Gold, again

[HoldAndBuy]

Gold is on a roll these days, as anyone who follows the news knows. Personally I think it's going to continue upwards, although it may retreat temporarily down into the 900-ish level again before moving ahead. I don't know if I agree that we're going to have hyperinflation, but the rise of gold tells me that people are uneasy and have no faith in the fundamentals of the US economy.

Anyway, I've been holding mine in an ETF for the last two years (ticker GLD). Are there any other goldbugs here, and if so do you hold it physically in the form of coins, etc., or in an ETF or stocks in gold mining co., like I do? I've heard some people claim that the ETFs are unsafe. I'm not sure if these people are just super-paranoid. I would hate to have to sell and buy  physical gold at this point. But I wanted to get other people's opinions.

Also, is anyone in silver?

[Gold River]

Hi,

    I am not sure I would go that far, as in March 2008 gold hit a ask price of almost $1030 an ounce! Where was gold's value this last year and a half?

I hold raw physical gold as we own a mining business and I put away a percentage of our recovery every year in placer gold.

I have investments in a number of other mining companies, but nothing real significant.

Silver will be a better investment the next 10 or 20 years as there is a world silver shortage and demand is exceeding supply.

                           GR

[tatertot]

I got lucky with the silver. Back when it was $2 an ounce, I was making jewelry and couldn't believe how cheap silver was if purchased through a metal broker. So I bought about 2k worth just before the Hunt brothers decided to corner the silver market and drove prices up to $50 an ounce.

I still have some art bars and some silver dollars that I keep because I like the way they look. I don't believe the economy will crash to the point that we all become feral, but if it ever happens, my silver 1 ounce bars and silver coins will be a lot more useful than anyone's gold. A gold coin is worth too much to pay for day to day stuff. You going to give a krugerand for a loaf of bread?

Silver going up to $50 should be a lesson that the possibility exists that balloon prices may never ever be reached again, no matter how long you wait.

Silver does have real value. It's necessary in lots of electronics and computers stuff. That should put a real floor under the price, so that there is a  limit to how far it can drop.

[Bluemoon06]

We don’t need gold because we have real estate.  Gold is bought because people think that there will be inflation and financial instruments will devalue and they need hard assets…Real estate is a hard asset.  Buying real estate is a way to have a hedge against inflation at the same time it pays you every month and you don’t have to keep up with where you buried your chest of doubloons. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum Argh

[jfpen]

We don’t need gold because we have real estate.  Gold is bought because people think that there will be inflation and financial instruments will devalue and they need hard assets…Real estate is a hard asset.  Buying real estate is a way to have a hedge against inflation at the same time it pays you every month and you don’t have to keep up with where you buried your chest of doubloons. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum Argh

Unless - we have deflationary recession/depression in which rents fall, you'll see more defaults on leveraged income properties. However, it's quite evident that the Government is doing everything they can to inflate asset values through the excessive use of the printing press. We are nowhere near the bottom of this thing.

JP

[John_in_NC]

Ditto on the silver. I like junk silver and silver eagles. They are US minted and the eagles say .999 on them, so easy to use if I had to. I buy all mine through apmex.com. They have the best prices anywhere, sign up on their email list and jump on the deals they run about once a month. If anyone knows of a cheaper place let me know.