[SOLD OUT FOR 1/24] For Costco Members Only!!!
[SOLD OUT FOR 1/24] For Costco Members Only!!!
More thoughts on buying gold - and maybe even silver??? - at Costco
[UPDATE: 5:30pm 1/24/2024 - They’re all gone!]
This link currently accepts orders (as of 1/24/2024 12:24 PST). At $2,059.99 w/spot at $2,012.46 (12:53pm), this is spot + 2.3%. The 1% cash back from the Costco Visa makes this spot +1.3%. Simply unbeatable anywhere else.
From my previous post:
Buying one-ounce bars of gold at Costco is quite something, if for no other reason than why you buy anything at Costco… Great price points and a reputation for quality.
In the gold/silver market, there is what is called the “spot price.” It fluctuates over time, especially so in uncertain times. But it is easily discovered. If you see a one-ounce bar of gold for $2,099.00, you can quickly look up the spot price (~$2,051.00 at this moment) and simply divide spot by retail and subtract 1: (2,051 / 2,099) -1. A retail price of $2,099 is spot + 2.2% at this moment. Now, if you shop for bullion online and do the same math, you will see that spot + 8% is the ballpark market norm. If you have credit limit room on your Costco Visa, you get 2% cash back on all charges at Costco stores or Costco.com. (In an earlier post, I erroneously thought it was 3% for these gold bar purchases.) With room on the cash-back credit card and all other things being equal, it is possible to buy gold from Costco roughly at spot - something simply not possible elsewhere.
Check these links regularly
Beyond checking the jewelry case at your local Costco, here are three one-ounce products from Costco.com. When you click on each, wait a bit. You’ll see the graphic, but your browser will update if the product is unavailable. I’ll show a screen capture below for the first:
[1/24/2024 UPDATE: This one is available as of 12:24pm] https://www.costco.com/1-oz-gold-bar-rand-refinery-new-in-assay.product.4000202779.html
[Watch this last one VERY CLOSELY over the next few weeks: Chinese New Year is coming soon!]
[UPDATE 12:36pm 1/24/2024: It looks like this product code is no longer carried. I was redirected to the product above and got a 404 not found response when trying to explicitly look up 4000219068.]
If the product is out of stock, you should see something like this:
If the browser does not show this, well, the race is on! You can only buy two, so get ‘em while you can!
Lastly - What about silver??? 1-800-774-2678
Costco’s U.S. customer service number is 1-800-774-2678. I called them the other day because, honestly, I would REALLY like to see 10 oz. silver bars instead of 1 oz. gold. Here is why:
It’s a more accessible price point. Spot silver right now is $23.13/oz. If we multiply by 10, that’s $231.30. If we tack on 3%, that’s $238.24. That, right there, is a Christmas or birthday gift for a young adult child (I have two sons, 24 and 26, respectively). I told the rep that a 10 oz. silver bar would fly off the shelves, unlike anything they had seen with gold.
Silver is far more important in the digital age than gold. This is because no element in the Periodic Table conducts electricity more efficiently than silver. You probably know that wires are usually copper. This is because copper, as an element, enjoys a “Goldilocks” sweet spot. It is relatively abundant and therefore cheap, but also conducts electricity quite well. But silver is still the best conduit for electricity. The industrial demand for silver will always be stronger than for gold.
Silver has an even stronger historical record as money than gold. The ancient Hebrew word for silver (כסף) is its word for “money.”
A final word about access to credit
Why buy gold and silver? And perhaps more importantly, why avoid coins and stick to bullion? Simple: Go to Google and use “bullion loans” (without the double quotes) as your search terms. Then read.
It is simple: If you own gold and silver, you can use it as collateral. Generally speaking, there will be a roughly 10% preference for bullion (e.g., bars bought from Costco) over coins (i.e., “numismatic”) gold/silver. Simply put, you can borrow more against gold/silver bars than against coins.
Honestly, folks, you might believe the government should have a wide range of authority to promote the common good. Traditionally, this might make you a “Liberal.” In my mind, that’s all good. You’re still my neighbor. As for me, I would rather the government be tightly constrained. Those limits are there to protect our individual liberty. I learned “conservatism” from my parents (who would be relatively “liberal” in today’s world). Government exists to do for us what we cannot otherwise do for ourselves - and to otherwise leave us the hell alone!
This isn’t so much about the “wealthy” protecting their wealth. This about you and me, who have the same thing - the work of our hands - protecting the value of our labor.
If you are interested in reading further, please consider reading this.