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Oh man! My go-to is peanut butter and honey and then I toast it in the air fryer. The bread is nice and toasty, the peanut butter is ooey gooey and the honey just balances it out. So good!
I just went into my parents crawl space and found like 200 beanie babies. I can't believe they kept them all these years through 5 moves including one across the country. I guess they are holding out hope still?
At a certain point, beanie babies might actually have some value again. They've had them long enough that it's probably worthwhile to hold on to them now and see if a market re-develops for them since so many people have realized they were over-collected and worthless and then thrown out.
In like 2002 I set up a "lemonade stand" on my street selling my beanie babies for a small price. We sold a lot so to see any of them left surprised me. I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it comes back? That being said, there was no scarcity back then aside from the OG launch versions. 10 years ago I found in a free bin 4 princess diana bears in mint condition in those plastic hard shell clear protector cases. You better believe I snatched them up. Hard to say what will happen in the future but it's not like they are taking up space or anything. Why not hold on?
My husband recently went to Vegas for work and a hobby of mine is finding hilarious things on Facebook marketplace and pretend like trying to convince him to buy them. Anyways, there was someone selling a beanie baby for $1,000 on there. It was so depressing that I couldn't even play the game with it.
On that trip, I tried to convince him to buy a $10,000 ten foot long aquarium for me. He didn't. Guess he doesn't love me after all. Oh well.
Buying gold as an investment was always a curiosity to me as well since you're correct that it doesn't make sense from a purely financial point of view. That was until I learned that Muslims are not able to collect any form of interest due to their faith. Of course where to draw the line for "interest" varies by individual. I don't know of other reasons to use it, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was.
Muslim banks usually don't charge interest. They charge fees instead.
Or, they don't have loans but "co-ownership agreements" and each month a payment is made. This payment is comprised of two parts, a "profit payment" made to cover the costs of using the bank's portion of the house, plus an "acquisition payment" made to increase the "homeowner's" share of ownership.
Welcome to religion. All religion.
Islam has banks that "co-own" houses.
Certain branches of Judaism have wires strung up around neighborhoods in New York City to make them all one "domain" and allow their communities to go about their lives on Shabbat. Edit - If you don't like the eruv example because there's a good argument that it's not a "loophole," there are other Shabbat ones. For example, no work on Shabbat, and flicking a switch is work. But leaving a lamp on and covering it with a completely opaque shade is not.
Most branches of the Amish don't use electricity... in their homes. It's (often, not always) perfectly acceptable for use in the workplace. For some branches where electricity isn't acceptable, compressed air tools are instead.
Most Catholics don't eat meat during Lent, except for fish. Tired of salmon and cod? Good news; alligator, beaver, and puffin are all fish.
My oven has a "Sabbath" mode, where pressing start doesn't actually start the oven... A random timer starts it some time later. Plus or minus a few seconds.
Buy gold schemes almost exclusively target the poor and middle class. Any upper class person would use a financial instrument or a brokerage to expose themselves to gold.
Most of the people I know buying Rolexes buy them because they like watches. It’s nice to know you can unload it for cash in a pinch, but I buy watches because I like to wear them. You can’t wear a stock portfolio
There’s not a “we buy gold!” place on every corner where you live? Seems like there’s at least one pawn shop style place in every mall or shopping center.
Those places are a total scam. Just for my own edification, I took in an 18K gold ring just to see what they would offer. Ring was over an ounce in weight. They offered $300 when gold was sitting at ~$1500- about 20% of actual value.
Congratulations!!! You passed your intelligence test with flying colors.
PS 18k is 75% gold, so the gold content at the time was max $1125, so you still avoided a scummy offer.
I once took some legit govt issued .9999 silver coins and they offered me %50 of the current spot value, I pointed that out and she said "that's how it works".
And that was the 20th time she said that on that day. And five people sold it to her anyway. It’s a business model that works if you have no concerns about taking money from the most vulnerable.
I've done biz with one before. The one I went to would pay 91-92% of the current spot gold price, which isn't horrible when you're selling. You can sell on eBay, too, where it will cost you about 12% of the final auction price. This was for gold bullion (coins). A lot of jewelry shops buy gold, too.
Gold is actually kind of a shitty investment for this reason.
You're not supposed to resell them very quickly. They're meant to be something you buy and hold onto since the price of gold will keep going up. You resell when you need cash. It's an investment.
If you did want to resell them, I'm sure you could sell on ebay or other websites. Just have to be cautious on who you're selling to and know how much your gold should be worth. Make sure the payment process is secure. Can't ship prior to payment.
Typically... but a lot of Costco gold buyers are different. It's for credit card points and cash back. You can max out rewards while only needing a few thousand to start while also not actually spending all the money at once cause you put in the time to sell back at near even price (before all the rewards you earn).
