# Investing in Gold



## wolfofwinnipeg (Feb 13, 2015)

Hello,

I am a new member here. With all the uncertainty going on in the world I want to start accumulating a physical gold portfolio. With so many options out there I wanted to know if anyone has ideas or suggestions on how I start. I want real gold, not jewelry or paper contracts and I plan on adding around $500 every month or so.

Cheers!


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

On the paper side CEF.A or the central fund of Canada has gold backing it up but GLD I don't think has gold backing it up just paper claims.

For low dollar amounts you might want silver maples because you can get many more ounces for your money and would be easier to use or sell in smaller amounts. You can get gold in smaller sizes but they are much more expensive then buying an ounce for the same money. I prefer coins over bars because I believe coins would be much easier to trade or sell down the road.


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## Moneytoo (Mar 26, 2014)

http://www.questrade.com/pricing/commissions/precious_metals


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## thepitchedlink (Feb 17, 2014)

Look at SilverGoldBull.com , or Kitco. Both are easy to by bullion from. I use SGB


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## birdman (Feb 12, 2013)

J&M in Vancouver is who I use.


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

wolfofwinnipeg said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am a new member here. With all the uncertainty going on in the world I want to start accumulating a physical gold portfolio. With so many options out there I wanted to know if anyone has ideas or suggestions on how I start. I want real gold, not jewelry or paper contracts and I plan on adding around $500 every month or so.
> 
> Cheers!


This is not investing in gold but rather speculating which is more often than not a bad idea.


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

None you figure from reading that he is looking for an opportunity to turn a lower price item and turn it into a higher price sell rather then insurance.

I would think you would go with paper if your looking to turn a nice profit rather then go through all the trouble to buy and sell physical gold and deal with the premiums.


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

@wolfofwinnipeg:

At $500 per month the shipping and insurance is going to kill you.
Occasionally a dealer will consent to free shipping, but not likely on an order of this amount.
You would be better served if you could find a local dealer where you can walk in, buy and walk out with goods in hand.

Also, at $500 you're choices are limited to fractions of a gold ounce with hefty premiums.
If I might suggest, save $500 monthly for a few months, then purchase a one ounce bar. Bars have less premium than coins.

As I check prices this minute;
a one ounce gold maple leaf coin .9999 fineness is C$1567
a one ounce gold "recognized bar" .9999 fineness is C$1551
a quarter ounce gold maple leaf coin .9999 fineness is C$416


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## Terminator (Dec 17, 2014)

You can also keep costs down per oz with SilverGoldBull's long buy program. Basically, you can place orders for up to 6 months before they ship it out, so you don't get nailed on shipping and insurance each time. Because like others have mentioned, it really does add up.

Here are the details...

https://silvergoldbull.com/long-buy.html


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Adding physical gold in $500 increments will not be cost effective. I suggest you accumulate cash and buy it in somewhat larger chunks, like a couple thousand $ at a time.

I think it's best to buy gold from the big banks. I've bought from Scotia in Toronto, and my friend has bought from RBC in Winnipeg. Delivery costs (to the branch) seem relatively low. And if you're in a big enough city you may be able to buy it directly from the main branch in the city and not even face a delivery charge.

wolfofwinnipeg: I presume you're in Winnipeg. I think the downtown main branch of Scotiabank has gold in their vault -- on the premises -- for sale and won't charge delivery costs if you're a customer. Not 100% sure but I remember hearing this. Check into it and become a customer if it's true because it will be worth it.

I think the best things to buy are either small bars a.k.a. wafers (1 oz bar) or Maple Leaf coins.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

the best way to buy gold is to walk into a trusted local coin dealer with cash money and buy maples in whatever amount you can afford ... 

preferably 1/2-oz or above because the smaller coins just kick your costs through the roof ... 500 a month gets you a 1/3 ounce so i would go in every 3 months and buy an ounce

and be prepared to hold for *years* or you will probably lose money


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

Just like energy can be rearranged to form different types of energy @ some point man will be able to make gold through rearranging atoms. There are less the 100 elements in periodic table @ some point gold will not be the safe haven.


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

If this is possible lone wolf then I think it has already been done and only a select few know about it. There is no benefit for the extreme elite to give out such information if they know about such a thing because this kind of discovery would give them unlimited manipulation powers.


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## dime (Jun 20, 2013)

+1 for the advice to watch the premiums you're paying, and the shipping costs. A full ounce can be had for like spot+3-4% which is impressive considering what you pay just to exchange USD and CAD. 
A half ounce can be about spot+6%. Anything smaller and you're usually paying 10-20% premium over spot. 

Silver Gold Bull is a great company to deal with. But you need to order like 5k worth of precious metals to get free shipping. So look around for a local dealer of coins or a currency exchange that may also be able to give you a fair quote on gold bullion. 

