Gold and silver prices are down

[Rob Boudrie]

It's REALLY important to watch the premiums when buying or selling. If you look at my post #10060 in this thread, you'll see that on 5/28/23 silver halves were at a premium of +$8.35. Silver was around $23.20 then, so 90% halves were wholesaling around 22.6 x face value. Now, with silver at $31.48 the premium is zero, so 90% silver halves are wholesaling at 22.5 x face, just about the same as when silver spot was $23.20. So, you could have bought back then, had silver go up around 35%, and you're back where you started. BTW, silver dimes/quarters are wholesaling at a NEGATIVE premium right now, around -$0.40 vs +$7.00 a year ago.

But at retail, sell below wholesale and pay ordinary income, not capital gains, tax when selling. PMs have to seriously outperform the market to beat that alternative.

The next someone tells you "gold is up X% while stocks are only up Y % over the past N years", ask "What is the percentage gain compared to stocks after factoring in the buy premium I must pay, the sell discount I must take, and paying ordinary income rather than capital gains on the profit"?

 

[Varmint]

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Mainstream Wall St financial press doesn’t understand gold, they’re confusing a lot of things in that video. They’re conflating central bank (comex etc) buying and retail (Apmex bars and coins) buying which are two very different markets. Retail gold and jewelry is a relatively small part of the gold market, compared to the futures market, which is what's driving this price move, not central banks or Indian retail customers.

But Wall St. wants investors to think this is just stupid scared retail investors in India or Costco bidding up gold, cause they don't want investors buying gold, they want them buying their fee-based products.

 

[Varmint]

But at retail, sell below wholesale and pay ordinary income, not capital gains, tax when selling. PMs have to seriously outperform the market to beat that alternative.

The next someone tells you "gold is up X% while stocks are only up Y % over the past N years", ask "What is the percentage gain compared to stocks after factoring in the buy premium I must pay, the sell discount I must take, and paying ordinary income rather than capital gains on the profit"?

If the IRS knows how much gold you have and what you paid for it, you're doing it wrong. There shouldn't be any tax on PM gains at all.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

If the IRS knows how much gold you have and what you paid for it, you're doing it wrong. There shouldn't be any tax on PM gains at all.

Easy to do with small quantities where it's gold for cash, no ID.

Tougher selling off-books if you have investment quantities ($100K or more) you need to liquidate. Sell a half mil stock to buy a house - easy, reported and frequently caoptal gains. Liquidate $500K in gold, do it off books, and leave no trace that can be used to nail you for tax evasion - not that easy.