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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

#51

Post by ArtTimeInvestor »

defrost wrote: post #48
ArtTimeInvestor wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that people in Argentina are flocking to Dollar and not to Bitcoin or Gold? When I look at the search trends in Argentina, I see Bitcoin in a very volatile longterm uptrend, Gold in a longterm downtrend and the Dollar being constantly a distant third: https://trends.google.de/trends/explore?date=all&geo=AR&q=go... Over the 20 years which the Peso has been devaluing, Bitcoin has outpaced the others by…

They don't think people in Argentina are flocking to Gold, they wrote: > and people are flocking to ... US Dollars. Not gold,

Yup, sorry, fixed.

The search trends are the same for Dollar vs Bitcoin. Strongly in favor of Bitcoin.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#52

Post by sambazi »

_8j50 wrote: post #26
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

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.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#53

Post by ggm »

philwelch wrote: post #42
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…

When I looked into this, the consensus seemed to be that the best form of gold, if you want to physically hold it yourself, is gold coins minted by reputable national mints. American Gold Eagles, South Africa Krugerrands, etc. These trade at close to spot. And a 1 oz Krugerrand or Gold Eagle is about $20,000. If you can afford enough volume of those that it’s difficult to secure them, you can afford to secure them.

Funny story: when we bought our second house we found the previous owners had left high in a cupboard a small trumpet case containing a trumpet, a set of freemasons regalia and about 20 krugerrands.

We took it round to the old owners new house and passed it all over. They seemed happy. I think I'd have struggled to keep it the law not withstanding.

Three months later we found a box of (from what I am told, illegal, modified) small arms bullets hidden behind the wardrobe. We handed that into the police.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#54

Post by true_religion »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #50
thaumasiotes wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The prepper scenario of "I've gotta defend myself against mobs out to raid for food" really doesn't happen. > Maybe a civil war breaks out, maybe there are food shortages, but for the most part if violence breaks out, it's organised, mainly in the form of civil wars. If a war breaks out, the tradition is that the armies will raid you for food. The issue was never that other locals would do it. A war breaking out is…

Ah yes, my gun and my gold will protect me against the organised army out to raid for food. That's what I meant -- people get organised very quickly. In Rwanda, people quickly formed armies and militias, the same in Ethiopia, Columbia, and literally every other time this has happened before . One guy is not gonna accomplish much. Civil war is also, by most measures, the least likely outcome. Usually civil war causes…

You’re pointing out yourself the usefulness of being one guy with a gun.

Once you need to form a militia, you bring your gun and join your neighbors. That way you can actually resist the army. They will do more than just raid for food. They raid for people: conscription, slavery, and “comfort”.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#55

Post by sambazi »

dvh wrote: post #38
codersfocus wrote: post #30

A couple days ago I was admiring the heavy aluminum pan I was throwing out because of nonstick coating issues. Over a hundred years ago, that pan would have been something only for the most wealthy in the world. Only a matter of time before the same happens to gold

Aluminum is 3rd most abundant element in earth crust. Gold is 75th most abundant. I don't think so. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Ear...

pure gold does exist in nature, pure aluminum not so much

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#56

Post by [deleted] »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #35
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

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…

[deleted]

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#57

Post by rchtwlm »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #35
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

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.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#58

Post by bryanrasmussen »

e63f67dd-065b wrote: post #35
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

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…

most of the prepper fantasies seem to revolve around societal collapse - not financial - loss of electrical power grid etc.

secondly it is true that most short term instability results in people pulling together, but I do remember a study from about 30 years ago on long term multi-generational social collapse (I think it was Eritrea) in which the population became much less let's pull together to get through this and much more f* you I got mine.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#59

Post by cpursley »

satellite2 wrote: post #39
Ekaros wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…

You don't need to lose trust in the system as a hole. Only in the fact that the system serves you. Bank accounts gets frozen all the time and for a variety of reasons.

Like supporting the free speech rights of some truckers (now matter how misguided and annoying they might have been). De-banking people for wrongthink is absolutely terrifying, because any of us could be next depending on the mood of the current government.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#60

Post by aspyct »

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 value. Wouldn't you rather buy a piece of land? At least you can pitch your tent or grow potatoes there.

Am I missing something?

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