How to buy physical gold?
How to buy physical gold?
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Discussion

dvs_dave

Original Poster:

9,040 posts

242 months

Monday 14th November 2011
quotequote all
As the thread title. How do you buy gold bullion or coins and actually have it in your physical posession? Plenty of companies out there offering to take your real money in exchange for "virtual" real gold held in a safe somewhere but that has to be the silliest thing you could ever do.

I want to actually buy some precious metals to protect some of my cash assets in the long term and lock it in my own safe/deposit box somewhere. What's the best option for this and what form should it be in?

Scamper

732 posts

239 months

Monday 14th November 2011
quotequote all
http://www.goldline.co.uk/

i buy silver coins from here.....

cailean

917 posts

190 months

Monday 14th November 2011
quotequote all
Why not just buy an ETF/ETC (Exchange Traded Fund/Commodity)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange-traded_fund#...

They track the commodity prices for minimal costs. You can buy a huge range, and include soft commodities / agriculture stuff as well.

Victor McDade

4,395 posts

199 months

Monday 14th November 2011
quotequote all
I've used these guys before:

http://www.atsbullion.com/index.html?gclid=CNKwmKC...

Based in London.

And:

http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/

Based in Blackpool.

Would reccomend both.


AndySpecD

436 posts

204 months

Monday 14th November 2011
quotequote all
Take some advice and consider other options if you are thinking of buying gold...

BoRED S2upid

20,777 posts

257 months

Tuesday 15th November 2011
quotequote all
I read there are vending machines in China.

Marf

22,907 posts

258 months

Tuesday 15th November 2011
quotequote all
AndySpecD said:
Take some advice and consider other options if you are thinking of buying gold...
Such as?

Newc

2,124 posts

199 months

Tuesday 15th November 2011
quotequote all
If you buy bullion bars rather than coins, and take it out of the industry's audited process (known as London Good Delivery) to store at your domestic underground bunker, you will have to pay for assay and audit costs when you resell it. On the flip side, you will save the annual insurance costs typically levied by the bullion management firms.

Coins are a bit easier to trade, but the spreads are very wide.

ETFs and other pooled investments can work, but some are allocated bars and some are not. I would suggest you only want to consider allocated funds.

In all cases where you have taken physical delivery as armageddon insurance, you should consider the political stability of the country where it's held. Switzerland and Canada usually top the charts.


walm

10,632 posts

219 months

Tuesday 15th November 2011
quotequote all
dvs_dave said:
Plenty of companies out there offering to take your real money in exchange for "virtual" real gold held in a safe somewhere but that has to be the silliest thing you could ever do.
Silly like leaving your money in a bank?
Silly like investing in shares?
Silly like you think you have done more due-diligence on the legitimacy of ETFs than the most sophisticated investors in history?
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2011/11/Pages...

Just buy GLD and save yourself the hassle.

nocarjames

2,971 posts

175 months

Tuesday 15th November 2011
quotequote all
Harrods basement has a gold bullion dispenser - largest bar they had was c£440,000 - looked a decent size.

I read in the papers not long ago that westfields shopping centre has a gold bullion vending machine that takes credit cards etc and outpops your bar and decent indipendent jewellery stores should be able to source it for you and probably cheaper than the above.