Gyroscopic Investing

Rolling back the exemption would more than double the markup on many of Lerner's products and could send buyers heading to Pennsylvania or the Internet for their South African Krugerrands.

Glad I live in Pennsylvania.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=46&sid=2744708

dualstow wrote:

Rolling back the exemption would more than double the markup on many of Lerner's products and could send buyers heading to Pennsylvania or the Internet for their South African Krugerrands.

Glad I live in Pennsylvania.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=46&sid=2744708

I know this is an older thread but I wasn't thinking about the fact of paying sales tax on gold bullion purchases. That would ratchet up the premiums by a ton.

In the case of Amazon, I know people were annoyed by the fact people would purchase on there to avoid the sales tax charge of their state so states would be "losing" money.

Is this the same case for purchasing bullion online? I just purchased from goldmart a few days ago and don't recall anything regarding taxes for shipping to Pennsylvania.

1NV35T0R wrote: Is this the same case for purchasing bullion online? I just purchased from goldmart a few days ago and don't recall anything regarding taxes for shipping to Pennsylvania.

It's been a while since I read the article, but if I remember correctly, it was just a proposal. And anyway, if you're in Pennsylvania you should be fine.

dualstow wrote:

1NV35T0R wrote: Is this the same case for purchasing bullion online? I just purchased from goldmart a few days ago and don't recall anything regarding taxes for shipping to Pennsylvania.

It's been a while since I read the article, but if I remember correctly, it was just a proposal. And anyway, if you're in Pennsylvania you should be fine.

I'll have to read up to see if anything is happening with this but the reason I'm interested is because at some point I'll be moving to Maryland because my job is out there. I'm currently near the PA border and commuting but don't want to be doing that forever.

Measures (or proposals) like this remind me of the many benefits of infrequent rebalancing in the PP.

There might be an exemption on purchases greater than $1,000, similar to New York's.  These purchases are assumed to be for purposes of investing, rather than coin collecting.  New Jersey, on the other hand, imposes a sales tax on all bullion purchases.  You can guess what's happened to coin dealers in NJ.

Kind of hard to understand why states in close proximity do this to themselves.  True story from the 1980's:  Connecticut made turnpike tokens that worked in New York City's subway system, but cost much less than a New York City subway token.  There ensued a wonderfully entertaining war between NYC and CT, which NYC won by threatening to change its subway tokens and sell the old ones for much less than the price of a turnpike token.

Couldn't you just buy the coins online?

Pointedstick wrote: Couldn't you just buy the coins online?

That's what I was saying a few posts above regarding what Amazon has done. I'm living in Pennsylvania which has a 6% sales tax but I purchased from goldmart a few days ago and didn't get sales tax on it. If I did purchase in PA, my premiums over spot would be 9-10% which would be a huge jump from what I'm paying now.

Also PointedStick,

Not sure if anyone has asked, but who is that a picture of in your avatar?

1NV35T0R wrote: Also PointedStick,

Not sure if anyone has asked, but who is that a picture of in your avatar?

I believe that is a photo of Prince Imbutu Pointedsticku of Senegal.

Good guess MediumTex, but it's CEO Morgan, of Alpha Centauri fame! He's the game's token capitalist faction leader, and while the developers intentionally crippled him to make a misguided political statement, they made the mistake of developing his character a great deal and giving him the best voice actor. Here are some videos featuring him from the game:

http://youtu.be/ez7AFPX9RYE

http://youtu.be/bX4ybrp9WRw

http://youtu.be/jdCB9yE9Hcc

http://youtu.be/yMIxYbhWQMI

Pointedstick wrote: Good guess MediumTex, but it's CEO Morgan, of Alpha Centauri fame! He's the game's token capitalist faction leader, and while the developers intentionally crippled him to make a misguided political statement, they made the mistake of developing his character a great deal and giving him the best voice actor. Here are some videos featuring him from the game:

A cooler avatar origin than I had imagined!  I had a lot of fun with Civ but never tried Alpha Centauri.  Do you think it stacks up well against those?

Considering that gog.com has got it for six bucks, perhaps I should try it.  But can I ever forgive them making the capitalist faction underpowered? 

Pointedstick wrote: Good guess MediumTex, but it's CEO Morgan, of Alpha Centauri fame! He's the game's token capitalist faction leader, and while the developers intentionally crippled him to make a misguided political statement, they made the mistake of developing his character a great deal and giving him the best voice actor. Here are some videos featuring him from the game:

http://youtu.be/ez7AFPX9RYE

http://youtu.be/bX4ybrp9WRw

http://youtu.be/jdCB9yE9Hcc

http://youtu.be/yMIxYbhWQMI

And now I know and it makes me feel better. I kept looking at him and from the clothing I thought he was a famous person from the post-industrial age.

Lone Wolf wrote:

Pointedstick wrote: Good guess MediumTex, but it's CEO Morgan, of Alpha Centauri fame! He's the game's token capitalist faction leader, and while the developers intentionally crippled him to make a misguided political statement, they made the mistake of developing his character a great deal and giving him the best voice actor. Here are some videos featuring him from the game:

A cooler avatar origin than I had imagined!  I had a lot of fun with Civ but never tried Alpha Centauri.  Do you think it stacks up well against those?

Considering that gog.com has got it for six bucks, perhaps I should try it.  But can I ever forgive them making the capitalist faction underpowered? 

Two things. First of all, as far as I'm concerned, Alpha Centauri is the best game ever made. It blows Civ out of the water, even the modern ones. The richness, the depth, the narrative, the characters. My wife and I still regularly play it!

Second of all, it's an eminently hackable game. You can easily edit the alpha.txt file to give Morgan a little boost. What I usually do is simply adjust the effects of the social engineering choices. Free Market, in particular, was nerfed in a particularly unrealistic and frustrating way. The idea that a planned economy results in growth is also laughable. The game is totally playable without these tweaks, but I've found it even better once you've corrected the developers' political biases. 

Pointedstick wrote: Second of all, it's an eminently hackable game. You can easily edit the alpha.txt file to give Morgan a little boost. What I usually do is simply adjust the effects of the social engineering choices. Free Market, in particular, was nerfed in a particularly unrealistic and frustrating way. The idea that a planned economy results in growth is also laughable. The game is totally playable without these tweaks, but I've found it even better once you've corrected the developers' political biases. 

A tweak that not only makes my civ more powerful but simultaneously flatters my political sensibilities?  Oh hell yes!

Thanks for the recommendation.  I'll pick it up.