You're asking a good question. My own suspicion is some of these companies were gold investing through the 1980s when it was in the 300s and they're looking to cash out prior to retirements. They think they won't be alive to see the ultimate end - maybe buying property they wish to pass to heirs. Otherwise, I agree with jbrenner - they make commission money both directions - buying and selling. It's in their interest to promote "we buy gold!", and then almost in the same breath say "now is the perfect time for YOU to buy gold!". High turnover rates make them money. Do I think this means they are disingenuous in their proclamations to invest in gold because the currency will collapse to worthlessness in the future? A little bit, yeah.

Be careful, tho... the prices are being manipulated and its awful easy to buy into a "fear purchase" at a grossly inflated price. Not saying don't buy, but know what you're buying, and what its real value is (and what you plan on doing with it if the bottom drops out of the FRN paper)...

gold is pretty to look at. If you buy low and sell high you can keep the change. But, in the mean time it pays no dividend and does not work for it's owner. The guys selling the gold are not investors, they make their margin on each sale. Otherwise, they would be hoarding it, waiting for the bubble. The most risk is borrowing money to buy or leveraging. Scares me. The last bullion I bought was silver and it was $27/oz. It seemed like it had to go up. Let's just say now is not a good time to sell bullion!

Their plan to make money is to reinvest the "worthless" dollars into more Au. The money that they make is the commission, not the investment.

What would be the better choice for saving for the long term? Cash or gold and silver?

All fiat currencies have went to 0 value. When a new currency is floated typically you get 1 to 10,000 old currency. Gold has never lost much value. As the old saying goes an ounce of gold buys a nice Italian suit.

Gold IS MONEY

(So is silver)...

Who cares how many fiat FRNs you trade for real money? Metals are a way of preserving wealth - FRNs are soon to be worthless.

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/un...

One word...."spread".

I have as much gold and silver as I can buy. I think it's going to happen.

There will be a time to buy gold, but not now. Gold is in its own bear market.

we believe that a little gold and a little silver are
good barter materials if we must attempt to salvage
a life after things go wrong.

one thing is patently obvious::: these brokers get a
very handsome percentage (13.5% on our last
transaction) when shifts and conversions occur,,,
plus, they get a handsome storage fee ($350/year,
at last count) for holding the stuff. whatta deal! -- j

A basic consideration must not be limited to the crumbling U.S. economy, but to the world's economy.
Taken at face value it is less than miserable, and has been for years. It has taken 53 years to climb from the roughly 800 billion dollar total debt (Which dependent on the records researched, is subject to discussion.) that Eisenhower left us, to the 18 trillion in secured debt and 103 trillion in unfunded debt, and as a ratio of secured debt to GDP (14.3:17.973) of .79:1 we are in sad shape, and are further restricted from digging our way out the hole by the Departments of the Interior and the EPA.
But the rest of the world, save South Africa, are in worse shape. China's monster economic engine has no security and is 100 percent based in the credit fueled buying power of the US and Western Europe.
Wonder about the value of gold, currently it is worth whatever the market will bear, but what will it be worth in a Barter Economy, such as the majority of the world had from 175 ECE when Rome went Bankrupt till the early Renaissance years around 1400 MCE. Today an ounce of gold, perhaps a US Double Eagle or a Rand, is fluctuating around $1,221.06 (2014:10.01:2324) in the markets that are currently open. This will probably have a face value of $20 more or less after the inevitable crash. Because, a Dame Margaret Thatcher said, "[Liberals have forgotten that] Eventually you will run out of other peoples money."
Today's Rome is the United States of America.
What will have real value, as it had in the dark age, is the strength of you arm and your arms, and your value as a leader, a hunter or a producer.

The USD isn't a store of value but rather a medium of exchange. The gold vendors can take the USD and buy a set of businesses providing goods and services to willing customers. All the value is in that.

You must be reading my mind.
Get out of there! There's hardly enough room for me.

sometime back when gold was in the $1600.00 range a gold dealer called me. obviously to buy gold. I said suppose we were to go to dinner at a fine and expensive restaurant, he lived in the miami area so the choice would be large. and i further said after we had dinner with 2 bottles of expensive wine, not necessarily good and we were brought the bill and he took out a gold kugerrand to pay. the bill being $800.00. he told the waiter what it was worth $1600.00 and to keep $100.00 as a tip and give him change in US dollars. I then said the waiter would probably ask for cash or a credit card. The only value that gold has is for jewelry.

From MY financial gurus...

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Hi, it's me, the Broken Record, back again to talk about investments in reply to questions like these...

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Sure, invest in gold! You'll have about the same success as most other market timers in any and all other commodities! But in the LONG term, you would have to be REALLY GOOD in your timing to beat Federal 10-year bonds and the S&P 500 [see link, scroll down.]

Ah, but what the hell do I know... I'm just a BSEE... gotta have an MBA and an investment firm logo after my name to have street cred, right?

Cheers, all investors out there!

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Actually lots more... http://www.marketminder.com/GoogleSearch...

In some of my work today I had to discuss this with somebody.

In our recent history I can think of one time when physical gold was used in a crisis. I bet there have been others - I just don't know about them. It was when Pol Pot moved in and took over. Some families hoarded a little gold, stashing it in the folds of their clothes. On occassion they would use it to barter for a bag of rice or similar while the entire population was starving to death, buying themselves a couple extra days of life, essentially. And, important to note, if the government learned you had gold they chopped your head off. So...I'm a bigger fan of guns and bullets should it ever "come to that".

The amount of gold in mines is known. The amount of gold in the ocean is known. The amount of gold in the solar system, galaxy, and universe have been estimated (considered known). Even if you could convert energy to gold, the amount would be finite. Thus. gold maintains its value relative to existing goods and services. A man's three-piece wool suit, for instance, still costs the same ounce of gold it did 100 years ago. However, today, we have computers, iPads, and the heartbreak of Kim Kardashian. Right now, here in Texas, we have an embola victim. He flew DIRECT from Monrovia to Dallas-Fort Worth. You could not do that 100 years ago. So, today, your gold is worth more.

Gold is for savings. You can make money buying and selling it like cocoa or North Sea Crude Oil. But its purpose is not to make enjoyable beverages or to power engines and make plastics. The fundamental purpose is not even savings: monetary gold is a distant second to jewelry. (Admittedly, in many cultures, gold adornments are their monetary savings. So those numbers must be adjusted. And, here we are indeed considering monetary gold, not jewelry.)

These many quips in this topic, typically by moochers, just display the common ignorance of political conservatives. Way back in 1966, at a local meeting of Young Americans for Freedom, one of my conservative comrades made the same claim: in a world of skyscrapers, there is not enough gold to go around; for everyone to have enough money, we must have the government issue it. That was ignorant 50 years ago; it remains ignorant today.

I could write more, and have. See "Objectivism and the Gold Standard" here http://necessaryfacts.blogspot.com/2011/... . The matter is complicated. Unfortunately, most only forums encourage 50-word replies.

Should we have a socioeconomic collapse half as bad as Road Warrior movies, I don''t think gold will be worth much of anything save for filling teeth maybe.
We will have "liquid gold" for gasoline to trade, loot and fight over. Ammunition may become more valuable than the guns that it loads.

A wonderful point. Gold is a fixed value, which "rises" and "falls" relative to national currencies, particularly those which issue fiat money (including the U.S.) Since those "increases" and "decreases" are being measured against mediums of exchange which have no intrinsic value, they are mere empty statistics.

Unless of course one gets into commodities trading, but tat's another subject entirely.