Gold buffs-need advice

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Dear Andy or whomever would have a little light to shed on this subject. Firstly-what would you consider a "dip"? I have only enough resources to buy 2 oz. of gold right now at current prices. My questions are a little broad, but here goes: About how much gold would you advise to buy if the dollar falls through for trading/buying etc. Or maybe I should just sell all of it if it goes really high? Or would it be advisable to keep some of it, and sell some of it high to make a profit? Where would you best advise putting my money-in gold coins or some sort of gold stocks. I really don't know much of anything in this matter, but any advice/help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time! :o)

-- Mumsie's Daughter (Natashabu@aol.com), October 02, 1999

Answers

Forgot somethin else! What about silver? I was thinking around 50 oz or so. Does anyone have an opinion on whether junk silver or rounds are a better buy? and again-same sort of question as above-should I sell some of it when it goes up later this year or just hold on to it. The thought of making money off of it sounds more tempting than just sitting on it...but I don't know. So that is where you come in! Hopefully you can set me on the right path. Thanks...

-- Mumsie's daughter (Natashabu@aol.com), October 02, 1999.

If TSHTF, gold coins will eventually be a lucrative investment. In the meantime; a futures contract ($1080 the last time I played the commodities market last year) is where you can make or lose a bundle. I found commodities was like gambling; you'll win enough to keep you playing the game, but in the long run the winners are the brokers and the exchanges. Someone else will surely expound on the virtues of investing in the gold stocks, I'm not qualified there to give you good advice.

-- DGBennett (bennett1@peachnet.net), October 02, 1999.

If you purchase 40% junk silver ($.50 pieces) you can spend them as the 1/2 dollars they are if nothing serious happens or if silver skyrockets they will be worth much more.

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), October 02, 1999.

For less than a $1000 investment I would go with silver coins. Get a coin book and learn to grade them, you may be surprised to find some AU50 - Almost Uncirculated Quality in a lot of "junk" silver. These would be worth more than their bullion value to a coin collector.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), October 02, 1999.

I concur with Bill P. (above): at any coin store you can buy any amount of "junk" (circulated 90% silver) coins dated prior to 1964. As Bill points out, they have value AS silver, ARE "legal tender", and can be used as "real" money today and/or in an EOTWAWKI scenario.

-- Dewer Dye (qwerty@!!!!.xnyet), October 02, 1999.


Musmie und Tochter:

It's too bad we don't have those great Pieces Of Eight.

Then we could make quick change before walking the plank.

Holding solid gold is far better than possessing paper gold stocks.

I sometimes wish I had some gold. Oh well, I'll get by with my wit.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), October 02, 1999.


My concern with old silver coins, whether 40% or 90% is that many will have no idea that they are really worth more money because of their silver content. These people will only consider the face value of the coin.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), October 02, 1999.

Natasha, Forget about buying coins with numismatic value. What you are interested in is bullion (silver or gold) which happens to be in round form (nominally, coins). Buy only for bullion content, not any face value or supposed value. Buy .999 percent pure silver. At todays prices (even with the recent rises to about 6.80 per one ounce coin/round) you will be able to afford more gold in silver than immediately apparent. Historically, it has usually taken 16 to 20 ounces of silver for one ounce of gold. At Oct 1 close on price of gold in the form of canadian maple leaf one ounce coins (329.80) and the price of silver at 6.80 per ounce, it would take 48.5 silvers to get an ounce of gold. In the event of monatary disruptions, it is expected both that silver will settle back to historic levels and that silver will be remonetarized sooner than gold. So. You buy 48 silvers now, total worth one ounce of gold, and then as prices stabilize, you can trade for 2 ounces of gold. Or equivalent.

Also, go to gold-eagle.com (not related to the gold eagle coins). Also, buy only one ounce coins and get canadian maple leafs (pure gold) first, and then american gold eagles or krugerands next. Both have an ounce of gold in them, but the gold eagles, and the krugerands have copper added to strengthen the coin. Making them 22 carat gold, versus the 24 carat gold of the maple leafs.....

make sense?

-- Boris, Badinova that is..... (badboris@vallier.com), October 02, 1999.


Five hundred dollars in silver has no more value that five hundred dollars in gold, except that the silver can be broken into smaller pieces. This could be an advantage for a small purchase.

Ordinary pre-1964 90 percent silver coins are the most common and practical thing to buy in small quantities.

But don't look for any price dips. It isn't likely.

dave

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), October 02, 1999.


