The right way to buy gold.

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I suspect a lot of gold plated bling will come through that door.

 

I don't get it. But when I want to buy gold, I usually go to a popular, crowded bank and yell "bank sale!!"

(if you get it... )

 

There are problems with that - selling someone else's gold without their permission is a crime. We had a pawn shop in town that was busted awhile back for buying stuff and not documenting where they got it from - turned out the stuff had been from burglarised homes and someone ID'd it in the pawn shop.

 

True, but I don't think they meant that. It's hard to say what they mean when they write like that, but I suspect they mean they'll buy the bling he bought for her.

 

It just reminds me how bloody stupid we are with jewelry in this country. I bet you that shop will pay the "baby mama" about 20 cents on the dollar what the "baby daddy" paid, (btw am I the only one who finds using this nomenclature repugnant and a sure sign of the moral decline in this nation?).

I never thought about it until shown a better way by my Thai friends. In most of the world, you weigh the jewelry and START at what the value of the gold is. Then you negotiate a premium above that because its in a necklace, etc. When you sell, they weigh it and pay you the gold value.

Why are we so ignorant in this country? This system is brilliant! I will bet you 99% of buyers of gold jewelry have absolutely no clue how much the gold is worth, and no clue how much EXTRA they are paying above the gold value. It might suck for the jewelers in this country, but is great for consumers. Because I now buy jewelry for my wife this way, I am now completely comfortable with her buying as much as she wants. I simply consider it another form of gold we are holding.

 

It is too bad that the watered down gold in the USA is mostly 10-14K at best. In India for example, it is usually 22K and is sold by the actual price of the gold and a small markup vs how they sell it in the USA - 14K with a really high retail markup.

 

Nope...

However, I believe it is not just the US, but the large parts of the world.

 

Yeah, most of the world does not even consider what our jewelry shops sell as gold. They think it looks funny, (which it does versus real gold). 22k is the international standard, (and after you get used to it, it looks like fake gold at first, I find it nicer looking than US "gold").

 

Another thing that drives me nuts about how jewelry is marketed in the US are the sales. If you were to buy jewelry in a decent department store like Macy's, there are always sales where the items are marked down 40-70%. The tag that is on the item is super inflated, and the price you end up paying is also too high. But people pay it, so that's what they do.

 

My strong suggestion for anyone reading is to seek out an Indian or SE Asian gold store if they can. You know exactly what the market value is you are buying, and how much of a premium you are paying. Same with selling, they pay you back what the market price is on that day.

It works out well. Your wife gets jewelry, you get a PM investment. My wife doesn't even wear hers very often, so we keep it in the SDB. However, she never disagrees if I wish to buy her more jewelry, so Chris gets credit for jewelry, and still gets to put some ounces of gold aside argument free. I think we have about 15 baht of gold jewelry for her right now, (1 baht is very slightly less than half an ounce).

I have completely opted out of the US jewelry market at this point. Like Blaubart said, even on "sale" its vastly overpriced and inferior gold. You want to drive them nuts? Go to a traditional jewelry store and ask them to calculate the value of the gold in their jewelry. Most don't even know how, or will lie and tell you a quarter ounce of 14k gold is worth $400 today.

 

We had a couple of local pawn shops nailed for that as well.

Not asking for ID is a no no for pawn shops.

They took in close $15k of valuables that was all stolen.

Surprised the pawn brokers didn't wind up in the ED with 3rd degree burns on their fingers.

 

One pawnshop here asks for my SSN to sell something. I don't deal with them. Some of the people working there looked a little shady, and I don't want them having access to it. A copy of my photo ID has my picture, license number, DOB, and street address. That should be sufficient.

 

The government is the only one that should be asking for your SSN - and I don't even trust them! Some slimy pawn shop asking for it is a real red alarm.

 

You mention Baht as a weight - buying in Thailand? I can imagine buying there would be fascinating because of the skilled jewelry manufacturing there.

 

Yeah, everything there is weighed and valued in baht. It is confusing for outsiders since baht is also their currency. Since I collect thai coins I know how it cam to be, a baht of silver, (weight), was their primary currency for hundreds of years. Value and weight were identical. They diverged later, but both kept the name. Its like if the US had a unit of weight called a dollar. A dollar weight of silver was worth a dollar in money. When we stopped making silver coins, we would still call our currency a dollar, as well as the weight a dollar.

Anyway, yes sir I buy in Thailand, or buy in a Thai jewelry store here in MN. Northern Thailand is really interesting for their history of silverwork. Chiang Mai still has many silversmiths still working, and its very easy to have something custom made. Chiang Mai was an early capital of Thailand and still is the center of the silver trade there. Bangkok is more known for gem cutting.

 

I love it when people who have no need to have my SSN ask for it. I ask them why they need it, what they do to protect the information they gather, how long they maintain it, who has routine access to it, who they will grant access to it upon request, etc.

Usually, the answer is something like "I don't know, we're just supposed to ask for it..."

Stupid people should not have access to my personal information.

 

no one should have acecs to your SSN, besides the government. I heard somewhere its illegal to ask for your SSN for those kind of pourposes. Is that true? If I go to a coin shop and they ask me for my SSN (which has never happened, for obvious reasons) I would walk out the door as fast as I can.

EDITED

 

Their 19th century coins were measured in Baht - lot like the Peso - basically it is a unit of weight and not a name like Dollar. I like the "bullet" coins. During the SE Asia conflict pops was there - I wisht he could have gotten me some of the coins from there like the ones from Japan.

 

Until now, I only THOUGHT you were stupid.

And now I know you were born in Wisconsin.