I’m interested in buying physical gold. I went to a jewelers and they told me you can buy gold bars at the US spot gold price (coins too, but they sell above the spot gold price due to the minting fees), no paperwork wanted or needed, and cash only.
Is anybody doing this, does anybody know anyone who’s doing this? For obvious reasons I’m a bit reluctant to just walk into a jewelers shop and part with a wad of cash for something I’ve never seen before, and also not knowing if this is the norm…
Hong Kong is a trading center for physical gold, so you should be able to get a better price there - do some research and find a commercial wholesaler. I would expect they would also be able to provide storage and associated insurance as well. Yes, holding physical gold is a money drain, similar to holding raw land and paying annual taxes.
Futures are a better way to gain exposure to gold IMO, because you can offset your holding costs by selling options against your position. And transaction costs are much lower. Might be worth looking into …
That is of course unless you just want to fondly your gold, or you are going to mint your own coins. To each his own.
If you were to buy physical gold at Taiwan Bank…can you do trades on it? ie…buying and selling at spot prices without the hassle of having to go to a safety deposit box and take your gold to a counter??? I’d like to trade it if possible, but under the jewelers option I’d have to walk between the jewelers and bank with gold or cash…which is an unworkable option.
Yes, you can. My own account is with Taiwan bank and it can be managed online during banking hours or of course at the bank manually. China Trust bank also offers this service. It takes about 1 week to activate a gold account. Be sure when setting it up that you tick all the boxes for the various account functions or otherwise you will have to keep going back and forth when you realize you need something.
There are only these two banks in Taiwan which are allowed to offer this gold account at this time as government regulates the banks as they must prove they have actual physical gold in reserve for account holders, unlike the ghost accounts in the U.S. which don’t contain anything.
Great! And what fees apply? And how do you/they calculate the current spot price?
So if I understand this correctly…you deposit money into an account, buy gold for full or a fraction of the deposit, buy at spot price only, sell at spot price only (newbie investing question…only when Taiwan markets are open?), can do this repeatedly and can do this without any restrictions?
Are both banks the same with this policy and fees etc., or am I better off going to a certain one?
Taiwan Bank: no fees. Current sell price can be viewed online at bot.com.tw. Eg. as of this moment 100g for NT$93,713. Shimending branch is best for gold buy. Their Ph. # 2311-1511
CNY is a peak time for gold buys so might be best to wait until after CNY to buy.
[quote]Japan sewage yields more gold than top mines
Fri Jan 30, 12:12 pm ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – Resource-poor Japan just discovered a new source of mineral wealth – sewage.
A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world’s best mines.
An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal.
The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grams of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.
That is a far higher gold content than Japan’s Hishikari Mine, one of the world’s top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining, which contains 20-40 grams of the precious metal per tonne of ore.
The prefecture is so far due to receive 5 million yen (39,075 pounds) for the gold, minus expenses.
It expects to earn about 15 million yen for the fiscal year to the end of March from the gold it has retrieved from the ashes of incinerated sludge.
“How much we actually receive will depend on gold prices at the time,” the official said.
Some gold industry officials expect prices this year to top the all-time high above $1,030 per ounce set in 2008, on buying by investors worried about the deepening economic downturn. (Reporting by Miho Yoshikawa; Editing by Hugh Lawson) [/quote]
http://www.bullionvault.com gets good press, if you’re happy with them holding the gold for you. Think that’s a lot easier than buying and storing it yourself here. Heck, you prob haven’t even got a back yard to bury it in.