Questions on buying Gold

Question

I have following questions about buying gold. Please clarify my doubts.

1. Is 10 oz Pamp Susse gold bar reliable? In other words, how good Pamp Susse gold bar is?

2. Is 24 karat gold coin good or 22 karat gold coin? For example, US eagle gold coin seems to 22 karat where as Canadian maple leaf and chinese panda coins seem to be 24 karat.

3. Is buying gold online safe? If yes, please list web pages of some RELIABLE online gold dealers.

Answer 1

1) Everybody and their brother sells Pamp Suisse gold bars, or at least, gold bars they say are Pamp Suisse. Only buy from sellers you trust.  Note:  One way to detect crooks is if they are selling under "spot" prices.   If it's to good to be true, it's probably not.

2) Coins in general are good because they are labeled with respect to weight and purity, and are generally trustworthy.  There is nothing wrong with 22K gold coins, I believe US Eagles are overweight to compensate.  One advantage of gold coins is that you can buy them locally from coin dealers.  Stick to "bullion" coins,  you don't want to spend more for a "rare" gold coin.

3) I like Kitco, they are well known and have been around a long time.  Check them out:

http://www.kitco.com

Grandpa

Answer 2

1)  Never heard of pamp susse, so can't help you there.

2)  I buy S African Kruggerands, which I believe are 24 karat.  But gold is gold.  You may pay more of a premium for the canadian maple leafs.  But I would have no problem buying u.s. eagles.

3)  You could look at buying from kitco online.  But for myself, I buy from a reputable coin dealer (near me).  You can do down there, talk to the dealer, handle the coins, etc.  

Answer 3

If you just want to invest in the price of gold then use the stock symbol GLD.  It is a gold ETF that takes care of liquidity issues and storage and high bid to ask spread of your local coin dealer.

I would not be buying gold at this point, but that's just my 2 cents.