3 replies to this topic

[Cash]

What the lowest cost round trip, to buy
a)  a gold coin,
  a silver dollar,
c)  the name of the nicest looking or most interesting coin or two,
d)  the name of the most reliable low cost coin vendor or two?

Second, someone mention the secondary gold stocks got beat up lately to much lower prices, and look very attractive at their recent lower prices.  
a)  What are the top three or four or five, quality secondary gold stocks/company''s, that they may have been  referring to?
  Is there a low fee cost no load fund that invests in such secondary gold stocks?

Third, given the albove two alternatives, and the generally high cost of a round trip in and out of gold coins, is a simple investment in GLD as a stock transaction, the lowest cost round trip way, to get a somewhat pure play on the move of gold?

What I''m trying to do, is line up what investment(s) I should make soon, to take advantage of the likely huge inflation problem, coming from the flood of recent liquidity by Bernanke, Congress, and Paulson, and that coming from Obama''s "spend til USA is broke" jolt the economy plans.

The one I would most prefer, is real gold coins, or bullion.  But the round trip commission cost, makes it unreasonable.  Unless there is a way to buy coins, at spot, no commission, and reliably not get cheated in the amount of gold one is buying.

Hopefully, some of the gold pros here have already done the leg work on this issue, and found the best low cost way to go about gold investing for inflation protection.  And they would be willing to share their conclusions.

Thanks.

[P2 Lodge]

I chose a variety of methods and settled with coins and bullion for both gold and silver and a Goldmoney account stored in Zurich.  Have taken delivery out of that account and stored it abroad in order to test my plans. Have used Tulving for most domestic purchases along with apmex.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

1a) Probably the Krugerrand, but it didn''t used to really matter, as the premium paid on a given coin was usually retained upon sale, i.e., you''d get back coming out whatever you paid going in.  However, these days, with the blowout in premiums, it''s a little hard to say if that would be the case going forward.  Or will the premiums be even higher on resale?

1b) Define "dollar".  If you mean any 1 oz coin, then generic rounds are the cheapest to flip.  If you mean an actual US dollar, then Eagles generally have a hefty premium right now.  I haven''t checked lately, but would think the old 90% silver dollars pre-65 would be a cheap round trip, but these don''t actually contain a full ounce, so you have to calculate carefully what to pay.

1c) For silver, I really like Mexican Libertads - a truly beautiful coin, then Eagles, then Canadian Maples.  For gold, probably the same, but I''ve never seen a gold Libertad, if they even make one.  The Krugerrand is hideous.

1d) Tulving.  Apmex is quite reliable as well, but they seem a little nosy to me.  

2) I can''t recommend gold equities.  Gold stocks are stocks and Wall Street is a corrupt pit.  As much as they try to manipulate the metals, there is a real, physical limit to that manipulation.  There is no such limit with the stocks.  They can put the price anywhere they want at any time. They can naked short any stock to the ground, massively diluting the official float, and no one seems to lift a finger to stop it, unless of course we''re talking about banking stocks.  They especially twist stocks around if they''re encumbered with options.  And as with most stocks, management is not exactly operating in the shareholders'' best interest.  At best, I see gold equities as a vehicle for short term speculation only, if you''re game.  In that case, using a gold mutual fund might be the most prudent course.
  
3) GLD is a reasonable proxy, with stock-like turnaround costs, but not without risk.  On the one hand, it''s tied to gold, so, in general, it can only be manipulated to the extent gold is manipulated.  But there is a not insignificant danger the trust/trustee could default.  GLD is somewhere between the metal and equities in terms of risk, but as cheap as a stock to flip.  No storage issues, but on the other hand, easier to get knocked out of one''s position, especially if using leverage.

Good luck on your inflation play!

[Sheeple Shredder]

If living in the US, this is the best way to go.

If Canadian, go with gold & silver maple leafs.

If Chinese, go with gold & silver Pandas.

Tulving has all of these with the best reliability and net spread.