On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 14:59:36 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:

On Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:27:29 -0500, John H
wrote:

I asked before, but that was for bullion. Anyone bought gold in either bullion or coins from a
dealer they like? I'd appreciate the name of a reputable dealer.

I've used JM Bullion, and they were not conducive to a return visit. I made a wire transfer, which
left my bank on day 1. By day 4, this place was saying they'd still not received it. They'd been
threatening to charge my credit card (which adds appx 4%), but I was able to get the individual in
the finance department to hold off. I'm thinking they get the wire transfer, hold onto the funds,
charge the credit card, and then, eventually, transfer the funds back to the originating bank -
after they've drawn interest on them for a few weeks.

No more JM Bullion.

===

If you really want to own physical gold, why not drive to Canada and
buy gold coins for cash? Buying bullion has a lot of issues, not the
least of which is paying sales tax on your purchase; the dealers will
always get their cut both buying and selling; there can be assay
charges when selling; and you have storage and insurance costs.

Another alternative if you just want your toe in the water is to buy
the GLD index fund through your broker. Commission charges are
negligible, the bid-ask spread is very small, liquidity is very high,
and you can have your money back in 3 business days.

Yet another alternative is to buy some good quality gold mining stocks
or an index fund which tracks mining stocks. There is a Canadian
gold mining company called Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) which pays a
decent dividend and is highly leveraged to the price of gold. I own
some. If you want a really spicy meatball there is a little Canadian
exploration and development company called Rubicon Minerals (RBY).
They are a reputable outfit that has all of their development and
financing in place to open their first mine early next year. The
stock is very volatile and very highly leveraged to gold prices. I
own some of that also.

I didn't pay any sales tax because the seller was out of state and didn't have an outlet here. And,
I didn't open the sealed package. Therefore, according to the seller, an assay will not be necessary
if I sell back to them.

I'm planning on giving the gold to the kids, so I won't have to worry about insurance, storage, etc.
It will be a Christmas gift, easier to manage then giving stocks.

AEM is up almost 5% today, so I assume you're happy!

John H. -- Hope you're having a great day!