To all the investors and traders - Where and how is the cheapest way to buy physical gold?

[#1]

I want to buy solid gold. Not paper gold, not a mine, true blue gold in the form of coins or whatever is available. The fees and other costs that places that sell gold ask is in some cases pretty rediculous. Any advice would be appreciared.

[#2]

You could try a few guys down in the mining districts, especially those that deal in the "abandoned mines" cleaning ;-)

[#3]

Seriously though, Gold coin and mini bullion bars is rather regulated so you might shop around but you are not likely to save a fortune (of course depending on what volumes you wanting). You might save 1 or 2% on the comm side but the metal/asset price is unlikey to change that much.

[Werner_1]

did you try to buy krugerrands, but not new ones, on the secondary market they a bit cheaper... i got a long time ago at the Cape Gold Coin Exchange in CPT. --- http://www.randrefinery.info/rand/pricelist/9.pdf --- i think if you want to buy large quantities you can email the Rand Refinary, they might be able to sell it to you directly... i was in contact once and this is what they said to me, but i didnt buy anything, so dont know exactly.

[PaulC]

Question do you want to have it in your hand or someone else's vault? If you want it yourself you are limited to coins and bars. Coins are VAT exempt. Bars carry Vat but not the premium of the coin. But the VAT makes them similiar in cost. A registered coin dealer is your best bet. You could try private buying just make sure you buy a geniuine coin/bar. Where are you in SA? I deal with Keogh Coins in durban. Carl is the chap to speak to and hes very helpful and will advise you where else you can get physical. If you are happy to have it stores elsewhere www.GoldMoney.com and BullionVault.com allow you to buy gold, silver and Plat(goldmoney) and they store in in a vault of your choice (london/zuric) they are 100% allocated unlike GLD who are allowed to use futures. Your other option is a place like Perth Min (in perth wierdly enough) where you will hold a cert which is a claim on allocated gold. The issue with the latter options is you need to get your cash offshore requiring SARS clearance. Its not hard (provided you are paid up) but just an extra step. Hope that helps

[#6]

Cape Town I want it in my hands, not somebody elses. I don't want to pay someone else to keep it in a vault or whatever and of course I do not want to get into trouble with SARS or the law.

[richardw]

Put out one of those 'sell your jewelery' ads, but you'll have to check items' value somewhere.

[#8]

On that note you could do like Cash Crudaers and pay a fixed price per gram for unwanted gold jewelry. Then the issue is recycling and melting. You probably gonna have to get in with a jeweler to smelt and rework the gold. Gonna have to work out the cost effective ratio to give pricing on jewelry.

[HateGauteng]

A kruger rand is considered legal tender. Can even go shopping with it. Can't see how one can get into trouble here unless they melt it down, which would be silly since the value of the coin is often more than the value of the raw gold. I also would like to know if people living in SA can now own raw gold?

[SimonPB]

bwabwahaha .. you ever tried to pay for your woolies shopping with a kruger rand ??

[HateGauteng]

Head for the cutest cashier and watch her eyes would pop out her head but theoretically you should be able to shop with krugers. Also due to its legal tender status, there's no vat on krugers but vat is charged on bars.

[brnman]

A good place to buy bullion and bars locally is www.metcon.co.za - a 10 g bar is advertised at bullion + 10%, 100g available for bullion +7%. Otherwise I buy kruger rands over online auctions - that way you can often avoid the premium and pay bullion price.

[GQ]

SA Bullion provides an investment service around physical gold bullion. see www.sabullion.co.za or email [email protected] In short, they hold a special dispensation from the SARB to supply Krugerrands into the invesment market. Investors looking for Gold Bullion usually get burned because they are dealing with the retail market (coin dealers) - who make money on buy and sell margins. SA Bullion charges a 1.5% fixed upfront charge on top of the KR price received from Rand Refinery which is SARB's agent for the KR. RRL in turn will only sell to numismatic dealers as retail suppliers or SA Bullion under sanction of the SARB for investment purposes. SA Bullion provides title ownership of the gold onto the client. Clients may hold, vault and insure their gold in an allocated vault at the Refinery for 2% pa - in this way circumventing all the security and cost issues around holding the physical bullion. Clients have right of physical delivery at all times. They are in cape town: 0214473240