Quote from: F-bernanke on March 09, 2014, 08:19:40 PM

I love gold, and have a Physical stack of Gold maples and krugerrands (5 ounces).

Quote from: KenJackson on March 09, 2014, 06:51:40 AM

..., but I wouldn't think of buying real gold and storing it in my house. The ETF seems safer and more convenient.

This is exactly the problem with gold. They can just sell it many times over when nobody takes delivery.

What you describe is fraud. That's a potential pitfall of dealing with any online banking or financial institution.

Those who tout physical gold often say that when the dollar collapses and there's violence in the streets, you can at least still buy food with your real gold in hand. I question that.

I just checked pcgs.com and the lowest price gold coin I could find there was a grade 3 Indian $2.5 for $250. So the bubble bursts, the dollar is worthless and I walk into the grocery store with a small old coin, face value $2.50, and I claim it was worth 100 times its face value before the collapse, so I should be able to get a whole trunkfull of groceries for it now.

I think I'd be hard pressed to find a grocer that would give me one bag of groceries for it. And these days it costs me $50 to fill the gas tank on my car, so how can I get $200 in change if I convince the gas station guy to take it?