1.Gold Bullion Buy physical gold at various prices: coins, bars and jewelry. Some of the most popular gold coins are American Buffalo, American Eagle and St. Gauden's. You can store gold in bank safety deposit boxes or in your home. You can also buy and sell gold at your local jewelers. Other companies like Kitco.com allow you to store gold with them as well as trade the metal. When you buy gold coins or bullion, avoid big premiums. You want to buy gold as close to the spot price as possible, or a 10% premium at most. The higher the premium, the higher the gold price will have to rise in order for you to profit. Coins typically come from the national mint, where they are made and sold at a 4% mark up -- the retailer's margin is 1% to 3%. To calculate the premium of a gold product, subtract the spot price from the price you are being quoted, divide that number by the spot price and multiply by 100. Had you purchased a one ounce gold bar at Kitco.com for $1,225.90 -- using a spot price of $1,200 -- the bar has a 2.1% mark-up. This means that the gold price only has to rise 2.1% from spot price levels for you to break even on your investment. Premiums, though, can mount as high as 75% or more based on the gold item. To avoid getting ripped off you must establish why you want to buy gold bullion. If you want to own gold as a long term investment, then buy gold as close to the spot price as possible. If you want to own gold to use as money, if you are a "survivalist" you want to buy a tank of gas with gold as Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco.com says, then you need smaller gold coins like one tenth an ounce and will have to pay the premium. Nadler's take is that an individual investor shouldn't spend more than a 10% mark up when buying gold, but acknowledges that "everyone has their own threshold." Where investors also tend to go astray is by buying semi-numismatic or numismatic coins, otherwise known as rare coins, which come with huge premiums that seldom recoup their value. A good rule of thumb is to leave rare coin buying to rare coin dealers. Nadler advises that consumers interested in rare coins go professional auctioneers like Bowers & Merena or Christie's who have experts on staff and can objectively grade the coins the same way an antique dealer would appraise goods. If a broker tries to sell you a story with the coin like it's from the "old world and there are only a few thousand in existence" experts advise to go elsewhere. "Don't confuse investing in gold with the things being sold as gold investments," cautions Nadler. "You want something that tracks the price of gold as close to dollar to dollar as possible."
I have come to learn that jewelry is a great way to invest. I have a few pieces. I am glad that I bought them.
Really good information Djdevix. It is worth for the newbies who wants to invest in gold. Thanks for sharing.
buy physical gold bullion and earn 2% every month. Yes it is now possible to buy gold bullion and earn 2% every month. email me if you are keen to know more. Yes 24% per year...
No they are not. I have already explained this quite a lot in my previous posts. If you want to invest in physical gold, then go for either gold bars or gold bullion coins. The mark up percentage is always very high in the case of gold jewelry.
@ vest007 u r totally right bro. jewelry and the gold bars are two different things. tbh i too used to think jewelry is good investment in gold but thats just a wrong idea. thats good for the thought though especially with the housewives. lol
That is why you should invest with your brain, rather than invest with your heart. Think twice about the resell value and risk of storage before investing in bars, bullion or jewelry.
The jewelry can still end up being a good investment but if you are really trying to maximize the number of grams for your money than yes- .999 coins and bars are the way to go- and larger sizes to minimize the surcharge if you can afford it.
I am new to gold investment. Where do you suggest purchasing gold coins or bullion? Although I have not purchased gold jewelry for investment purposes, I have a collection of gold pieces that were passed down in my family. I refuse to sell them because of what I've read about the price of gold increasing.
So you guys here are making it seem like having Jewelry isn't exactly a good thing? What about for people like me that are a little more on the broke side and still want to invest in things such as gold. Would it be ok to invest in some jewelry from time to time if I found some decent prices at pawn shops or estate sales? Or should I just stray away from that thought all together?
No one is saying that you should stay out of jewelry. For long term investment, even jewelry is a very good option, as long as you are buying it from a reliable source / dealer. But for short term it is not very clever to invest in jewelry. For example, take the case of someone who bought both bullion coins and jewelry in 1995. Lets say he bought 1 Oz each. Bullion coins were selling for $380 per Oz, but jewelry usually will have a markup of at least 5%. So he had 1 Oz of jewelry @ $400 and 1 Oz bullion coin @ $380. He wants to sell them in 1996. The price is now $387 per Oz. For bullion coins, the markup is usually 0.5 to 1%, so he sold it for $385, for a profit of $5. But for jewelry, you won't get the market rates while selling. So again he sold it for $370, to incur a loss of $30. Now lets imagine this guy held on to his gold till 2011. If he sells now, he will get $1,620 for the bullion coin and $1,600 for the jewelry. Now the profit is $1,240 for bullion coin and $1,200 for jewelry. So there is hardly any difference. So, if you can hold on for some 15-20 years, there is no harm in buying gold jewelry.
Simple way to find answer is try to sell Jewelry which you have purchased 2 years back, just see what price you get back, then you will surely want to buy gold bars always
Well... I don't know. If you are able to find someone, who is looking for some gold jewelry, then you might get lucky. If this guy likes the design of your gold ornaments, then he might even pay a markup for your gold. In such cases you may get a better profit as compared to coins / bars.
There are quite a few varieties of foreign gold coins and U.S. gold coins available in the market today. However we feel that the best gold coins anyone can own are the $20 Liberty and the $20 Saint Gaudens. These coins are among the most affordable and readily available in the market place today. Therefore they are easy to track and are highly liquid
I don't know if I am wrong, but I think the rising of gold prize is actually something a little ficticious, since the devaluation of coins worlwide, and world economy over all. The truth is that many countries are making non honest money, by that meaning money not supported by the gold reserves of the country. If you go back in history, you can basically buy the same services with gold nowadays than a hundred years ago. If I am wrong I would like to read more of your knowledge about this.
Gold has always been about wealth preservation - it does well in a time of crisis. It does not pay any interest and there are costs associated with its storage, but many investors have lost faith in “fiat” currencies as governments across the world have printed money.
Thank you for this great post. My preference for investing in gold and silver is the United States silver and gold eagles. Not only could you sell them to an investor when you are looking to sell but also a coin collector.
Just because a portfolio did fine without gold during the 1990′s does not mean that the protection it provides is not needed. A weakening dollar, market crashes, investment bank collapses, and international turmoil are all events we have witnessed in the first decade of the 21st century. Those that held gold through these times have not only protected their wealth, but have seen the price of gold rise substantially!
