So, how does one buy gold/silver?!?

[midnight armadillo]

I keep hearing 'buy gold, buy silver'.

If I'm going to start plunking down some greenbacks on the stuff, how do I do it?? Where do I go? Do I actually purchase coins or some sort of 'silver certificate' (which I recall my parents having a stack of)? Thanks!

[malmapus]

1. I seem to recall jewerly stores

My ex and I had a collection of Canadian gold coins, we would get from this jewerly store that was somewhat close to us (we lived in SF and the shop we got from was in Oakland).

[mattclearing]

2. I've bought from Austin coins before.

They are reliable and do tons of business...will even buy the gold back from you.

http://www.austincoins.com/

Edit: You can buy gold derivatives, but personally, I prefer the physical sort...it is fun to play with.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. I believe there are gold "denominated" CDs. Try Everbank.

[ret5hd]

4. go to a local reputable coin store...

tell them you want some 'junk gold' (gold coins with no real "collectable" value...kugerands, canadian maple leafs, etc). They will also have some silver ounces...they look like coins but are (often) minted by the mining company.

For the gold, expect to pay $5-$15 over spot. For silver, expect to pay $.30 or so over spot.

This has been my experience, in my area.

[Dissenting_Prole]

23. Canadian Maple Leafs are hardly "junk"

at $10.50 an ounce. Plus tax if you live in Ontario.

http://www.colonialacres.com/cgi-bin/dispitem.cgi?item=2005_SML

[leveymg]

5. How much you want to buy?

If you have shrink-wrapped bundles of hundreds on pallets out in the garage, may I suggest futures options at the Chicago mercantile exchange. If this is raid the piggybank time, then silver or gold coins will do.

I think there are some real Silver and Gold bugs around here, who can tell you more.

Happy hoarding. ;-)

[ret5hd]

7. Gold, bullets, and store-bought whiskey...

three things you can always barter with.

[leveymg]

9. Never leave home without them. n/t

[serryjw]

8. Everything I'm reading says

you want to buy gold bullion and TAKE POSSESSION of it..Don't buy certificates

[BlueEyedSon]

10. Extremely inconvenient and theft-prone

[serryjw]

14. RFLOL

you don't keep it at home!

[On the Road]

6. Another Way is to Buy Stocks in Gold Companies

if you have an online account, it's pretty easy. Stocks in gold companies tend to rise and fall with the price of gold, and getting in and out is fast and cheap.

I tend to stay away from gold, but a lot of people like it. Just don't buy when there's a panic, but when you feel there's a longer-term chance that the market will tank.

[BlueEyedSon]

11. Q: is this an investment/hedge or are you a survivalist awaiting the

total disintegration of civil order?

[midnight armadillo]

12. Investment hedge

My 401k is nearly flatlined for the year. I just re-allocated a large chunk of it to overseas funds (our plan has a choice of about a dozen total funds) that are actually turning a profit for the year. I put about 5% of my monthly salary into that fund, I was thinking to divert about 2% to gold or silver purchases.

I'm not quite ready to start stocking up on guns & whiskey ;-) My company is doing very well and I have no particular economic worries for at least the next year, aside from eliminating credit card debt.

I've also come to believe that housing will start to come down to earth between high heating costs (and cooling come summer) and rising interest rates. Ideally I'd have an appreciating investment at the same time...

[BlueEyedSon]

13. Then i would look at a CD or ETF which tracks gold or gold stocks

you may be able to hold ETFs in your 401k (not sure about a CD in a 401k)

try "gold" and "etf" in google

common symbols are

GLD
XAU
IAU
HUI

look them up on your favorite stock website

[eclipsenow.org]

21. What's wrong with being a survivalist?

What's wrong with being a survivalist? :-(

My understanding is that the "Doomer" category of peak oil aware citizen is growing the longer we leave peak oil unaddressed. "Peakniks" such as myself are getting desperate, and I for one can understand the sense of frustration and desperation that drives some peakniks to become survivalist. The bizarre thing is I just jokingly referred to buying gold in another forum discussing superannuation.

