Precious Metals: More FAQs

March 11, 2009

This is the second week of the month. That means I am headed over to Westpoint, Tennessee on Thursday, March 12, to join Franklin Sanders and his family for dinner at the Sanders homestead down the road from their Top of the World Farm.

A lively dinner discussion will be followed by our monthly precious metals update by bridge call for this week’s Solari Report.

Last month, Franklin and I covered the most frequently asked questions that Franklin and his team at The Moneychanger get about buying gold and silver coins. This includes his Ten Commandments of Gold and Silver Buying You can find this mp3 in The Solari Report archives.

This month, in addition to your latest questions, I want to cover the questions that I and the Solari team most often get about the gold and silver markets.

We will also be talking about Stanley Kubrick’s movie, Eyes Wide Shut, and important family safety issues you should understand in regards to the proposed national health database. I recommend my latest article, “The Data Beast.”

If you are a subscriber to The Solari Report, you can post your questions at your private panel or feel free to also post them at this blog post. If you would like to learn more about The Solari Report and subscribe, click here.

12 Comments

  1. Catherine,
    My head is spinning with the whole phenomenon around gold. This question came from “PayAttention” at http://www.emsnews.wordpress.com... and I’m repeating it here in the hopes that you pose this to Franklin and James Turk. I am too broke to contribute to GATA unless ten dollars would help, or a case of tuna fish to the Tennessee Hillbilly.
    >>> You do not find it unsettling that your tax dollars are funding the foreign Deutsche Bank so that it can continue to arbitrage the difference between CDS spreads and corporate debt discounts while selling short equity. This may sound exotic, however the February/March market crash has been funded by your retirement money. Can I put it any more directly to you?
    THE LARGEST SHORT POSITIONS ON THE COMEX GOLD FUTURES ARE HELD BY JPM, ANOTHER BENEFICIARY OF YOUR GIFT TO AIG. <<<<<

  2. Hi Franklin

    I want to buy $100,000.00 of silver, in part so I can play the gold/silver ratio, but the thought of storing, shipping, etc. approx 450 pounds of silver leaves me cold. What are my alternatives?

    LongOfTooth

    P.S. I’m in the process of looking into doing this through GoldMoney but there are unresolved issues which until they are clarified makes this an option I can’t take.

  3. What are the chances of us going on the gold standard now? Do you still think collapse is a couple or few years off? With Fema camps on military bases and spying on American info do you think it is safe to stay here? Do you think countries like New Zealand could be taken over by China? Or how about America? Will we have war on our soil? What is the liklihood? Will the country separate into FEMA regions Congress designated in spring 2008 with various areas going to various countries like the NW going to Canada and California going to China? What is the liklihood of the Amero of us uniting with Canada and Mexico? Why all the unrest in Mexico?

  6. Any comments on the transaction cost of precious metals for the small potato people (<$100 a month)? The best deal I know about right now in California is 8.25% sales tax + 5-10% premium at buy + 5-10% premium at sell equals 18-30% total transaction cost. Or we can try buying out of state to avoid sales tax, my fool me once experience left me down almost 40% for the FRONT end of the transaction. Because of receipt problems I don’t know how much of the 40% was premium, even if premium was 10%, that would still be 30% on the FRONT end of the transaction. Someone please poke a hole in my numbers tell me I’m doing it wrong. The Solari audio seminars on precious metals to my recollection do not address how shipping and sales tax make entry into physical holdings of metals seem inordinately expensive. I welcome my experience being some unique instance but I am afraid it is not. If the best I can do is 30% total transaction cost, I need a 40% swing in price to recoop my transaction costs and get 10% net. Am I looking at this wrong? Someone please set me strait.

  8. Dear Cathrine,

    Today on Bloomberg the goverment said:
    “The Obama administration soon will also push Congress for legislation that allows the IMF to “mobilize” its stockpile of gold, Geithner said today. Congress would need to approve the IMF funding expansion, although it wouldn’t count against the budget deficit, he said.” (Geithner)

    What on earth does “mobilize” mean?

    I’m long in Au/Ag and find this statement unnerving.

  9. Hello Frankin,
    I purchased semi-numismatic St. Gaudens gold coins several years ago. Would you recommend I sell these coins to instead purchase gold or silver coins or bullion?
    At the time, I was told that confiscation was possible. It seemed as if all the “gold bugs” were worried about a repeat of 1933.
    If I made an unwise investment in the St. Gaudens coins, what would you recommend as an alternative? Thank you.

  10. Hello Catherine et al,

    Catherine, we’ve spoken about this before, and I’ll repeat what I know to be true about precious metal investing, based on my experiences as a former exploration geologist, and from staying on top of mining issues after I became disenfranchised with the mining industry and chose a different career path (including journalism and education, in which I continued to track the mining industry).

    Precious metal exploration, mine development and mining continue to exploit and cause widespread harm to the environment, to indigenous cultures and communities, worldwide. Period. Check out the recent (January) National Geographic issue on gold mining ‘The Real Price of Gold’ – (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/gold/larmer-text)
    and you’ll see plenty of evidence supporting this. If you want to dig deeper there are plenty of non-profit organizations with deep data on this, such as ‘No Dirty Gold’ (www.nodirtygold.org/), EarthWorks (US; http://www.earthworksaction.org/) and Mining Watch Canada (www.miningwatch.ca/).

    I truly find this a very significant disconnect with what you are say you are advocating on behalf of, with Solari. It just doesn’t add up to want to seed ethical community prosperity at the expense that most precious metal mining creates globally. – Michael Maser; Gibsons BC Canada

  11. Catherine, could you please consider briefly addressing whether you believe proposals by high level policy advisors to create a new international reserve currency, the “DEY” (Dollar, Euro, and Yen currency basket) to be followed by the “INTOR” (OR => gold) are still viable prospects?

    As always, thanks for all you’ve done to fight the good fight and educate your fellow citizens.

  12. The 10 Commandments of Buying Gold and Silver is a great article. Thank you!
    My only question was about this one:
    IX. Never swap bullion coins for U.S. $20 gold pieces.
    Why is that? I guess I need to do my research but do they have less than $20 worth of gold. I’m not worried about it, because I never buy coins, buy it was really just a curiosity.
    I’ve been saying for quite a while(to myself anyway) just buy silver rounds instead of coins. I actually prefer bars, and I buy mostly silver like you suggest. Bullion Direct lets you buy discs with no printing and they are usually $1 less than the coins for one ounce of silver. I also watch eBay and use sniping software and can usually get silver for less than spot, but it takes a little more effort. I also use a Gold/Silver Value Calculator that tells me current market price and how much an ounce or gram costs at the time so I can make better purchasing decisions.

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