HOW TO BUY GOLD
OR SILVER
How to buy
gold, silver or platinum? This is becoming
a uncharacteristically common question. Not all too
surprisingly I receive this question all the time. I buy gold and
silver. I do not
sell gold professionally. Through some trial and error along
with a lot of research I hope to be able to provide you with a very helpful
answer to this question and teach you where to buy gold. You likely found
this page as a top result in a search engine. But do not trust any entity
just because they are at the top of the search engine.
BEWARE OF
SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS
Buying silver
or buying gold is very simple but if done incorrectly then the results can be
financially devastating. It is extremely important to learn how and where to
buy gold or silver from trusted and reputable sources in safe and secure
transactions and not through companies which have issues like in this Monex
review.
At all times
and in all circumstances gold and silver remains money. Therefore, both
gold and silver belongs in your portfolio at all times and in all
circumstances.
DAUNTING
QUESTIONS WHEN CONSIDERING BUYING GOLD OR SILVER
But there is a
plethora of options in determining how and where to buy gold or silver.
Some questions you may begin to ask yourself is do you buy rounds, gold
ingots, a gold coin, an american silver eagle coin, a gold krugerrand from
South Africa, a gold maple leaf coin from Canada, a gold British sovereign
coin, an Engelhard silver bar. Do you buy silver directly from a mint,
producer or dealer or do you use a ‘pool account’ or some other
form of unsegregated storage? Do you buy a silver gram or a kilogram of
gold and do you buy gold as an investment or merely to preserve your wealth?
How do you determine the price you are willing to pay for the gold or
silver? Do you use the gold spot price or silver spot price or live
gold prices from a gold exchange, gold dealer or the prevailing gold rates?
Should a premium be paid for gold or silver jewelry?
In this article
you will only learn about investing in gold or silver bullion in allocated
storage through your own personal possession or with a trusted-third party
storage service. This is the only type of gold ownership method I recommend.
Additionally, I am not very interested in numismatic gold or
silver coins and think that a gold
confiscation is highly unlikely. I like investment grade gold and silver
bars, such as those from the London Bullion Market Association, which have a
chain of integrity and chain of custody. Then you know that the gold or
silver is real and not a lead bar painted gold.
While gold and
silver are tangible assets and physical elements, making them extremely
transparent, the gold and silver markets are particularly murky with many
shady characters lurking around. Thus, when looking at how to buy gold
or silver you have two primary methods: (1) your own physical possession or
(2) third-party storage.
GOLD OR SILVER
IN YOUR OWN PHYSICAL POSSESSION
Personal
physical possession can be accomplished by buying gold coins, buying gold
bars, buying silver coins or buying silver bars and immediately
taking physical delivery. The ideal way to purchase in this
manner is in person with cash.
There are many
reputable gold and silver bullion dealers throughout the world. You can
open up the phone book or go down to the local pawnshop. This is an
easy way to find a place to buy gold or buy silver. Unfortunately,
because this article is directed generally it cannot really give recommendations
on specific local bullion dealers. Additionally, there is typically a
significant premium is charged for this exchange.
I recommend
everyone have at least some physical gold or silver bullion in their
immediate possession. Like extra food you never know when it may come
in handy but will be extremely grateful should you need the gold or silver.
Often being prepared helps calm the conscience. Do not keep gold
or silver in a safety deposit box, or anything else of value for that matter,
as it may end up on Ebay.
Storing silver
or gold bullion yourself will not cost anything. But you may misplace
it, have it stolen, etc. Therefore, many of my readers want to know
where to buy gold or buy silver in amounts of $50,000 or more where they do
not take personal physical possession.
I take all of
my readers time, attention and trust extremely seriously. I feel
a poignant heightened sense of trust when some of my readers want to
allocate several millions dollars to buy silver or buy gold and so answering
their questions of how to buy gold or buy silver bears down with a weighty
responsibility.
WHERE TO BUY
GOLD OR SILVER: THIRD-PARTY STORAGE
Another way you
can buy silver or buy gold is by having a third party store the bullion after
taking physical delivery. Where to buy silver or gold is extremely
important to you because of governmental restrictions, customs, etc.
However, this can be a very tricky area and you may unwittingly subject
your valuable assets to unnecessary risks if you are naive.
If a third
party takes delivery then the silver or gold is either encumbered or
unencumbered. If the gold or silver is encumbered then the silver or
gold is subject to counter-party risk and I highly recommend avoiding
counter-party risk with your precious gold, silver or platinum. If the
gold or silver bullion is unencumbered, meaning subject to physical delivery at any time
and not subject to the financial ability of the storage entity, then it is
subject only to performance risk.
You will also
want to consider insurance, corporate governance, audits, compliance with
applicable regulations or laws and the firm’s reputation.