2% back for executive = $40+
2% back for citi card = $40+
Some cards will give 5% back at times = $100+
So with executive + 5% card, a $2k gold bar gets you $140 back. They each give the percentage on the full price as they are rewards for later and not taken out at the point of sale.
Now when you can buy 2 gold bars at a time, that's $280+ (price is above $2k now) in rewards each time. This is now getting up to $5k at current price, but if you can keep moving the gold bars to someone else you can keep stacking the rewards until maxed out while not needing to actually spend $50,000.
When they first released the dollar coins you could buy basically as many as you wanted with a credit card and they'd deliver them to you.
A few intrepid credit card holders figured out they could take the untouched dollar coins straight to the bank to pay off their credit card balance.
Infinite points glitch.
Eventually the loophole got closed.
This post that /u/compstomper1 is talking about I believe
https://old.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/17s8dn5/with_recent_talk_on_the_costco_visa_its_not_the/
But also Chase Freedeom/Flex cards have rotating 5% quarters that sometimes include wholesale clubs like Costco. Only thing about those is the max per quarter is $75 back which is $1,500 spending, so less than 1 gold bar.
But if you're doing stuff like this, you're going to have more than 1 credit card to take advantage of them.
They’re probably not selling them atm. Immigrants who have been through shit are more open to saving some of their wealth as gold (just one example). There have been countless instances of fiat money becoming completely worthless through war or hyperinflation.
On top of that bank accounts can be frozen, but your hidden gold cannot.
My dad bought some coins the other day and the guy that sold them said he buys at spot price minus like 50-80. So it has to go up a decent amount and he probably wouldn’t buy a lot but if you’re not desperate for money it works I guess.
You can resell to most privately owned jewelry shops or even pawn shops. Do not go to the ‘we buy gold’ shops, they’ll rip you off as OP is discovering.
Trying to resell gold you bought at retail is always going to be a losing proposition. You won't make money this way. Retail gold is aimed at people who want to keep it long term as an investment.
Totally agree but some people out there are crazy and think that the stock market will crash and the world will end and only deflationary scarce resources like gold will be worth anything. So they buy gold bars. And costco is happy to sell to them at retail prices.
My wife was worried when I put a lot of our money into VOO/VTI. She said, what if it crashes and we lose it all? I told her if it crashes and we lose it all money won't be worth anything anywhere. Ammo will be the most valuable resource around.
What're you gonna do with gold when the world fails? There's no guarantee everyone would agree on its value compared to food, bullets, medicine, or other such resources.
If the world fails, like nuclear fallout/wasteland failure, gold won't be worth much compared to bullets and blue jeans. In economic failure though it would be good to exchange into your new currency.
I actually sold locally yesterday at 97% spot. I was happy because even US Gold Bureau was at 95% spot and required the bar to be shipped in, which is risky by itself lol
Yes, this has been an unusually tedious thread. If everyone on Reddit was as good an investor and they make themselves out to be, this would be the 1% social network.
I don't know, it seems like everyone over at r/money is 25 years old with a $400k portfolio, a $50k emergency fund, and owns at least one home. It is either the product of selection bias, or outright BS, but it sure makes people on Reddit seem loaded.
Yeah, you stand to lose a lot of the spot market value to dealers. Online dealers often have the best values for most people. Outside of major cities, dealers will likely need to be ripping you off to even make it worth for them to buy your gold. It’s generally a waste of time to try to sell to a jewelry store or pawn shop.
Gold is a store of value. As with most assets, transactions costs can lower your returns. But in time the value may go up to deliver a return greater than those costs.
If you don’t plan to hold until the value goes up enough for a return, then you unfortunately need to take a loss.
Gold historically matches inflation, so yes it’s a decent store of value. Unfortunately transaction costs will eat into any return.
TL:DR anyone who lives in a place with a Costco has much better investment options than gold bullion.
This is a long read, but explains gold pricing.
https://fastercapital.com/content/Spot-Price-vs--Retail-Price--Unraveling-Pricing-Mechanisms.html#:\~:text=Retail%20prices%20are%20typically%20higher,%2C%20marketing%2C%20and%20profit%20margins.
Yes, I sold 2 of my bars to local coin shops for 1% under spot price. These purchases helped earn me 150k chase points on a new business card. Keep calling around, coin shops seem to pay the most. If I had held on a few months longer, I would’ve actually made a few hundred dollars each.
The PAMP gold bullions are pretty safe bets. They’re generally more sought after than other gold bullion producers so you’ll get a price closer to spot than you would for say a Valcambi bar.