Sometimes gold is thought of more as insurance than investment. It's a hedge against currency devaluation. You're basically swapping one currency for another as gold and silver have been used as currency for a very long time through history. 

Diversifying across different asset classes that have less correlation is always a good idea to preserve wealth. Even TD Bank and other financial advisers have recommend at times that portion of a portfolio of about 10% to be held in gold. 


A chart I've found very interesting to look at is comparing the history of the USD valued in mg of gold. Just consider what would happen to the USD if the Fed doesn't t end up raising rates starts another round of QE.... 
http://pricedingold.com/us-dollar/











On a side note, platinum is very interesting right now considering it's like $50 cheaper than gold but 30x more rare. 

http://pricedingold.com/us-dollar/


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

lonewolf said:


> There are less the 100 elements in periodic


??!


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

lonewolf said:


> There are less the 100 elements in periodic





hboy43 said:


> ??!


Naturally occurring elements ...


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

lonewolf, yes you are correct, other elements can be made into gold ... it happens inside stars all the time 

All of this takes energy. Scientists can re-arrange atoms, but it takes energy. We could go and find a comet full of gold, but that takes lots of energy too. Mining takes energy. Gold mining is also environmentally catastrophic, which means there must be tight regulations and pollution protection, which makes mining even harder. I am hoping that countries crack down hard on the awfully destructive practice of gold mining, as it really devastates the land. It's embarrassing that Canadian companies have been some of the bad guys here. Hopefully, gold mining in the future will be much more difficult.

It's not a question of whether gold exists. There's lots of it around! The question is how difficult is it to refine into a pure unit? And how difficult is THAT versus printing new fiat money.


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## Synergy (Mar 18, 2013)

james4beach said:


> It's not a question of whether gold exists. There's lots of it around!


There's not that much around. I recall reading somewhere that if you could collect all the physical gold in the world you'd only be able to build 1/3 of the Washington monunment. Perhaps someday we'll have enought to build the entire monument :biggrin:


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

dime said:


> +1 for the advice to watch the premiums you're paying, and the shipping costs. A full ounce can be had for like spot+3-4% which is impressive considering what you pay just to exchange USD and CAD.
> A half ounce can be about spot+6%. Anything smaller and you're usually paying 10-20% premium over spot.
> 
> Silver Gold Bull is a great company to deal with. But you need to order like 5k worth of precious metals to get free shipping. So look around for a local dealer of coins or a currency exchange that may also be able to give you a fair quote on gold bullion.
> ...


isn't that because of the increased use of palladium for catalytic converters ?


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

wolfofwinnipeg for holding physical physical gold, I would consider maybe buying junk silver coins. older coins in Canada or united states that contained silver & or using James Turk gold money. @ some point when your a little more established might consider holding some gold in Switzerland.

I seen a show once where they tried to sell a gold coin to the public with something like a 1000 dollars worth of gold in the coin & no one would buy the coin for 5 dollars everyone thought it was fake.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

I looked into this about 3 years ago and the best deal I found was to buy gold coins and bars from my local Royal Bank branch (I have an account there).

They charged me the London Gold Fix price + $35 an ounce for gold bars. I bought 1 ounce bars instead of coins because they charge sales tax on coins but not on bars. Also there was a $15 delivery fee (delivery to the bank) for any amount of gold.

They also told me if I wanted to sell they would buy the gold bars back without an assay fee provided they were a brand that they sold. 

This was the safest cheapest most convenient way to buy gold, and also silver ( I bought some silver coins as well).

When I did this, the bank manager had to figure out how to handle the order as no one had ever bought gold there before. But since then they have had several other clients do the same.

This was my small town (pop 18000) branch.

You will have to inquire at your local RBC, this was a few years ago and things may have changed. You could also do a search online, I think that is where I found out about this originally.

Scotia Bank's Scotia Mocatta sells gold and silver too, but at total ripoff prices. At least they did 3 years ago.


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## lostwords (Feb 21, 2014)

As some had suggested, you can buy gold from SGB and if you are in GTA, you could buy them from TGB. Don't order to ship from TGB, they are very slow when come to shipping. RCM offers way to buy shares in bullion


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## dime (Jun 20, 2013)

wolfofwinnipeg said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am a new member here. With all the uncertainty going on in the world I want to start accumulating a physical gold portfolio. With so many options out there I wanted to know if anyone has ideas or suggestions on how I start. I want real gold, not jewelry or paper contracts and I plan on adding around $500 every month or so.
> 
> Cheers!


If you're living in Winnipeg you should swing by 

Gatewest Coin
1711 Corydon Avenue
Winnipeg, Mb.

http://www.gatewestcoin.com/


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