Where and how do you purchase physical gold?

[ochotona]

My daughter is doing an engineering internship in Switzerland this summer. I have a feeling she's going to go to grad school there. It sounds great.

[Libertarian666]

My daughter is doing an engineering internship in Switzerland this summer. I have a feeling she's going to go to grad school there. It sounds great.

That sounds great. I wish I had had that opportunity early in my career.

[Kriegsspiel]

I've seen Puerto Rico, the Channel Islands, and Hong Kong mentioned.

But really, you can be pretty fucking rich and not need to deal with renouncing your citizenship. gocurrycracker has written a lot about how international travellers don't need to worry about taxes.

That is generally true... unless they are US citizens, in which case they are subject to US tax law no matter where they live.

The GCC reference was to having no earned income, so that capital gains/dividends/interest are tax free (for US citizens).

[Libertarian666]

I've seen Puerto Rico, the Channel Islands, and Hong Kong mentioned.

But really, you can be pretty fucking rich and not need to deal with renouncing your citizenship. gocurrycracker has written a lot about how international travellers don't need to worry about taxes.

That is generally true... unless they are US citizens, in which case they are subject to US tax law no matter where they live.

The GCC reference was to having no earned income, so that capital gains/dividends/interest are tax free (for US citizens).

There is no special treatment for capital gains, dividends, and/or interest for expatriates. Sure, if your gross income is low enough you won't have any tax liability, just as you wouldn't if you were living in the US, but that isn't special for expatriates. In any event, you still have to comply with US tax laws, which include a lot of extremely unpleasant paperwork if you have any significant amount of assets outside the country.

[Kriegsspiel]

Yea, my mistake. The expatriate part was related to earned income.

[dualstow]

Just thought I'd pass this along...

I put in an order with Kitco on Monday and wired $ the same day. Coins were shipped Tuesday and arrived via UPS on Wednesday even though I didn't pay for expedited shipping. Ten coins at $1,312 each. Insurance was $52.48 & the wire fee was $30. Price above spot was $21 per coin. All included my price above spot was just under 2.2%. Pretty damn easy and the coins are all 2016 Eagles in great shape.

This is one of the "special offers" on their site for which - at least this is my understanding - one cannot specify a year on the coins.

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised (and that my wife is a little freaked out that I bought gold online). Open package, fondle, make note to dig a hole in the back yard when the ground thaws.

You were smart to wire.

I just tried ordering a few coins (not 10) from the same vendor, but never got past the credit card page. I selected personal check, but you have to enter a credit card to proceed. There were a few strange things:
- Personal check option says less than $10,000. Why? Maybe because it's my first order? I have paid by check for more than that to other vendors.
- After I entered the credit card info, I got kicked out of the order process.
- I got on the online chat with a cust svc rep, who confirmed that the order had not yet gone through. Tried more than one card, and got online with my bank to make sure they weren't blocking anything. (They regularly block me from buying something like a plane ticket until I resend my info and security answers).
- In the end, I canceled the order. Shrug. I will try again someday, but it looks like I'm back to apmex for now, though they are about US$6 per coin more than the special from kitco, if I remember right. (Kitco price went up a few dollars, dollar by dollar as I scrambled to complete the order).

This is my fifth vendor, and my second online vendor. (1 local, 2 by phone, 2 online). This is the first time I couldn't get an order through, not including my bitcoin-for-gold disaster at Apmex.

[dualstow]

^ Hmm, I wonder if I missed my chance. ^
Short-term thinking, I know.

[buddtholomew]

^ Hmm, I wonder if I missed my chance. ^
Short-term thinking, I know.

Nah, premium is 2.2% and gold is up less than 1%...the way I see it you are up 1.2%

[Jack Jones]

For physical (40% of my gold allocation) I order from silvergoldbull.ca. Free, fast shipping; usually the lowest premiums I can find. Online dealers are pretty much the only way to go, IMO -- brick and mortar dealers just can't compete.

I don't have enough cash in taxable space to buy physical gold yet, but I'm planning on buying it from a brick and mortar place for privacy. I imagine I can walk in, buy a coin with cash and walk out without them knowing anything about me, right?

[dualstow]

I don't have enough cash in taxable space to buy physical gold yet, but I'm planning on buying it from a brick and mortar place for privacy. I imagine I can walk in, buy a coin with cash and walk out without them knowing anything about me, right?

I think that's true, at least until an ounce is more than $10,000. I don't know for sure, because I used a personal check, never cash.
It seems unlikely that someone would go out of their way to buy a coin here and a coin there, at multiple local dealers, just to hide a large purchase. It would be more trouble than it's worth. So I would imagine you're right.