GOLDMONEY
– A TRUSTED AGENT
A trusted third
party, like GoldMoney
, is a viable option when you delve into answering
the question of how to buy gold or how to buy silver or how to buy platinum.
GoldMoney
is the only firm I have thoroughly researched.
The gold, silver and platinum is insured, there are
polices in place and enforced for strong corporate governance, external
audits take place on a regular basis, rigorous compliance with applicable law
and GoldMoney has a sterling reputation in the industry with LBMA vaults in
London and Switzerland with insurance covering your bullion.
Additionally, investors can redeem and take physical delivery of their gold at any
time in convenient units of 100 gram, 1,000 gram or 400 ounce
gold bars.
Many reputable financial professionals recommend
GoldMoney including billionaire Eric Sprott, John Embry, Mike
‘Mish’ Shedlock, Doug Casey, Peter Schiff, Michael Maloney
and myself. There are many reasons in the fine print for
this consensus from respected experts and I have detailed the GoldMoney reviews and also in the following
video:
The
only other third-party storage service I am aware of with similar proficiency
is BullionVault but I have neither thoroughly
researched their various legal documents nor can I recommend them. But
not all third-party storage services are created equal and there is ample
reason to be cautious.
BEWARE OF SHADY CHARACTERS
There are many untrustworthy agents which purport to
help you answer the questions of how to buy gold or how to buy silver but
really attempt to sell you paper silver and paper gold which is merely a form
of fool’s silver or fool’s gold.
There are many unscrupulous rogues attempting to
answer your query about how to buy gold or how to buy silver in a way that
will unjustly enrich themselves at your expense. For example, in
TheStreet.tv video in the upper left the host recommends using the GLD ETF.
I have thoroughly reviewed the prospectus and
found problems with the GLD and SLV ETFs. If
you desire to own physical gold or physical silver, which I recommend, then I WARN YOU NOT TO BUY THE GLD ETF.
There
are other third-party storage services such as E-gold or the Perth Mint in
Australia. But in July 2008 E-Gold pleaded guilty to money laundering
charges in US federal court. In 2009 the nation of Canada’s Royal
Canadian Mint withheld employee bonuses and sent in external auditors to
determine the cause of a multi-million dollar
‘unreconciled difference’ between the financial accounting
and the physical bullion.
I
recommend staying away from unnecessarily complex instruments even
if issued through perceived reputable firms. For example, in June 2007 Morgan Stanley & Co.
settled a class action lawsuit for $4.4 million where the complaint alleged
that Morgan Stanley told clients it was selling them
precious metals that they would own in full and that the company would store.
But Morgan Stanley either made no investment specifically on behalf of
those clients, or it made entirely different investments of lesser value and
security.
While the efficacy of the claim may still be at issue
the Better Business Bureau-like complaint from unsatisfied customers who
initiated litigation does not inspire confidence for those seeking to reduce
risk.
There are other more complicated ways regarding how
to buy gold or how to buy silver. Many of these options include some
type of paper instrument such as a futures contract, warehouse receipt, etc.
If you are new to buying gold or buying silver then I would recommend
you avoid these complex instruments.
One reason is because when you buy gold or buy
silver through shady customers or ‘paper gold’ instruments
then counter-party risk may be present along with
restrictions on demanding delivery of bullion. For example, the NYMEX has significant restrictions which can
significantly delay delivery and the TOCOM now allows ‘paper
gold’ to settle futures contracts on physical gold contracts.
You neither want to get
involved with an asset that you do not understand nor do you not want to get
taken in a scam, Ponzi scheme or other type of fraud or theft. Keep the
process of buying gold or buying silver simple by exchanging your cash for
the bullion.
CONCLUSION
For you to learn how and where
to buy gold or how to buy silver I recommend keeping it simple. Engage
in buying silver coins, buying silver bars, buying gold coins or buying gold
bars and taking physical delivery. For larger amounts consider trusted
and secure third-party firms like GoldMoney. Avoid shady characters,
like the GLD or SLV ETFs, NYMEX, TOCOM, etc. where the contracts are complex
and difficult to understand and may result in your gold or silver actually
being paper silver or paper gold and may be impreganted with counter-party
risk.
As you decide on how to buy
gold or how to buy silver I hope these suggestions are valuable. Buy a
gold coin or silver bar that you can hold in the palm of your hand as it
ignites a deep-seated gold lust that has lain dormant in most of humanity for
almost 80 years. Consider using the storage services of a trusted
third-party, like GoldMoney, to vault your gold or silver.
I hope these suggestions assist you in safely, securely and confidently
taking physical possession of the ’sweat of the sun’ and
‘tears of the moon’.
If you have any other questions about how to buy
gold or silver then please contract me.
Trace Mayer
RuntoGold.com
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