Well, it does not look like you have any definitive answers here. There are as many ways to play this as people who might comment. First you will need to educate yourself about precious metals; pros, cons, strengths and weaknesses. You will have to figure out when to buy and when and how to sell. You should make sure that you have all the preps you will need otherwise.

I wish I could say that 2 ounces would not do anything for you but it is said that Paul Volker's mother was able to provide for her family in Germany during the hyperinflation because she had a few gold coins. So as insurance it my be worth it to you, but as an 'investment' I'm not sure that makes alot of sense.

Do you have supplies that you can barter? This might be the best out for you in the low end of the dollar range ($500-600). You might find that in really hard times what you want is to have items with which to trade for other items and the idea or 'making money' doesn't work in that kind of situation.

If you have only one or two of anything then at some point you will have a hard time parting with them and possibly no option open after that.

Its something to think about in the larger context.

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), October 02, 1999.



Get all the 1/2 pint of hard liquor you can find and a heavy duty pistol, you'll make out alright after the rollover.

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), October 02, 1999.

The best advice that I have seen expressed so far is that you need to do some basic research. Try www.the-moneychanger.com for a good intro, www.certifiedmint.com for lots of details, and when you are ready to purchase, check out www.ajpm.com as they usually seem to have the best prices.

For Y2K purposes, where you are looking at all promises-to-pay as potentially being valueless, and may need to fall back on your gold and silver for barter, the sensible thing to do is take physical possession of your precious metals, which should be in the form of coins for easy transactions. It is far better to have ten 1/10th ounce gold American Eagles rather than a one ounce AE, since the former gives you the maximum number of transactions per ounce.

90 days.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.~net), October 02, 1999.

If you have only $600 to buy 2 ounces of gold, I would advise you to spend that $600 on about "100" one once rounds of silver instead of only 2 pieces of gold!

Silver is the poor mans gold!!!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), October 03, 1999.


In the early 1970's only 1 person in a 1,000 was invested in some form of gold (that's a mere 0.1%). By the time gold soared to its zenith in January 1980, the number of gold investors increased to 50 per 1,000 (5%). Recently, it was estimated that again only 1 person in a 1,000 is invested in some form of gold. Consequently, we predict that the new gold bull market coupled with the Information Highway (i.e. Internet) will increase the gold ranks to far more than 100 investors per 1,000 (10%). Moreover, it might increase even more if Wall Street tanks, forcing all to seek traditional refuge in GOLD.

One can only imagine how high bullion and gold stocks prices will eventually soar as a result of unprecedently explosive demand.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 03, 1999.


Ha! Didn't realize Daughter Dear was reading and posting! I have been telling her to SAVE and put her savings in GOLD and/or silver. (Thanks Andy!) I told her not to worry about prepping. If things get TEOTWAWKI, she can pitch in and help financially. If not, she has a nice nest egg to finish school on or whatever.

Thanks for all the tips everyone!

-- Mumsie (Shezdremn@aol.com), October 03, 1999.



I'm obviously a bad influence mumsie :) If she can afford it - buy two Austrian Philharmonics (but do be very quick) - there is a school of thought that if the dollar tanks then they will become very "valuable" :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 03, 1999.

buy 200 shares of kinross gold ($3/share), wait a few weeks, sell, thenbuy some coins.

-- paul gamaliel (plutusx2@yahoo.com), October 03, 1999.

From another forum

Ray Patten (10/3/99; 11:30:48MDT - Msg ID:15271) Possible Comex bankruptcy.

On Thursday, my commodity broker said that only market orders were allowed in the Gold options pit...no limit orders. I scaned my 38 years of commodity trading experience to try to remember a similar occurance, but I could not. I thought "These guys must be desperate." Then I looked at the numbers. As of Thursdays close, there were about 525,000 Gold calls outstanding. The floor traders or locals are the people who usually wright or sell us options. They have been getting our money for the last three years. As of September 21st, the committment of traders report said that the large traders were long only about 25,000 contracts. That means that the locals could be naked short over 400,000 calls. With an open interest of just over 200,000, where are they going to find the liquidity to get hedged. If Gold were to go up to $400 per ounce, their loss could be upwards of $4 billion. That could be enough to bring down the exchange.

I've had the idea for a long time that if Gold was ever freed, it would go straight to about $475 without a decent thechnical correction. It now looks to me like it will be there before the end of this month.

It's pay back time, but i'm not going to stay for the last tick. It may be that if the exchange closes, I may get nothing.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), October 03, 1999.


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