The five worst ways to buy gold

DiggerUK

RDB,
Gold is referred to as a safe haven more often than silver. Many go for silver, instead of gold, as a safe haven despite this.
We didn't choose gold as having the best potential over silver, it was the bulk, storage and VAT that decided for us.

What you say about silver could be true.
It's a judgement call. As well as a choice of PM.
Some cover both bases with an investment ratio between Au and Ag.

I don't think choosing either of them is a bad investment with the situation as it is, I'm sure we will both be happy. Just remains to be seen who will be smiling the most.

cheerfulcat

RDB wrote: »

DiggerUK wrote: »

But dont you think silver has much better growth potential.

Looking at the last high point for precious metals in 1980 gold was $900 and silver was $50 troy oz. Soon after prices fell to $250 gold and $5 silver.

Gold is now back up to the previos high but silver is not yet. Its still less than $15 but will be up to where gold is or more soon.

Pretty sure that $50 was because of the Bunker Hunt mad attempt to corner the silver market.

crazygaijin

DiggerUK wrote: »

Some cover both bases with an investment ratio between Au and Ag.

Sorry I dont know, but what do you mean Au or Ag?

Looking at the 2 options

1. buying physical silver and paying delivery and vat and then storage risks/problems (can you sleep soundly)

2. buying Perth Mint certificates where you actually pay spot price no premium no delivery no extra charges at all, no drama to sell quick when the next super spike comes.

Its a no brainer, unless Im missing something, if so please post what it is?

jon3001

crazygaijin wrote: »

Sorry I dont know, but what do you mean Au or Ag?

Au is gold.
Ag is silver.

sabretoothtigger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_as_an_investment#Silver_price

wow if only i'd seen to buy gold in bulk instead of the ftse i would have been considerably richer, pity they dont quote the price daily on the news or I might have thought of it even

Are there long term historical figures for the gold price in £ readily available by any chance?



Perth mint has a spread I thought.
I'd rather buy randgold shares then hold physical gold tbh, they just got the go ahead to take over a Canadian smaller mine together with anglogold ( paulson the guy who shorted hbos bought this mine )

DiggerUK

STT,
How you keeping.
If you check through these sites you will find that if you had put all your money in gold at the March 17th 2008 spike, you would be about 50 pound an ounce up now. If you had bought Feb 20th 2009 you would be about 125 down. If you had bought in 2008 and sold in 2009 you would have made 185 an ounce.

Hindsight, don't you just love it.

On LBMA click silver/gold fixings for prices back to 1968
On Kitco go to the historical charts. They are in $US only, back to 1833.

http://www.lbma.org.uk/stats/currstat

http://www.kitco.com/charts/

Thought you had these in your favourites already.

DiggerUK

crazygaijin wrote: »

Its a no brainer, unless I'm missing something, if so please post what it is?

It's just uber cautious old birds like me not trusting somebody else to hold their PM's.

The storage charge for a cash box is 40 pound a year on average, plus about 10 pound to access.
Fine for gold as it is small and cute. A 250 gramme cast ingot is the size of a custard cream. You can get a lot more custard creams in a box than you could ever afford. Not so good for silver due to bulk.

Most paper gold carries charges at entry and exit. Check PMC T & C's closely. I remember them as a lawyers wet dream.

sabretoothtigger

If you had bought Feb 20th 2009 you would be about 125 down. If you had bought in 2008 and sold in 2009 you would have made 185 an ounce.

I dont think many would have guessed buying in the march spike was a good time to make money on gold, that is due to our pound devaluing

I'll take the lbma GBP prices and put it into a graph maybe, thanks for the reminder. Should help me get a better idea of the direction outside of the dollar

DiggerUK

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

I'll take the lbma GBP prices and put it into a graph maybe, thanks for the reminder. Should help me get a better idea of the direction outside of the dollar

If your a dab hand at charts, any chance you could integrate it with the forex rate. It's the currency fluctuations that put *pog all over the shop.

*pog, Price of gold.

Jonbvn

DiggerUK wrote: »

I'm in the "if you can't hold it you don't own it" camp.

If we're playing that game, then if Armageddon is due next Friday physical gold would be as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.;)

With guns, shelter, water and food you may survive.:p