I certainly hope the "Doomers" are wrong, but the longer we live in Denial, the worse the outcome will be. The Hirsch report says it takes 10 years of a "war time economy" to even mitigate the economic effects of peak oil. I have an economist mate who thinks that America is heading into "the perfect storm" and he's a {{{positive}}} peaknik!

http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/2005/08/perfect-storm-approaches-america.html

[Lowell]

15. I've been buying bullion for years

I collect coins when the economy is good and bullion when it is poor. When inflation and high energy cost go up the numismatic market suffers. People can't afford to buy their coins because they have to spend their spare cash on things like food and gas. When this happens the numismatic value of coins drop, sometimes to the point that the silver content of the coin will be more than the collectors value.

I began buying silver bullion about twenty years ago. I've watched it remain stable throughout times of economic instability. But for bullion investments to be worth anything you have to own and possess the metals. If you invest in it on the market all you are doing is leasing the bullion, at a cost, and it is only a paper transaction.

Bullion can be a hassle to store. After a while it takes up a lot of space and is quite heavy. I like to buy 100 oz and Kilo bars. These offer the best price. The best thing about silver is that it is very easy to liquidate when the time comes. If you are careful you can get good deals on ebay. You can also sell your bars quickly on ebay. If you buy through a broker or dealer you will buy on a margin that is always a little higher than spot. If you sell to them you will always get the lower margin price.

[sendero]

16. Same here...

... although I just started buying metals a couple years back.

I wouldn't even consider buying any kind of paper. There are so many things that can go wrong, it just isn't worth it.

I first bought a quantity of silver bullion coins from a local dealer. The markup (price in excess of spot silver (commodity) price) was really high. I've since added to my collection using ebay. You have to be careful on ebay, but if you know what you are doing it is really pretty safe (buy only from established ebayers with lots of positive feedback, no worse than 97%).

If you buy from a dealer, there is a positive id made of you and a record. If you buy from ebay, probably not.

But seriously, the possibility of an inflationary spiral taking hold is no longer remote. Whatever you buy, TAKE POSSESSION.

[Lowell]

17. My same experience

I have also noticed that you are much better off buying larger bullion bars, ie 100 oz than the smaller more negotiable 1 oz bars. The 100 oz will always be closer to spot where they try to tack on a large margin with the small bars.

There are several companies, NWT and Sunshine Mining come to mind, where you can but directly. But they always charge spot plus margin. Large purchases come with the burden of high postage and insurance fees that must also be considered in the overall cost of the bars.

[gulfcoastliberal]

18. I've heard buying coins are better than bullion since they don't have to

be assayed. I always see commericals for MONEX on tv. Try monex.com. Canada, US and Vienna gold coins are all highly sought after and are of guaranteed purity. I'd say go for the coins and check out if you can buy direct from the Canadian or US mints and cut out the middle man.

http://store1.yimg.com/I/goldcoins_1866_14898
99.9% pure gold

[sendero]

22. I'm not sure about that....

... let me define some terms:

coin: a piece of metal issued by a government. generally has bullion (metals) value and numismatic (collectability) value

bullion: piece of metal created by a company. comes in many sizes, but is generally a "pure" metal, i.e. silver or gold. its only value is derived from its value as a metal, it has no numismatic value

In silver for instance, there are "coins" that are ususally called "rounds" to differentiate them from a coin issued by a government. They are widely traded and their metallic content is generally seen as guaranteed.

I'd never be interested in "coins" because the numismatic value is subject to wild fluctuations and in the event of an economic calamity is likely to drop precipitously. I buy bullion for the very reason that it is a known quantity of a valuable metal and it while its value will fluctuate also, that is controlled by the commodity markets and industrial need and not some artificial markup like say diamonds.

Just my HO.

[midnight armadillo]

19. Thanks everyone

I appreciate the informative replies. I will discuss this with my wife shortly and if all goes as planned I will start saving some greenbacks to buy a gold coin...and then another...and so on :-)

[screembloodymurder]

20. Two companies

Central Gold Trust symbol (CEF) and Silver Wheaton Corp symbol (SLW) are designed to either hold or closely track the metal.

[Dissenting_Prole]

24. My experience...

I have been following peak oil issues for almost 4 years now. After two years of paying off my debts, I went to my bank in August to buy some silver. No one there knew anything about the process and the commissions, fees and shipping charges were outrageous. A couple of weeks later I found a good coin shop about 40 minutes from where I live. I bought gold and silver online through their site and they shipped it to me.

