Does anyone else think this is just about the stupidest line they've ever heard anyone utter about an investment? Isn't this like saying, "Buy my house ... it'll never be worth Zero!" All the "buy gold" commercials on TV cable news channels say it: "Gold has never been worth Zero!" Good grief, I certainly HOPE not! Why do they say such a ridiculous line, as if that's supposed to encourage people to pay $1K per ounce or more plus shipping? Or am I missing some valid point of some kind?
Well, when you compare gold to alternative investments, such as bonds and stocks, which do have the potential to end up being worth zero, its certainly a valid, if somewhat obvious selling point.......
By saying that "gold will never be worth zero" seems like they truly believe that gold will go down, but not enough to make it worthless. I wouldn't even watch TV coin sales.
What I felt they were trying to imply is that if everything goes down the tubes and even our currency hits bottom, you would still be ok if you had enough gold. They are trying to feed off the fears people have of a crash Richard
Wasn't gold worth zero in the Twilight Zone?? There was an episode where some guys stole a bunch of gold and to escape the cops they went into a cave in the desert and put them selves into suspended animation for 100 years. Of course, they woke up to a future where gold had no value ever since they learned to manufacture it
Well there have been successful experiments transmuting lead into gold and other experiments converting mercury into gold, but the expense in doing so far outweighs the value of the gold that is manufactured. Of course, someday gold prices may rise high enough or those manfuacturing costs may come down enough to make it worthwhile.
The only way gold could be down to zero, is if that was the demand for it..zero..nobody wanted the stuff. The true value of anything is what another is willing to pay for it. As long as ther is demand, someone will supply, and trade will commence. To put it in the simplest terms.
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/nelson2_7.html Looks like it cost $60k to make $1 of gold from mercury in 1924. Maybe the cost has come down a bit?? I know the gold price has gone up since then.
Here's something to ponder though. Say if they were able to do this. Wouldn't todays gold coins, things that we know are genuinely gold, and stamped with a date, still have high value. Think here: Would you rather own a 2009 AGE that you know is real gold, or some manufactured crap? I'm for the former. stainless
There are lots of manufactured gemstones that are available on the market and the prices of the real thing still go for a premium, but I believe the overall price of the real thing has dropped because of the availability of synthetics.
True, and that may be because some gems are hard to know whether they are real or synthetic (Citrine, for example). However, I think coins may be different. They have the dates on them and such. I know we are talking the price of gold here, but from a numismatic standpoint, I think the value of the coins would still be up because it isn't in the era of manufactered gold, unlike gemstones. Not trying to argue, lol.. stainless PS: I am too lazy to read your link, but would this manufactured gold be exactly the same as gold? IE, can you use it the same as you would for industrial purposes and such?
I'm no chemist or physicist, but I'm pretty sure that manufacturing gold will always be prohibitively difficult, because the energy and effort required to convert one element into another by changing the atomic nucleus is a lot more involved than simply converting chemical compounds into other compounds....
I stand by my original statement, that this is the stupidest comment an investment sales pitch could make. Imagine this conversation: Joe: "Here, buy my AGE's for $1150. each." Bill: "But I've heard gold is $1009.60 as of Friday afternoon." (9/18/09) Joe: "Yeah, but it's never been worth zero." Bill: "Well it's already worth less than you want for it." Joe: "Yeah, but it's never been worth zero." Bill: "What's that got to do with anything?" Joe: "Well, you'll never lose your WHOLE investment!" Bill: "So you're saying it's okay if I lose twenty percent if I don't lose it all?" Joe: "Yeah! That's it! It's never been worth zero!" Bill: "Go buy a bridge ... and jump off of it." ... and on and on. I apparently don't make allowance for stupid admen who make up what they think is a good sales pitch and can't see how dumb it is. Maybe it's just me. By the way, I have a nice 1996 Mercury Sable for sale that's never been worth zero, just in case anybody is interested ...
You are correct. It is outright stupidity. Nobody should base their investment strategy around finding things that will never be worth zero. And just because something can never be worth zero doesn't make it a worthwhile investment.
