GREY:GBRIF - Post by User
Post by
fungi294fron Dec 06, 2011 3:25pm
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Post# 19296587
Coins and Bullion
Coins and BullionI began buying precious metals coins as a store of wealth.
My wife works at Canada Post which sells silver and gold coins. So we would pick up some now and then thinking we were doing good. $30 gets nice coin 100% pure. It wasn't until I became more informed that I actually started looking at the weights. What I thought was an extremely good deal turned out to be a high premium for the Canadian mint. Turned out the $300 gold coin was only 1/10 of an ounce. So I actually paid twice the amount of the weight of the gold to have the Canadian mint.
So I decided to go across the street to the local branch of my bank last Xmas thinking that silver coins would make great stocking stuffers for my wife and kids. I had looked up the coins from my bank to find that a silver coin was really a 1 oz silver coin. And sold for about a 17.5% premium over spot prices. I thought it was good enough price and proceeded. They informed me I would have to pay for shipping and I said no problems asking how much was it. To my shock they told me $570 shipping for 10 oz of silver. I burst out laughing and asked how much for 2 oz. They replied $327. I asked if they were crazy. They replied they silver would be shipped here, in the middle of Sask., by Brinks truck. Today's price is $32/oz so 2 oz is $64 and they wanted to ship it by Brinks. I declined.
So last week, with Xmas coming , I decided to try again. This time I went online to order silver coins thru my bank. They are currently priced at $37.25/oz coin and would be sent by Purolator courier for $25. A 17.5% premium plus courier charges.
Yesterday, I went online to an actual silver producer. They are shipping a minimum order of 10 oz silver at near spot prices and a $20 courier fee.
IMO the bank and gov't has no desire for me to preserve my wealth in precious metals. They make it worth it for me to say there is no way I am paying that kind of money for precious metals and will likely tell my friends it isn't worth the money to buy physical metals. Fortunately I am always willing to look hard enough to find the best deal for what I want.