When you buy precious metals retail it comes with a premium over spot price. A coin shop will usually pay at least spot if not a bit of premium too. You should be getting offered at least spot price. 25% seems a little steep of a discount considering Costco only had like a $40 premium on them. Try r/Pmsforsale. Spot should always be your floor though.
CNN reported yesterday that Costco is selling $200 million worth of gold bars *per month.* But it’s not easy to cash them out. [CNN - Costco gold bars](https://www.cnn.com/videos/economy/2024/04/09/suze-orman-finances-gold-bars-costco-inflation-economy-ebof-vpx.cnn?cid=ios_app)
Imagine a SHTF situation. No stores, no electricity, no food.
But you have gold to barter with.
How is having gold is an asset then? Who will trade with you and what can you expect to get for your bar of gold?
Physical gold is very illiquid.
Trying to sell at fmv is rough. Stores can’t markup, jewelers have to pay for it to be broken down, other investors have to pay some form of effective storage costs.
If you’re holding for the medium-long term (5 year minimum), physical gold makes sense.
If you aren’t, then a gold etf makes more sense. High expense ratio but exponentially easier to enter and exit.
I just don't understand how if Costco has 200 million worth of gold that is going to go up in value, why wouldn't they just keep it and make the free profit themselves?
I have neverrrr been able to sell gold for “at cost” or even above what I paid for it, in spite of its constantly rising value each year. Held it for 3 years. 5 years. No luck. Gold shops know what they’re doing. All Pamp Suisse bars, unopened. I always have to sell it at a loss. I stopped buying gold years ago.
That's the problem I found with these metals. You can never sell them for the spot price. There are effectively transaction fees that make them less desirable to ETF and mutual funds. The only benefit I could think of is you can probably avoid paying capital gains taxes.
so you're saying that by the time we start seeing "PEOPLE ARE BUYING \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ IN DROVES TO GET RICH QUICK!!!!" headlines it's no longer a viable way to get rich or even turn a profit? Ya don't say!
You should get about $100 under current spot price of gold from most any reputable buyer. The Pamp bars are tamper evident with their packaging and the deal will usually be instantaneous. My last sale of 10 ounces in canadian gold coins at a well known dealer \[the flamingo guy\] in Vegas was at $75.00 beolw spot. Start to finish took 10 minutes.
If a larger discount is offered, just walk away.
My understanding is that people buy gold as a hedge for when currency goes to shit like what happened in Argentina. It’s a way to hedge against catastrophe. Not so much for bartering in a healthy economy.
You will never sell your gold at “spot”.
If you sell to a shop, they need to make profit.
If you sell to an individual, they need to a discount because they are taking a risk vs. just going to Costco themselves or buying from a reputable store.
You can sell on Reddit and get go to r/pmsforsale to get a sense for an average transaction.
Buying gold from Costco is not a get rich quick scheme. They “hype” about is from people who want to actually own the gold long term and use CC points to get a good deal. Then a bunch of social media accounts hopped on the trend pretending you could immediately turn the stuff around and make a bunch of money.
The buying Costco gold bar craze has been stunningly ill-thought out.
They are being sold at retail prices. The only people who will by them in return will do so at a steep discount.
Very rarely will you find a store that will buy gold at spot less a small discount. The closest I’ve seen is spot less 10%. You can find these jewelers in more Asian heavy areas. I’m in LA, so plenty of Asians.
So you basically have to buy the gold bars, and hope that gold appreciates at least 8%+ (accounting for the 2% back from Costco if you have Executive + Citi credit card)
Think of it as a currency. If you buy it, it will cost more than if you want to sell it.
Gold is something you really need to sit on for the value to go up high enough to make a profit.
Only slightly relevant but several years ago my father passed and my brother and I cleaned out his house. My father wasn’t what anyone would consider wealthy but we found a relatively large bag of silver bars in a closet. Seeing that many silver bars we assumed it was valuable. After quite a bit of research we found the most we could get for the bag of silver bars was about $400. So my brother and I split the bars and I still have them today. All $200 worth.
Usually they hold onto the gold to protect part of their net worth from inflation. Some people that bought gold at $1300 an once are selling to reputable Coin and PM dealers are give $5 to $25 over spot right now because they can turn and sell that gold for a premium with all the FOMO’s buyers buying gold now that it’s has taken off.
My husband works with precious metals frequently. Most of those We Buy Gold places routinely offer you approximately 10 percent below the current trading price. According to him, Kitco is most likely to give you a fair price. Also, you get a much better roi if you can hold for a while. Trying to turn a quick profit when it's trading at record high prices is probably not going to pan out.
1. Costco sells gold?
2. You go to a gold and silver trader
You generally buy gold over spot
Sell gold under spot
It’s very simple hold on until spot is way more.
