Opinions About Gold, please

Hey guys, I'm pretty much into silver and stay away from Gold, simply 'cause I dont have the money for it. I've learned much from the "silver" side of PM Bug, so I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to purchasing PMs. I would, however; like some opinions if I could solicit them concerning small quantities of Au. Note that I do realize the importance of an assayer's stamp as it relates to the actual sellng of the metal down the road, but... what about something like this (see link):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/999-Fine-1-...238?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6fd17e66
It's obvious there's no assayer stamp. Should I steer clear of something like this?
Thanks

Mark said:

Hey guys, I'm pretty much into silver and stay away from Gold, simply 'cause I dont have the money for it. I've learned much from the "silver" side of PM Bug, so I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to purchasing PMs. I would, however; like some opinions if I could solicit them concerning small quantities of Au. Note that I do realize the importance of an assayer's stamp as it relates to the actual sellng of the metal down the road, but... what about something like this (see link):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/999-Fine-1-...238?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6fd17e66
It's obvious there's no assayer stamp. Should I steer clear of something like this?
Thanks

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1) There are 480 grains in a troy ounce. Ignoring shipping, 480 * $14 = $6720 per ounce!

2) There are big hazards of dealing with Ebay, non-assayed items. I would not recommend for anyone not experienced in this area.

Check out the 1/10th ounce gold eagles to start out with:
http://www.apmex.com/Category/292/Gold_Eagles___1_10_oz_2012__Prior__.aspx

They have a bit of premium to buy, but they also usually have a premium to sell back.

You likely need magnifying glasses to see 1 grain of gold. It is *tiny* and very easy to lose. The only fractional gold I ever bought was a 1/10 ounce Gold Eagle (~ 48 grains) and it is soooo small! I can't imagine owning bits 1/48 the size.

I would be leery of buying small products like that on ebay. There are a lot of plated products being sold as bullion there.

For small amounts of gold I would recommend first sticking with eagles, and secondly buying well known fractions such as PAMP.

You can get a 1/10 oz eagle for the price of a bit more than 6 ounces of silver, or for a bit more than 15 oz of silver you can pick up a 1/4 oz eagle.

Or, you can take the ADK approach and accumulate silver, then trade for gold when the ratio is good.

ADK

I've heard one advice on gold - if you cannot afford to buy at least one OZ at a time, than gold probably is not for you at the moment. The markups are just too high, to even break even on your investment you would need quite a big spike in spot price.

Silver is a good alternative in such case, especially, with historically high gold/silver ratios today. If gold goes up significantly, but still within not-end-of-current-economic-paradigm way, it will take silver on the ride with it.

Again, gold was used traditionally for big transactions/big money savings, where silver wouldn't be practical, for the weight/size reasons. That's gold's best match. Trying to split it into smaller chunks, just for the sake of owning gold, when you have difficulties to scrap together enough dough to make for one coin - a little bit of a "solution looking for a problem", rather than the other way around, if you ask me.

If you want to own gold for speculative reasons (just about the only reason I could think of for buying < 1 OZ), you could also consider allocated online retailer/keeper, like for example Bullion Vault. Should be the most cost effective way, and pretty safe too, since we are not talking about exposing one's whole pension worth of savings to a counterparty risk.

regards,

Understood and it all makes sense. Kinda what I thought.

I like your signature Mark - I would also add another line to it: "Never mistake intelligence for wisdom"

I think if makes a nice gift for all your buddies on the message board.

bushi said:

I like your signature Mark - I would also add another line to it: "Never mistake intelligence for wisdom"

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I personally believe wisdom relates to education, but only to a degree. Wisdom, like education, is usually acquired. You don't enter the world wise. More viscerally, wisdom could be defined as education properly applied to intelligence. Intelligence is endowed by the creator. Education is endowed by man. Look at the rhetoric being spewed forth from our academic institutions. Thought, without reason. I think the two combined produce wisdom.
But then again, I used to like "Green Acres" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

Mark, buy as much as you can afford (that is, that you will not have to sell in case things go wrong for you) as income comes in! I have been doing that a long time (decades).

Over time your pile will add up nicely...

PMBug said:

You likely need magnifying glasses to see 1 gram of gold.

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Most smaller gold products come in an assay card. I have a handful of 1 gram bars that I got for a good deal at the coin shop, nothing wrong with that... would make trade easier if SHTF.

Mark buy what you can afford I wouldnt recommend the 1 grain and 5 grain pieces on eBay but sometimes you can get a good deal on 1 gram 2.5 gram and 5 gram bars, remember to calculate what the spot price of what you are buying, before making any offers or buying them.... fyi a gram of gold today is going for about $51.66 at this time.

I meant grain, not gram. D'oh!

I've seen the "grams" on assay cards and wondered about that. Think I'm just gonna stick with silver. I truly (IMHO) believe I'll get a better return on my investment down the road ITS does actually HTF. Gold's already too high.

Silver for investment.
Gold for preserving.
Wise folk learn how to balance the two to suit their personal needs.

If you don't want to invest a lot of money altogether, then silver will be a better option as they come much in quantity for less money.

Watch magazine ads. Sometimes there will be a good deal on 1/10 oz Au Eagles,mostly from Beaumont Texas dealers.They'll try to sell you numismatics & probably call a few times to sell overpriced coins but you can usually get a good deal on up to 10 Eagles.
Last deal I received was 10-1/10 oz GAE's for $1710 shipped,spot was around $1720 at the time.
You'd be pretty hard pressed to find 1/10 oz at $171 each even now.
I've done this & they always delivered,but...DYODD.

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS!!!