People who bought at $800 per ounce are not under water, gold is worth almost $1600 per ounce today, almost double the profit. If you held onto your $800 dollars from 1980 you would have, lets see... Let me break out my calculator and figure this out, uhmmm.. Oh yeah, you would have $800 dollars. If you bought an ounce of gold in 1980 then sold it today, you would have almost $1600.
How would someone be able to turn their $800 1980 dollars into $2,228.41 in today's dollars? You have to invest in something, you could try playing the bank interest, but even that is cutting it close. This is exactly what this thread is all about, the devaluation of gold. There is no reason for gold to be devalued, yet it is. There is no basis, no foundation, no logical reason, yet it is being devalued and you just proved the point.
If we are talking about safe, smart investments, gold has always been a safe investment. At no time has buying gold ever been a wrong decision. And sooner or later, the entities who are manipulating gold prices are going to have to allow it to run for awhile just to relieve the pressure. The precious metals market is totally artificial. All you have to do is read a little bit, do some investigation, look at which central banks and entities are selling gold and ask yourself WHY, and you can figure it out all on your own. I am not asking anyone to just take my word for it, don't, look up the information yourself, please, and correct me if you find I am wrong, I would like to be wrong about this, I really would.
I'll tell you one more thing, this is what I tell the customers I purchase material to process from and trade gold and silver in payment. They are buying gold at a fraction of the real value because it's in a form that is considered waste or recyclable goods. This means they are paying far less than market value for their precious metals. Think about this for just a minute. A smart scrapper can secure their future with confidence if they put their hard work, to work for them, here is an example.
Lets take someone I buy silver scrap from as an example. He pays about 25% of the real value of the silver scrap he obtains, he sells it to me for 50% of it's real value. I pay him in gold or silver. Not only did he just double his money, but over time, so long as he holds onto that metal, that same metal becomes worth more and more. The longer they sit on it, the more money they make.
Here is a 36 year historical chart on gold prices:
http://goldprice.org/gold-price-hist...ear_gold_price
It shows your spike in 1980, but do you see the current trend. And that trend exists even in the presence of market manipulation. The reason for this trend is that there is far more demand than there is gold. Eventually gold will even outstrip your 1980 benchmark on inflation, it has to, it's been catching up all these years and really pouring on the heat recently regardless of market manipulation.
I wouldn't buy gold or silver because I can recover and refine it. If I couldn't, then I might be a lot more careful in considering when to buy, but I don't need to be. If I were a scrapper I wouldn't buy gold or silver either, I would buy, with cash, gold or silver scrap and then sell it for gold or silver shot, in this way I can choose how much profit I want to make by selling it when it hits that amount, or I could hold onto it for longer and only sell as needed. This is how you beat the precious metals game, this is the way to secure your future. It's not difficult to do and if you are obtaining your material for 25%-50% of it's real value in precious metals, you can still make a decent profit, and pass on the opportunity to a refiner to make some profit as well.
Scott
Last edited by NobleMetalWorks; 02-21-2013 at 10:43 PM.
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
Perhaps what unknownk was referring to was the PURCHASING POWER of those 800 dollars. In 1980, $800 would buy FAR more than $1600 would buy today.
Plus, assuming you could manage a measly 2.2% APR, which I think any reasonable savings account would've averaged, you would, in fact, have $1600 now from your original $800 saved in 1980.
In fact, a 6-month CD would've trounced gold's return since that peak day on 21JAN80. Here's a month by month chart of 6 month CD rates since January of 1980:
Data from CD Interest Rate Chart
So... an unfortunate soul who bought gold at $850/oz on Monday, 21JAN80, versus a conservative saver who bought 6-month CDs with those same 850 bucks and reinvested their interest..... which would you rather be?
Better yet, the S&P500 closed at 112.10 on 21JAN80. It closed at 1502.42 yesterday. I don't think there was such a thing as SPDRs in 1980, but a broad investment in S&P500 companies would have turned $800 into $10,722.
As always, past performance is not indicative of future returns, yadda-yadda-yadda... and these figures are for an extreme circumstance, but the numbers say gold has not historically been a wise investment long term.
Out of clutter, find simplicity. --Albert Einstein
See somebody gets it. Gold has never been a good long term investment because it doesn't go up very often and generally only when the world takes a dump. it is more of a place to dump cash because there are no other sound investments at the moment.
Nobody was talking about gold as an investment during the 1990's, it went nowhere for a decade while the stock market was going nuts. Buying gold now is like dumping your stocks the moment they hit rock bottom and are going to go back up.
Trends mean nothing long term. Go look at housing price trends and you would think they would go up forever until they crashed hard. Microsoft stock trended up for over a decade and then ran out of gas, Apple stock took a dump for a decade and now is worth a mint compared to 2000. Things change, don't drink the cool-aide and you won't get burned. Pay off debt, live under your means and things will work out.
The nosedive continues...
No matter what investment I put up as being a good solid investment, someone else could come along and present something better. We could even talk about real estate in other countries that has made leaps and bounds against the performance of real estate in western countries.
I purchased AOL stock way back in 91 I think it was, when it went public. I sold right away, if I held onto it I could have made $100k off every $1k I invested. But what is it worth today?