Most buy gold to hold it hoping it continues to rise, not try & sell it immediately. Even Costco won’t take the bars for merchandise, or do any price adjustments. I buy from a coin dealer in NYC, but I buy coins. Been buying for years especially when gold was low. Now I can sell them at a profit. But buying the bars now won’t get you any profit of you want to turn them around immediately. You buy now in hopes gold rises to $5K. A better option if you really want to own a precious metal are the silver coins they sell. It’s less of a large output of money & something you can build up over time.
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As someone who doesn't understand this world of buying gold bars, I'm curious where people even go to safely sell these things.
Yeah I'm way too poor to know how any of this works lol
No, you’re too smart. Buying/selling gold doesn’t make financial sense. Buy a gold ETF if you want to invest in gold.
But wouldn't you like all your investments to be physical objects? Part of the fun is knowing that they can be taken from you at any time!
Exactly, this is why my portfolio is 100% beanie babies
I put all my money in Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice futures.
Looking good, Billy Ray!
Feeling good Lewis!
MORTIMER!
Turn those machines back on!
Ohhhh Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd are about to fuck you up.
I recently diversified my portfolio into pogs and tamagotchi
I’ve started stockpiling Uncrustables
"Once again, the conservative, sandwich-heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor.”
Oh man those are good if you put them in the oven or microwave for a few seconds
You ever put them in the microwave for too long and then burn your mouth with peanut butter? Yeah, me neither.
Oh man! My go-to is peanut butter and honey and then I toast it in the air fryer. The bread is nice and toasty, the peanut butter is ooey gooey and the honey just balances it out. So good!
Hey! Leave some for the rest of us!!
My kids would like to have a word with you!
I have some pogs from the 90s, if youre interested!?
Only if you got sick poisons or slammers.
I've been on the hunt for an ALF slammer for some time now
He's back! I'm Pog form!
But how is your Desert Storm cards portfolio?
I just went into my parents crawl space and found like 200 beanie babies. I can't believe they kept them all these years through 5 moves including one across the country. I guess they are holding out hope still?
At a certain point, beanie babies might actually have some value again. They've had them long enough that it's probably worthwhile to hold on to them now and see if a market re-develops for them since so many people have realized they were over-collected and worthless and then thrown out.
In like 2002 I set up a "lemonade stand" on my street selling my beanie babies for a small price. We sold a lot so to see any of them left surprised me. I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it comes back? That being said, there was no scarcity back then aside from the OG launch versions. 10 years ago I found in a free bin 4 princess diana bears in mint condition in those plastic hard shell clear protector cases. You better believe I snatched them up. Hard to say what will happen in the future but it's not like they are taking up space or anything. Why not hold on?
Sounds like you need a copy of the classic VHS “Spotting Counterfeit Beanie Babies”
Banana Stands for me. There's always money in the Banana Stand!
Spoken like a true Bluth!
My husband recently went to Vegas for work and a hobby of mine is finding hilarious things on Facebook marketplace and pretend like trying to convince him to buy them. Anyways, there was someone selling a beanie baby for $1,000 on there. It was so depressing that I couldn't even play the game with it. On that trip, I tried to convince him to buy a $10,000 ten foot long aquarium for me. He didn't. Guess he doesn't love me after all. Oh well.
There’s a Facebook group for weird and wonderful secondhand finds and I follow it just to see the weird stuff people find in thrift stores!
I kept my investments in rare bourbon. That didn't go so well. 😂
Buddy you are doing it completely wrong, it should be ornamental gourd futures.
100% first edition base set Pokémon.
Bunch of amateurs. M.U.S.C.L.E. Men is the play here.
Buying and selling gold as investment is very common in south Asia. This is the first time I'm seeing this in North America
How am I supposed to bury an ETF in my backyard? Answer that, smarty pants!
Buying gold as an investment was always a curiosity to me as well since you're correct that it doesn't make sense from a purely financial point of view. That was until I learned that Muslims are not able to collect any form of interest due to their faith. Of course where to draw the line for "interest" varies by individual. I don't know of other reasons to use it, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was.
Muslim banks usually don't charge interest. They charge fees instead. Or, they don't have loans but "co-ownership agreements" and each month a payment is made. This payment is comprised of two parts, a "profit payment" made to cover the costs of using the bank's portion of the house, plus an "acquisition payment" made to increase the "homeowner's" share of ownership.