My limited experience so far:

Buy physical silver or gold. Do not keep it in the bank if you have a good place to hide it. Anyone looking for my stash would have to dig up my entire yard to find it. Or my father's yard. Or under an oak tree down by the river. Apparently metals can be confiscated by the government in a crisis.

Buy bars or rounds, not coins. The collectable value of coins will vaporize in a crash (and a crash is where we're headed, likely within the next six months, if not six weeks). In Canada, Canadian coin sales are taxed, bullion is not.

The larger the size of the bar, the less you will pay per ounce. But I think it would be wise to have some small bars or rounds in your stash - you may need these smaller amounts for trading.

I plan to trade my stash in for a vacant lot after the crash. If I have anything left over, I'll buy seed and tools and start growing tomatoes on it.

[unlawflcombatnt]

25. Buying Gold

The most reputable gold seller I know of is California Numismatic in Englewood California. They actually have gold coins on the premises. Their prices are the lowest I've seen as well.

If you live in the area, you can actually go to the store and buy gold on the spot in cash. They carry quite a bit in their store, and they'll verify whether they have gold on hand before you come in. Their link is:California Numismatic

I'd recommend to anyone buying gold to buy gold coins, instead of buying so-called "unallocated" gold or a gold "pool" account. If you haven't actually bought your gold in the form of coins, the seller probably doesn't even have the gold yet. But they do have your money already.

unlawflcombatnt
EconomicPopulistCommentary
___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[unlawflcombatnt]

28. Inglewood, not Englewood, CA

I didn't notice my misspelling earlier.

[On the Road]

26. More on Gold Stocks from a Knowledgable Clearstation Poster

I don't own this stock, and have never owned gold stocks, but if gold gains in value this stock will rise along with it. And it can be bought and sold as quickly as any other stock:

I like octagenarian Richard Russell's advice which is to buy it and put it away (see his comments below). I don't trade the miners because I don't want to miss the big move and do think there will be a big move up. It may take 2 years or it may take 5 years, but it will be very profitable. We just cannot continue to run up debts indefinitely and gold will reflect the fallout of too much debt in due time.

I like GoldCorp (GG) which you posted you were looking at a few days ago. GG is a premier company with an aggressive CEO in Telfer. Their production costs are the lowest in the industry at $60/oz, they have over $500 Million in cash, and they are paying a small dividend. Telfer will aggressive grow the company with acquitions and I fully expect this to be a $100 stock before the gold bullmarket ends. The other miners will follow gold and gold will move much higher as the global economies deal with a Fed that used liquidity in excess to resolve any economic problem it faced. Here are Russell's comments:

http://clearstation.etrade.com/cgi-bin/bbs?Cmd=post&post_id=6927068&Refer=

[buzzard]

27. Try this

https://online.kitco.com/sellprice/selling.html

[atfqn]

29. With the article posted today

entitled "We are Freaking Doomed." I was wondering if those of you with gold/silver experience could talk about trading and selling such things. The basics are easy to understand I have gold I wish to sell etc.. However I am curious how you would exact fair market prices or barter for such things in the event that there is no global measuring post to guide a transaction. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[sendero]

30. Sure...

... metals commodity values: www.kitco.com

Basically, you need to know the quantity of silver or gold contained in each item - for gold, comes typically in 1 oz pieces, but you can also get 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, 10 oz whatever.

Silver - same deal. Rounds of 1 oz are common. Bars of 10 oz and 100 oz also pretty common. Everyone knows them by sight and their intrinsic value is (commodity price per oz, see kitco.com) * ounces.

You can go to ebay.com and buy it there, if you are the trusting sort. I've bought quite a bit of silver that way and have had good luck. Bars/rounds of bullion silver typically sell for about $0.40-$0.50 over spot (kitco.com) plus shipping. Of course the "spread" (amount you pay over commodity price) will be greater when the commodity price is rising, like right now - gold and silver are taking off.

on edit: someday I'll learn to use the wonderful Preview feature

[screembloodymurder]

31. NXG is an under valued Canadian gold stock listed on the AMEX

This company is making money and has the potential to double if gold keeps rising.