Sure I could have invested in something that would have performed well, or I could have invested in something that performed poorly, or still something else that had it's up and downs and be down right now. My point in saying gold is never a bad investment is that it has always increased in value. It cannot be a bad investment, and besides being a good investment, you can actually exchange it for goods and services, I do all the time, whenever possible myself.
I still stand by what I said, precious metals are still the best investment, maybe not so far as maximum profit is concerned, by more so in terms about what might be in the best interest if everything goes to crap. Not only are precious metals a good solid long term investment, but it's protection against the total devaluation of paper money.
Then add to these facts how I obtain the precious metals I hoard, through recycling e-waste/i-waste at or around 25%-50% of it's real value, and the fact I purchase much of this by trading precious metals for recyclable goods, I pass on this opportunity to others who then can protect their own futures if they so choose. Or wait until the precious metals become worth more than their exchanged value, and make more profit in doing so.
Scott
The government does not like precious metals because the cant manipulate the value, and now they are losing the ability to manipulate dollars due to the global economy, hence the incoming nosedive of the us economy triggering massive inflation which will make metals prices skyrocket, if the value of the dollar gets cut in half it will take twice as much to buy one ounce of gold. Right now is a good time to buy in my opinion, i think holding is good right now if youve already positioned. I would buy palladium and platinum over gold though due to industrial demand.
I buy and sell all types of scrap and escrap. I buy specialty and hard to sell escrap. I buy resale items. PM me or contact me at jghilino@hotmail.com
I AM ACTIVELY BUYING ESCRAP OF ALL TYPES. BOARDS, RAM, CPUS AND MUCH MORE
you do realise it is all an illusion?
I am still seeing huge government and retail cutbacks this year leading to massive unemployment. Which will lead to inflation and metals prices rising in the long run.
noun
1.
something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
2.
the state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.
3.
an instance of being deceived.
4.
Psychology . a perception, as of visual stimuli (optical illusion) that represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality.
does that help?
hoarding and investing are not the same.
you can make the same analogy about those who hoarded 35 gold as those who hoarded 800 gold.
for those who have invested in a good long term gold strategy, they have done quite well.
people who invested in 300 gold are the other side of your analysis.
what about those who buy their gold for less than market value. would you say that is a good investment?
the only illusion in play is how the government is running the country on fluff, the fundamentals for a good economy do not exist, its simply a matter of time at this point untill the game ends.....
Good thread, Gold is a complex topic since it has so many players with divergent interests. Since it is not a "pure" industrial metal..of course it is heavily manipulated in terms of value and supply. I like the easy access of "junk gold" in e-scrap, that seems like a wonderful bet for the future (much like silver in coinage,that has paid off great for early hoarders). If the break neck growth in India/China stays linked 100plus/barrel oil copper will be metal of the day..pure market driven commodity that will be very difficult to corner or suppress. Amazing times...this fake "recovery" is outta cash,where is the money going to run too?
That depends. A buyer pays spot plus a markup for a gold coin (say a US $50), when you go to sell (same day, same dealer) they pay you less then spot for the coin. That spread is how dealers make their money, the move volitile the market the less of the spot price they pay you or they don't bother (so they don't get stuck with a loss). This only works for the dealer because they have clients looking for that gold all the time. Unless you as an invester knows somebody who is paying spot + premium then you can't make money unless gold goes way up even if you pay less then spot (and that is pretty much over now).
The way this economy works is that the government loans money to banks at no interest and those banks invest that money in gov bonds (nobody else would buy the trillions the gov needs), those same banks invested in gold and stock, which is why they made some good profits the last few years. People with jobs still stick money into 401k's which wallstreet pretty much pockets. Stocks are pretty much worthless without the constant stream of 401K money and from banks buying up stock with free money. Sooner or later the whole system will collapse and so will the value of everything except food and fuel.
the money is not controlled by the government it is controlled by the FED. Every president that tried or even thought of printing money or taking control of it has been assassinated.
The government wants money. QE 1,2,3,4, the Treasury sec calls the FED and orders 40 billion the FED says ok. and the treasury prints it. trading it for U.S. security's plus 6% interest. There is no backing of this loan except for you and me and what we produce. The government produces nothing. So it is entirely Debt to you and me 40 billion plus 6% intrust. That debt has now been streached way past you and me to our children and grand children. the government is now spending their money and futures.
Last edited by EcoSafe; 03-10-2013 at 02:00 PM.
"anyone who thinks scrappin is easy money ain't doin it right!"
Here is a scary fact.
There isn't currently, enough printed money to pay just the interest on the amount of money the Federal Government has borrowed from the Federal Reserve. People tend to thing that "The Fed" means it's the federal government, and that's just simply not the fact. "The Fed" is really comprised of 12 private banks, and about 35%-40% of the banks in the US hold stock in the FRB as well. The FRB is heavily regulated by the government, which we all know is a joke. All the real decisions concerning the FRB are made by the "Federal Open Market Committee". Five of those people come from the 12 private banks that make up the bulk of the FRB with the last 7 being appointed by the President. This is suppose to allow the Federal Government to control the FRB. When you start to look at who donates campaign funds though, things become far more clear as to who actually controls the FRB.
If you ever want to know where the corruption starts, just follow the money trail back.
Scott
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