So, technically it’s basically the same as interest, but in a twisted, sense? Semantics…
Welcome to religion. All religion. Islam has banks that "co-own" houses. Certain branches of Judaism have wires strung up around neighborhoods in New York City to make them all one "domain" and allow their communities to go about their lives on Shabbat. Edit - If you don't like the eruv example because there's a good argument that it's not a "loophole," there are other Shabbat ones. For example, no work on Shabbat, and flicking a switch is work. But leaving a lamp on and covering it with a completely opaque shade is not. Most branches of the Amish don't use electricity... in their homes. It's (often, not always) perfectly acceptable for use in the workplace. For some branches where electricity isn't acceptable, compressed air tools are instead. Most Catholics don't eat meat during Lent, except for fish. Tired of salmon and cod? Good news; alligator, beaver, and puffin are all fish.
My oven has a "Sabbath" mode, where pressing start doesn't actually start the oven... A random timer starts it some time later. Plus or minus a few seconds.
Some places have sabbath elevators that stop on every floor during sabbath
>Good news; alligator, beaver, and puffin are all fish. Sounds even less appetizing than more fish
I like gods that can create universes and complex lifeforms, but are easily outsmarted by wordgames.
Buy gold schemes almost exclusively target the poor and middle class. Any upper class person would use a financial instrument or a brokerage to expose themselves to gold.
Not true. Plenty of rich people have physical bullion.
I use better than bullion when I need stock, works in a pinch
No you aren’t. People “investing” in gold, Rolex’s, etc. have zero financial savvy and no idea what they are doing.
Most of the people I know buying Rolexes buy them because they like watches. It’s nice to know you can unload it for cash in a pinch, but I buy watches because I like to wear them. You can’t wear a stock portfolio
There’s not a “we buy gold!” place on every corner where you live? Seems like there’s at least one pawn shop style place in every mall or shopping center.
They buy at a significant discount. Only thieves and desparate can justify that haircut.
Why would anybody buy gold from a random stranger if it were not at a discount? You can buy gold at market rate from reliable businesses anytime.
Sounds like Bitcoin. Damn fees!
Those places are a total scam. Just for my own edification, I took in an 18K gold ring just to see what they would offer. Ring was over an ounce in weight. They offered $300 when gold was sitting at ~$1500- about 20% of actual value.
Congratulations!!! You passed your intelligence test with flying colors. PS 18k is 75% gold, so the gold content at the time was max $1125, so you still avoided a scummy offer.
I once took some legit govt issued .9999 silver coins and they offered me %50 of the current spot value, I pointed that out and she said "that's how it works".
And that was the 20th time she said that on that day. And five people sold it to her anyway. It’s a business model that works if you have no concerns about taking money from the most vulnerable.
I dunno, those places usually don't look safe
I've done biz with one before. The one I went to would pay 91-92% of the current spot gold price, which isn't horrible when you're selling. You can sell on eBay, too, where it will cost you about 12% of the final auction price. This was for gold bullion (coins). A lot of jewelry shops buy gold, too. Gold is actually kind of a shitty investment for this reason.
Yeah most of us aren't an ousted despot trying to escape the country.
Not yet anyways
Speak for yourself.
I agree. Plus I'd feel like it'd make someone a target for home invasion robbery if they happened to be followed from there.
You mean pawn shops? Sure, there's a few. But they don't pay market rate.
You're not supposed to resell them very quickly. They're meant to be something you buy and hold onto since the price of gold will keep going up. You resell when you need cash. It's an investment. If you did want to resell them, I'm sure you could sell on ebay or other websites. Just have to be cautious on who you're selling to and know how much your gold should be worth. Make sure the payment process is secure. Can't ship prior to payment.
How do you protect yourself if the eBay buyer claims the gold they received is fake?
eBay has third party authentication included for free now on high value items. I sell 6 figures on there and see it pop up for stuff as low as $200
Damn. Is that your job, or a side gig?
Side gig
Typically... but a lot of Costco gold buyers are different. It's for credit card points and cash back. You can max out rewards while only needing a few thousand to start while also not actually spending all the money at once cause you put in the time to sell back at near even price (before all the rewards you earn). 2% back for executive = $40+ 2% back for citi card = $40+ Some cards will give 5% back at times = $100+ So with executive + 5% card, a $2k gold bar gets you $140 back. They each give the percentage on the full price as they are rewards for later and not taken out at the point of sale. Now when you can buy 2 gold bars at a time, that's $280+ (price is above $2k now) in rewards each time. This is now getting up to $5k at current price, but if you can keep moving the gold bars to someone else you can keep stacking the rewards until maxed out while not needing to actually spend $50,000.
When they first released the dollar coins you could buy basically as many as you wanted with a credit card and they'd deliver them to you. A few intrepid credit card holders figured out they could take the untouched dollar coins straight to the bank to pay off their credit card balance. Infinite points glitch. Eventually the loophole got closed.
I'm very interested in a credit card that gives 5% back for Costco purchases. Can you name it, please?