I found this. Hmm. https://www.caseyresearch.com/this-is-t ... cking-you/

^ Hmm, I wonder if I missed my chance. ^
Short-term thinking, I know.

Nah, premium is 2.2% and gold is up less than 1%...the way I see it you are up 1.2%

[buddtholomew]

Bye bye gold...

Welcome back!

[ochotona]

Has anyone had experience buying from SD Bullion? Good, bad? Their prices seem very low.

[ochotona]

Texas Precious Metals no longer has good prices. I don't know what happened but I won't buy from there now.

[ochotona]

Texas Precious Metals no longer has good prices. I don't know what happened but I won't buy from there now.

The CREDIT CARD prices are in the left-most column. They are much higher than CASH / CHECK / WIRE prices. I was comparing Tex CC prices vs. everyone else's cash prices. Silly me. I suggested they make the CC prices the right column, not the left. People read left-to-right.

[dualstow]

yeah, that’s weird. Put your cheapest price first unless you want to scare off customers!

[Ad Orientem]

I haven't done anything in gold for a while, however, I generally prefer local businesses assuming their prices are reasonable. Sometimes though one can find some very good deals online. The only precious metals purchases I've made lately were all silver and I got 400 ozs for .49 cents over spot from JM Bullion.

[Lonestar]

Texas Precious Metals no longer has good prices. I don't know what happened but I won't buy from there now.

The CREDIT CARD prices are in the left-most column. They are much higher than CASH / CHECK / WIRE prices. I was comparing Tex CC prices vs. everyone else's cash prices. Silly me. I suggested they make the CC prices the right column, not the left. People read left-to-right.

So with that considered are their cash prices still good compared to other dealers?

[ochotona]

Texas Precious Metals no longer has good prices. I don't know what happened but I won't buy from there now.

The CREDIT CARD prices are in the left-most column. They are much higher than CASH / CHECK / WIRE prices. I was comparing Tex CC prices vs. everyone else's cash prices. Silly me. I suggested they make the CC prices the right column, not the left. People read left-to-right.

So with that considered are their cash prices still good compared to other dealers?

They seem OK. Not the best the day I looked, but leadership changes all the time for different products.

[ochotona]

Sophie, someone in the NYC area is asking me where to buy gold bullion. Any suggestions about local dealers? (they don't charge sales tax on local gold sales there, do they?)

[sophie]

There are several in midtown Manhattan. Check google for listings and ratings. Oddly, I haven't tried any yet but I plan to next time I get around to buying gold. A couple have reasonable markups, and picking up in person saves on shipping fees.

There's no sales tax on gold as long as your purchase is over $1,000, and the gold isn't in the form of jewelry or similar.

[Don]

There are several in midtown Manhattan. Check google for listings and ratings. Oddly, I haven't tried any yet but I plan to next time I get around to buying gold. A couple have reasonable markups, and picking up in person saves on shipping fees.

There's no sales tax on gold as long as your purchase is over $1,000, and the gold isn't in the form of jewelry or similar.

@MayorDeBlasio

[ochotona]

At some point in the future we're going to know if physical gold was worth it or not. If physical and ETFs track well enough during the next gold panic buying episode or bubble, then there was no point to owning physical; let the selling begin. We won't know for a while.

[pmward]

At some point in the future we're going to know if physical gold was worth it or not. If physical and ETFs track well enough during the next gold panic buying episode or bubble, then there was no point to owning physical; let the selling begin. We won't know for a while.

I still think there would still be value in having some physical since it is the only asset we can directly own physically in hand. But I don't think I would want my entire stash in physical. I have a number in mind that I would like to build up to in physical, and once I'm there I would be personally comfortable in either a low cost unallocated account or low cost ETF for the rest. The idea would be to never sell any of the physical I'm holding except in the event of an emergency where there is no other choice. That would make it ultimately lower cost over my lifetime than unallocated accounts or ETF's.

[dualstow]

At some point in the future we're going to know if physical gold was worth it or not.
...

heirs.

[ochotona]

At some point in the future we're going to know if physical gold was worth it or not.
...

heirs.

Actually, I was thinking of my Millennial and Gen-Z heirs. I guess it's OK to have the Executor hand out coins to the kids, but the mechanics of dealing with my GoldStar precious metals IRA, with the custodian and the dealer both involved, and the forms that have to be properly filled out and sent around... I'd rather sell the physical and send the cash back to my Schwab IRA and by gold ETFs well in advance when I'm still healthy enough and make the final distribution easier for them.