8/27/2009

Hey, let's buy gold.  It's safe, won't go down in value (not price) and is immune from things like wars, liberals, and religious fanatics.  

Not so fast.  You can almost depend that all ads and solicitations for gold are a scam.  You have to pay to store the shit (with no real way to be sure where it's stored), insure it (why? so the seller can make more money); you will always get a sales pitch to buy a part of a unit "for your protection" and so on.  The good stuff is generally 22 carat with a few other metals thrown in so the gold won't melt in your hand.  Only buy bullion coins or bars.  Buy your coins from the U.S. Mint so you will absolutely know what you are getting, and remember the tax on the coin and the cost to ship.  But there is a slight problem; the mint has been sold out for two years (dealers buy them all up) which means you have to get on a list.  All in all the entire field is filled with scammers of various ilks which means you need to purchase shares in a gold ETF (Exchange Traded Fund).

Be very careful and do your homework.  By no means fall for the various ads for gold, bullion, or coins.  Especially watch "Goldline" and "Monex," two firms which escape any CFTC concern.  To quote from the NFA website, "gold is an unregulated minefield."

so once again the Congress sits idly by while millions of investors get fucked. Don't be one of them.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh, all right, *one* more comment. did my homework years ago. two words, babee: "hannes tulving". based outta newport beach, IIRC. best rep in the biz. best service in the biz. lowest buy-sell spreads in the biz. check prices, google around, ask a hardcore "the federal reserve is a sinister plot by international bankers" libertarian - doesn't matter. they all say the same thing: tulving.

all they seem to ask of their customers is that you know exactly what you want to buy/sell when you call in, which is fair enough. doing your homework is a small price to pay for best rep/service/spreads.

David Davenport said...

Howie, how does one measure the value of an inanimate thing except by its price?

... Also, I've noticed that scammy-seeming gold buyers or sellers advertise on Limbaugh's, Hannity's, and Beck's radio shows. This does not enhance the credibility of those radio conservatives.

Anonymous said...

Read commenter one and check it out. Remember, gold is not covered by any regulations or oversight so nothing they claim can be checked out.

Read commenter one and check it out. Remember, gold is not covered by any regulations or oversight so nothing they claim can be checked out.

As for the ads on Limbaugh etc., none of these guys check anything, and they can't. They have to rely on viewer complaints. All the "conservative" and religous sites provide ideal victims for any scam.

Anonymous said...

Courage, friends! It really isn't that hard. There is no substitute for doing one's own due diligence—and no excuse whatsoever for not doing it, either. You may start locally with small purchases to gauge how things go, then procede from the basis of experience gained once a degree of confidence is established. As always, caveat emptor rules the day. Another important consideration is to banish any temptations you may have to procrastinate, because the world is still only in the early stages of the suffering brought about by evil of dishonest money.

Howard said...

Value vs price
You buy 100oz of gold. A year after inflation it is worth $110. Same stuff. Value occurs when you transfer an item from the price to it's value as an heirloom; a piece of junk might have an intrinsic value but the price might be lower. I'd still like to kill my mother for trashing my comic books while I was in the service.