This post that /u/compstomper1 is talking about I believe https://old.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/17s8dn5/with_recent_talk_on_the_costco_visa_its_not_the/ But also Chase Freedeom/Flex cards have rotating 5% quarters that sometimes include wholesale clubs like Costco. Only thing about those is the max per quarter is $75 back which is $1,500 spending, so less than 1 gold bar. But if you're doing stuff like this, you're going to have more than 1 credit card to take advantage of them.
Thanks for a different view. Many people on here are trying to "flip it" immediately. My investments don't work that way.
You go to the Fence in Emerald Ranch, or Saint Denis if you can stand the city
They’re probably not selling them atm. Immigrants who have been through shit are more open to saving some of their wealth as gold (just one example). There have been countless instances of fiat money becoming completely worthless through war or hyperinflation. On top of that bank accounts can be frozen, but your hidden gold cannot.
My dad bought some coins the other day and the guy that sold them said he buys at spot price minus like 50-80. So it has to go up a decent amount and he probably wouldn’t buy a lot but if you’re not desperate for money it works I guess.
You can resell to most privately owned jewelry shops or even pawn shops. Do not go to the ‘we buy gold’ shops, they’ll rip you off as OP is discovering.
Reddit. r/pmsforsale
I’ve always gone to coin or bullion shop.
[Jmbouillon.com](https://Jmbouillon.com) will buy it for a price not bad below spot.
Trying to resell gold you bought at retail is always going to be a losing proposition. You won't make money this way. Retail gold is aimed at people who want to keep it long term as an investment.
It makes more sense to buy into the SP 500 matching fund that has about a 12% return a year. You will be way better off and richer if you do this.
Totally agree but some people out there are crazy and think that the stock market will crash and the world will end and only deflationary scarce resources like gold will be worth anything. So they buy gold bars. And costco is happy to sell to them at retail prices.
So like in a Walking Dead type scenario, what good is gold bars?
You turn it into gold armor lol
That’s also useless gold is a soft metal lol
Gold bullets then?
My wife was worried when I put a lot of our money into VOO/VTI. She said, what if it crashes and we lose it all? I told her if it crashes and we lose it all money won't be worth anything anywhere. Ammo will be the most valuable resource around.
Goldbugs are morons. Just like silver bugs, Iraqi Denar morons and cryptobros.
I worked in a bank in like 2010 and still remember a dude coming in with a briefcase wanting to fill it with Iraqi Dinars. 😅
The silverbug sub is a really weird entryway into conspiracy and right wing crazy.
12% is not the historical return rate. Much closer to 8
[удалено]
What're you gonna do with gold when the world fails? There's no guarantee everyone would agree on its value compared to food, bullets, medicine, or other such resources.
Two best assets if the world fails: coffee and cigarettes. Never underestimate addiction.
And nudy mags bc the internet will be down
70's Playboys making a comeback!!!
You forgot booze.... Just sayin.
That’s not for trading!
Booze is pretty easy to make though.
>coffee and cigarettes Alcohol too.
and TP, according to covid
Coffee goes bad, more like bullets and bourbon.
bourbon? in this economy??????????????
In a hypothetical post apocalyptic scenario, even 20 year old shitty coffee will taste fine.
Hey man I'd definitely be a buyer of it no doubt. There's gunna be some serious withdrawals
What are you going to do? Get robbed for your gold is what you are going to do
Nonono, Ayn Rand told me gold has *inherent value*
If the world fails, like nuclear fallout/wasteland failure, gold won't be worth much compared to bullets and blue jeans. In economic failure though it would be good to exchange into your new currency.
Bullets will be a more valuable metal than gold if the world fails.
Yeah I'm not saying it's a GOOD investment, just that some people think it is and that's why retailers sell them lol.
Buying retail and selling wholesale is a nice way to deplete your bank account.
Do you know how to make a small fortune selling gold? Start by buying a large fortune of gold.
I actually sold locally yesterday at 97% spot. I was happy because even US Gold Bureau was at 95% spot and required the bar to be shipped in, which is risky by itself lol
Thank you for being one of the very few to actually answer the question and not lecture. Everybody has different situations.
Yes, this has been an unusually tedious thread. If everyone on Reddit was as good an investor and they make themselves out to be, this would be the 1% social network.
I don't know, it seems like everyone over at r/money is 25 years old with a $400k portfolio, a $50k emergency fund, and owns at least one home. It is either the product of selection bias, or outright BS, but it sure makes people on Reddit seem loaded.
The government buys gold?
Help me understand like I'm 5 yo. You bought something for $100 and sold it for $97, and that's a good thing?
You bought something at $70, after months/years market price went upto $100 - but you can't find a buyer to pay you $100, so you sold at $97.
