How do I go about investing in gold and/or silver?
I am interested in putting a portion of my savings into gold and/or silver - however I am confused as to exactly how one goes about doing this. I've googled the area around my place and it looks like the only places where gold/silver is available are shady pawn shops type deals and coin shops. What should one look for to objectively determine (not word of mouth) whether or not a dealer is reputable?
More importantly, what is a reasonable premium I should be expected to pay on gold/silver bullion? And how can I be sure that what I am buying is actually the real deal and not just plain crap?
I am not interested in using e-bay or Kitco and paying the associated shipping costs or worry about insuring a shipment or having it stolen or lost. I am also not interested in buying ETF, e-gold, gold stocks, or anything of that sort. I am only interested in tangible metal for reasons too detailed for me to get into with the character and time limitation I have right now. Please help!
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well you don’t leave many options if you are not willing to pay for shipping. the only thing that i can say is call the bbb in your area and ask if the coin dealer has any complaints. you might also see if there is a coin collector club in your area that has tips for you. as far as pricing goes i use the web to compare prices. goldline.com has some great info on it. you can google silver or gold bullion and find many dealers to shop.
First I need to say that gold and silver are historically terrible investments. They have had a decent run lately, but despite what all the radio commercials say, gold has never beat inflation, never mind stocks over a significant period. US currency is no longer based on gold.
That being said, there are plenty of companies that specialize in gold bullion. As for not paying shipping, I don’t think thats realistic unless you buy from a coin show. (which you don’t want to do). You will pay for shipping one way or another because dealers pass their cost on to you.
I like http://www.monex.com the best. But that doesn’t solve your shipping cost issue.
ticker = gld