll want something much more imm…

Post by Foxhuls » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 11:45 AM UTC

robertk wrote: post #206

denlekke wrote: post #40

i wonder if people are buying these to meet minimum spend requirements for credit card sign up bonuses and reselling right away("manufactured spend")

Costco only takes cash and debit, not credit.

Post by hospitalJail » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 11:47 AM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #107

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…

What are you basing that claim on? Do you have evidence that Argentinians are not buying gold nor Bitcoin? I don't know about Argentina, but Turkey also has a massive inflation problem and Bitcoin is huge over there. They probably have the highest rate of Bitcoin ownership per capita in the world (or it has to be close).

Post by koheripbal » Fri, Sep 29, 2023, 11:50 AM UTC

ZiiS wrote: post #164

eva_cananim wrote: post #162

My understanding is that holding physical gold is a big hassle when you want to sell. Sensible buyers will want to verify that it is real and not gold-plated tungsten. Fake gold bars are common. If you want to hold gold as a hedge against high inflation then you want "good delivery" gold, which stays in a vault with chain of custody records.

Unless high inflation topples the banks.