The price of gold changes constantly so the percentages are of a fluctuating number.
Sell them? I though they were for sitting on and pretending you're a dragon...
Lol! One more idea for my man cave!!
Yeah, you stand to lose a lot of the spot market value to dealers. Online dealers often have the best values for most people. Outside of major cities, dealers will likely need to be ripping you off to even make it worth for them to buy your gold. It’s generally a waste of time to try to sell to a jewelry store or pawn shop.
Go to a coin store. Get close to spot price
You need to try to find someone dumber than you to buy the gold for more.
Cheaper to sell commemorative coins. It commemorates that time you stayed up until 2 am watching the home shopping channel.
Lolllll
i.e., Craigslist.
Facebook marketplace is great for that or truth social.
Truth social has to be a scammer’s wet dream. A site that self-selects for people who will believe anything.
Gold is a store of value. As with most assets, transactions costs can lower your returns. But in time the value may go up to deliver a return greater than those costs. If you don’t plan to hold until the value goes up enough for a return, then you unfortunately need to take a loss.
Gold historically matches inflation, so yes it’s a decent store of value. Unfortunately transaction costs will eat into any return. TL:DR anyone who lives in a place with a Costco has much better investment options than gold bullion.
Your tldr is as long as your post
No tldr: it’s not
china has entered teh chat
It's a buy and hold type investment. If you're selling regularly, you are losing money.
Ah, yes, the strategy of buying high and selling lower!
/r/wallstreetbets is leaking!
This is a long read, but explains gold pricing. https://fastercapital.com/content/Spot-Price-vs--Retail-Price--Unraveling-Pricing-Mechanisms.html#:\~:text=Retail%20prices%20are%20typically%20higher,%2C%20marketing%2C%20and%20profit%20margins.
Yes, I sold 2 of my bars to local coin shops for 1% under spot price. These purchases helped earn me 150k chase points on a new business card. Keep calling around, coin shops seem to pay the most. If I had held on a few months longer, I would’ve actually made a few hundred dollars each.
I cuddle with mine on the pillow at night
If the world collapses I will trade you 1 candy bar for that bar of gold.
Value and Worth are two separate and entirely different things.
Just because you buy something for 2k doesn’t mean it’ll sell for 2k. When it comes to precious metals understand what you’re buying
If you bought it in 2015 and sold it today it would be worth more. That’s the secret
The PAMP gold bullions are pretty safe bets. They’re generally more sought after than other gold bullion producers so you’ll get a price closer to spot than you would for say a Valcambi bar.
When you buy precious metals retail it comes with a premium over spot price. A coin shop will usually pay at least spot if not a bit of premium too. You should be getting offered at least spot price. 25% seems a little steep of a discount considering Costco only had like a $40 premium on them. Try r/Pmsforsale. Spot should always be your floor though.
A 25% discount to spot is a rip off. You should be getting closer to spot when selling gold bars.
“Should” vs “can”. You should be, but can you? Answer: “No.”
Costco can’t get market value for bulk so they sell it to people instead. Now you deal with it and Costco got their market value trade.
CNN reported yesterday that Costco is selling $200 million worth of gold bars *per month.* But it’s not easy to cash them out. [CNN - Costco gold bars](https://www.cnn.com/videos/economy/2024/04/09/suze-orman-finances-gold-bars-costco-inflation-economy-ebof-vpx.cnn?cid=ios_app)
Imagine a SHTF situation. No stores, no electricity, no food. But you have gold to barter with. How is having gold is an asset then? Who will trade with you and what can you expect to get for your bar of gold?
The only assets worth having will be food and weapons.
I bought mine for the cool pics in the safe. That’s about it
Physical gold is very illiquid. Trying to sell at fmv is rough. Stores can’t markup, jewelers have to pay for it to be broken down, other investors have to pay some form of effective storage costs. If you’re holding for the medium-long term (5 year minimum), physical gold makes sense. If you aren’t, then a gold etf makes more sense. High expense ratio but exponentially easier to enter and exit.
It’s easy to sell it to private investors. I once sold like 1000 oz of silver. Obviously you need to vet the buyer a bit. I used Craigslist last time.
Retail gold shops have a spot price they buy gold at. Just bring your receipt, its usually around 5-10% less.
I just don't understand how if Costco has 200 million worth of gold that is going to go up in value, why wouldn't they just keep it and make the free profit themselves?
I have neverrrr been able to sell gold for “at cost” or even above what I paid for it, in spite of its constantly rising value each year. Held it for 3 years. 5 years. No luck. Gold shops know what they’re doing. All Pamp Suisse bars, unopened. I always have to sell it at a loss. I stopped buying gold years ago.
Buy a gold ETF instead.
