April 2024 - Week 4 Edition

Buy Gold From Us, Not Costco – Here’s Why!

It’s bad enough that the major media keep getting the Costco gold story partly wrong, but they keep calling many of the same shallow sources to misrepresent the many long-time qualified coin and bullion dealers in America, as if we, and other true experts didn’t exist. Dozens of dealers with decades of proven expertise are seldom, if ever, contacted, while those fringe buyers in the New York area keep misrepresenting the bullion market.

In “The Headache at the End of the Costco Gold Rush: Selling Gold Bars Takes More Time and Money Than Stocks, Bonds or Crypto,” the WSJ reporter gets half the story right – that Costco does not buy back gold. However, the reporter then calls many of the wrong sources to tell America that it is almost impossible to get a good deal when selling the gold you bought at Costco. First, she reported, “One dealer offered him $200 less than the $2,000 he had paid.”  I don’t know any PNG-accredited precious metals dealer, like I am, who would rip off any customer like that but I have no doubt there are some less reputable gold dealers, like in other industries, looking to take advantage of unknowing individuals. This is why buying from and selling to experts in precious metals is so important.

The article pointed to high taxes on capital gains but nowhere mentioned tax deferral for gold held in an IRA. The reporter also failed to include information about the lowering or total removal of sales tax on precious metals in most states, thanks in large part to the National Coin and Bullion Association – an organization which I am proud to serve on its board of directors. After all, the Wall Street Journal serves a stock-buying public and their coverage of the gold bull market has been very weak.

Each May, the Gallup organization polls Americans on their favorite investment category and last year’s polls showed that gold surpassed stocks to become America’s second-favorite investing choice, after only real estate. This year, with gold’s huge rise and real estate’s fall as mortgage rates topped 7%, there may be a race for a new #1.

The Wall Street Journal often glowingly writes about real estate and stocks but ignores gold or paints it in a less than favorable investment light it seems to us. With some audacity, and quite a serving of Wall Street bias, the author claims, “Though prices have been climbing lately, they haven’t historically risen with the same consistency as stocks.” Oh really?  Gold is up 704% vs. 233% and 241% for the two leading stock market indexes since 2000. The WSJ gets it very wrong on gold in this article.

Let me share a story of J.A., who called our office last week: It turned out this man, who lives in Florida, went to Costco in search of some other items but when he saw Costco offered one-ounce gold bars for sale, he bought one for about $2,500. J.A. said he liked the product, so he went back later to get another bar but was told by Costco employees they were “sold out.” That’s when J.A. said he remembered seeing one of our ads and picked up the phone and called us.  Being out of gold bullion is something you will never hear us say but it is frequently the case when attempting to buy gold and silver from Costco.

So J.A spoke to one of our professional representatives, who is extremely knowledgeable in the gold and precious metals market. J.A. got a one-ounce gold bar, which actually was less than the price he was charged at Costco and it included free shipping, insurance and our free replacement services if he wasn’t satisfied once his product arrived at his home. Our prices, due to our tight buy-sell spread and our personalized service, are why J.A. vowed he would shop with us when buying gold in the future. This gives rise to my quick 5-point list of reasons to buy from us, not Costco: (1) competitive prices, (2) free shipping and insurance, (3) we buy back, (4) free replacement, (5) we employ experts in precious metals and numismatics, who will expertly assist you.

Now, let me repeat some of my article from last week, on why this person went to Costco – then to us:

Don’t get me wrong. It is a net positive when there are more gold buyers in America and Costco is helping in the expansion of that pool by selling up to $200 million a month in gold bars, according to the Wells Fargo.  History has shown us that the rise in gold buyers will result in about one in six bullion buyers becoming rare coin buyers. Costco will help stock the pool of coin buyers, but most first-time buyers will desire a two-way market, and they will find out that the only place to sell locally in most areas would be pawn shops, local coin shops or even ads for “gold buyers” in hotel rooms offering as little as 50% for rare coins, or a huge spot discount of 5% to 10% per gold ounce, or about $120 to $240.

We typically buy back gold at a little bit below spot gold prices and sometimes a little bit above spot, depending on the product. We actually buy back millions of dollars per month in products from our customers, as do several other authorized PCGS and NGC dealers but I feel no dealer has our total list of credentials. For instance, I have been involved with consumer protection in rare coins and precious metals for over half a century. I helped write the Consumer Alert on buying gold for the Attorney General of Texas and was selected as the 2021 ANA Dealer of the Year. My books, media appearances and newsletters on gold and rare coins have won “Best of the Year” awards from the Numismatic Literary Guild or the Press Club of Southeast Texas, or both. Finally, I have years of experience teaching fraud and counterfeit detection classes to law enforcement for the American Numismatic Association and the Numismatic Crime Information Center.

In closing, give Costco a pass and go straight to the experts. We won’t tell you we are “sold out” of gold bullion and you’ll never have to worry about where to resell your gold because we will buy it back at a fair price. Call us today to safely and easily buy or sell your gold products, including the one-ounce gold bars featured on the homepage of our website, like Costco is selling.

Gold and Silver Rise in April - While Stocks Sink, as Many Funds Unload Stocks

In the first quarter of 2024, the precious metals and stock indexes were about equal. Gold and Silver each rose about 7%, while the two major stock indexes were up an average of 7.5%, with the Dow Jones index up 5% and the S&P 500 up 10%, but in the month of April the two asset classes have parted ways, with gold up 8% and silver up 16% in the first three weeks, while the stock indexes down an average of over 5% through Friday: Nasdaq is down 7%, the S&P 500 is off nearly 6% and the Dow is down 4.7%. 

The cause of this reversal began in the dramatic opening week of April 1-5, when gold and silver staged their largest gains (+5% gold, +10% silver). On April 4^th, Israel destroyed the Iranian consulate annex to their embassy in Damascus, launching that war’s escalation. Then came the serious of “hot” inflation numbers, higher oil prices and rising bond yields, causing soaring gold prices and collapsing stock prices.

Due to this dramatic series of events in early April, Treasury rates began to creep back up in April, from 4.2% to over 4.6%. This caused many major retirement funds to cash in on their recent profits in the stock market in order to lock in those high bond yields.  This was reflected in a Wall Street Journal cover article in their Business & Finance section last Friday, entitled “Pensions Pull Funds Out of Stocks: Goldman Sachs analysts estimate funds will shift about $325 billion to other investments.” Those funds not only took profits but avoided stock market risks over the next year or two. This could also explain some of the recent increase in gold prices, as some of that money may have been diverted into gold ETFs and related products as well.

Even though gold and silver finally corrected somewhat this Tuesday, April 23, they are still up strongly in April. (We will bring you the monthly totals next week.) Part of the reason the metals correcting this week is that the mutual retaliations between Iran and Israel turned out to be something far less than most feared – as if both nations retreated from any major escalation of missile exchange, fearing a World War.

Gold and Silver Still Strong for 2024

Gold opened over $2,400 on Monday, April 22 but finally saw the much-awaited correction after rising nearly $175 in the previous month (from $2,158 on March 22). Likewise, silver opened at $28.80 but corrected by more than $1 per ounce to $27.30. Silver is still up, however, by $2.60 in the past month (from $24.69 on March 22). In October 2023, financial guru Steve Forbes and I met to discuss the future of gold prices and we both agreed that gold would hit $2,300 to $2,400 an ounce in 2024 and possibly $2,500 or more by the end of the year. We are on track to see our predictions come true, which means there is more room for investors to buy into gold.

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