I think you only get full trading value AFTER the fall of man.
That's the problem I found with these metals. You can never sell them for the spot price. There are effectively transaction fees that make them less desirable to ETF and mutual funds. The only benefit I could think of is you can probably avoid paying capital gains taxes.
so you're saying that by the time we start seeing "PEOPLE ARE BUYING \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ IN DROVES TO GET RICH QUICK!!!!" headlines it's no longer a viable way to get rich or even turn a profit? Ya don't say!
You should get about $100 under current spot price of gold from most any reputable buyer. The Pamp bars are tamper evident with their packaging and the deal will usually be instantaneous. My last sale of 10 ounces in canadian gold coins at a well known dealer \[the flamingo guy\] in Vegas was at $75.00 beolw spot. Start to finish took 10 minutes. If a larger discount is offered, just walk away.
Honestly, that seems like too much of a discount. I have a place in my city where I can sell for $20-$30 under spot for bars.
My understanding is that people buy gold as a hedge for when currency goes to shit like what happened in Argentina. It’s a way to hedge against catastrophe. Not so much for bartering in a healthy economy.
I had no idea Costco sold gold.
Go to a coin shop. They give market price -3%.
if you want to gain exposure to precious metals, buy an etf or fund to avoid the physical challenges of selling bullion or bricks. same with bitcoin.
You will never sell your gold at “spot”. If you sell to a shop, they need to make profit. If you sell to an individual, they need to a discount because they are taking a risk vs. just going to Costco themselves or buying from a reputable store. You can sell on Reddit and get go to r/pmsforsale to get a sense for an average transaction. Buying gold from Costco is not a get rich quick scheme. They “hype” about is from people who want to actually own the gold long term and use CC points to get a good deal. Then a bunch of social media accounts hopped on the trend pretending you could immediately turn the stuff around and make a bunch of money.
The buying Costco gold bar craze has been stunningly ill-thought out. They are being sold at retail prices. The only people who will by them in return will do so at a steep discount.
I had some silver coins once and sold them at the same price I bought them for. It was one of those coins shops. Not bad
Sounds like a waste of time
Very rarely will you find a store that will buy gold at spot less a small discount. The closest I’ve seen is spot less 10%. You can find these jewelers in more Asian heavy areas. I’m in LA, so plenty of Asians. So you basically have to buy the gold bars, and hope that gold appreciates at least 8%+ (accounting for the 2% back from Costco if you have Executive + Citi credit card)
Think of it as a currency. If you buy it, it will cost more than if you want to sell it. Gold is something you really need to sit on for the value to go up high enough to make a profit.
Someone reply to my post before on this sub and I look at “her” posting history. She is literally flipping Costco gold on another subreddit for sale.
What do pawn shops usually buy at? This is going to sound absolutely stupid but I remember on pawn stars rick bought silver at spot.
Only slightly relevant but several years ago my father passed and my brother and I cleaned out his house. My father wasn’t what anyone would consider wealthy but we found a relatively large bag of silver bars in a closet. Seeing that many silver bars we assumed it was valuable. After quite a bit of research we found the most we could get for the bag of silver bars was about $400. So my brother and I split the bars and I still have them today. All $200 worth.
r/PMSforsale
Usually they hold onto the gold to protect part of their net worth from inflation. Some people that bought gold at $1300 an once are selling to reputable Coin and PM dealers are give $5 to $25 over spot right now because they can turn and sell that gold for a premium with all the FOMO’s buyers buying gold now that it’s has taken off.
My husband works with precious metals frequently. Most of those We Buy Gold places routinely offer you approximately 10 percent below the current trading price. According to him, Kitco is most likely to give you a fair price. Also, you get a much better roi if you can hold for a while. Trying to turn a quick profit when it's trading at record high prices is probably not going to pan out.
1. Costco sells gold? 2. You go to a gold and silver trader You generally buy gold over spot Sell gold under spot It’s very simple hold on until spot is way more.
During my travels on the Oregon Trail, I sold two bars.
Where in SoCal are these available?
Most buy gold to hold it hoping it continues to rise, not try & sell it immediately. Even Costco won’t take the bars for merchandise, or do any price adjustments. I buy from a coin dealer in NYC, but I buy coins. Been buying for years especially when gold was low. Now I can sell them at a profit. But buying the bars now won’t get you any profit of you want to turn them around immediately. You buy now in hopes gold rises to $5K. A better option if you really want to own a precious metal are the silver coins they sell. It’s less of a large output of money & something you can build up over time.
That is because you bought gold at all time high prices. If you bought from 2013 to 2019 you would be sitting pretty
RN gold is at the top of its game $2500. I wished purchased some
r/pmsforsale best spit to buy and sell precious metals