Gold Sold From Vending Machines In Germany

There are fewer hassles for an adventurer or business traveler bigger than lugging around bags of silver and copper pieces. Luckily TG-Gold-Super-Markt has installed gold vending machines in 500 locations including train stations and airports all across Germany. The machines charge about 30% more than the current trading price for gold, and are updated every few minutes. All are closely monitored by cameras, and like 3rd and 4th edition, electrum pieces are not accepted.

Comments

Sell signal

[Cereal Box]

If this isn't a "sell" signal, I don't know what is.

Interesting but inherently flawed!

[jchawk]

This is certainly an interesting concept but I have a handful of concerns -

1. Why as an investor would I pay a 30% premium to purchase physical gold?
2. Assuming I would I then have to worry about keeping the gold physically secure once I take possession of it.
3. I run into issues when trying to sell the gold after I've taken possession because how can anyone be sure that I haven't tampered with the gold? How do they know that 1oz is still 1oz? What if I drilled and filled it?

There are many other ways to purchase gold as an investment that eliminate the above issues. Gold ETF's are one. They are easy to trade and move in and out of. There are services that will let me purchase gold and store it at their locations, and will certify the amounts as to avoid purity issues as well as security issues.

If you truly believe that the world economies are going to collapse why bother to buy gold at all? You should be buying guns. Believe me, you'll need them to protect more important things like your family and your home.

Interesting idea but only suckers will buy from them. :-)

Re:Interesting but inherently flawed!

[HiThere]

Whiskey is another good investment if you have such expectations. Good whiskey is difficult to make, in high demand, keeps well, and takes a very long time to make if you have only primitive equipment. (Consider the problem of seals in the still, and making pipes that don't leak lead.)

You'd probably want to make sure that it was securely packaged, and that the caps of the bottles were upright and not exposed to moisture. Doing such in the current environment is easy. After a collapse, much more difficult. And you can buy an extra liter of whiskey a week without anyone raising an eyebrow. (Try doing that with guns and ammo. And ammo doesn't store as well.)

Another good investment would be a medical degree. That one's more time consuming, but after a collapse doctors, those who know more than what drugs to prescribe anyway, will be extremely valuable. Nurses too.

Or you could apprentice yourself to a blacksmith. That would be a really valuable skill. But you'd better learn how to handle and recognize scrap metal.

Horse handling probably won't be worth bothering with in most areas for a few generations. Most of the horses will be eaten. Archery would be worthwhile, but learn to fletch your arrows at the same time. I doubt that you could learn to handle a longbow well, but it would be a good idea to learn how to teach the use of it. (Supposedly one needs to grow up with a longbow to learn it's proper use.) Having a few compound bows would be a good substitute, but you won't be able to replace them. So also get a few regular bows, and learn how to make them from wood. And which wood. (Yew is likely not to be available, so learn what's available in your area.)

Guns are a strictly short term answer. (So is whiskey.) Both only buy you time to establish yourself in a community...and you'll NEED a community. Self defense by an individual is a recipe for dying out within one generation.
 

Re:Interesting but inherently flawed!

[greyhueofdoubt]

Well, you're right- the chemistry part of things could cause problems for a lot of people. But on the other hand so could soap-making. Me, I'm not a doctor or a chemist, but I can treat wounds and make helpful things like gunpowder and soap. You don't need a PhD to do those things- our ancestors did them thousands of years ago. What I like to see are people getting out of their element and learning a skill or two that they don't need but might prove useful. CPR class is an obvious example, but other really good experiences can come from craft fairs, boy scouts, summer camp, etc. Sometimes even just reading a book on a whim can give great insight when trouble arises (am I the only one who read a book on knots on a whim?)

It's sad to think about, but I'm pretty sure that in the event of a great disaster, our population centers would display markedly greater mortality per capita than other areas. From a survival standpoint, the center of New York City is about as bad as things get.

So anyways what I mean is, your original post was correct in that skill and knowledge may become the most valuable currency of all.

-b

Re:Im sorry

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Trouble there is, nobody would be selling gold at +30% in exchange for a paper currency that will be worth half as much tomorrow.

If you want to buy gold at any reasonable rate, you pretty much have to do it well before you actually need it(or you have to be buying in some other apocalypse currency, like dog food or ammunition).

Re:Im sorry

[lgw]

It's a panic sparked by a fear of a coming currency collapse - quite a reasonable fear given the current rate of US government spending, but still a very low probability event. However, while hedging against the chance of the dollar collapsing (and taking the Euro with it) makes sense, it only makes sense to pay a very small premium to hedge against this unlikely event.

Some see this hedging going on by central banks and other who buy and sell gold by the ton, and overreact. Physical gold coins are a total ripoff right now (and entire industry has emerged to exploit the panic), and, seriously, if society collapses to the point that legitimate "intangible" gold (such as GLD shares) become worthless, you don't want gold coins, you want *guns*.

Re:Im sorry

[panthroman]

Gold at 30% extra is swell deal if you are faced with possibility that your cash would be worth 50% less tomorrow.

No it isn't, because one of your other options is gold without the 30% premium. If you don't like fiat currency, fine, invest in whatever you like. But why you'd pay a premium over the market value is beyond me.

Vending machines work for candy bars. I'm willing to pay a markup because I want my snack in my hand right now. What could possibly be the urgency with gold?

(Yeah, yeah, hyperinflation in post-WWI Germany or late '80s Argentina or current Zimbabwe. You think what Zimbabwe needs are vending machines for gold?)

This is targeted at doomsdayer types

[Sycraft-fu]

This isn't a rational thing. It is to get the people who are doing the "OMG the economy is going to collapse!" thing and don't know what to do. They see this and go "Ahh I can buy gold, gold is always safe!" It isn't targeted at rational investors, or even rational survivalists for that matter. It is targeted at alarmist doomsdayers.

Re:Im sorry

[oldspewey]

The term "market value" for gold is idiotic to begin with. Market value for what? Gold smelted into 1000oz bars? Gold minted into pretty 1g wafers with a fancy design on the face and fluted edges to prevent dishonest vendors shaving some off? Gold in the form of a promissory note from a bank that holds the equivalent in metal in their vaults? Gold in the form of a promissory note from an institution that holds only a fraction of your gold but claims they are "good for the rest?"

Each of the above will command a different premium over the spot price you see quoted in your newspaper ... and some of those premiums might even be 30% or more depending where you buy.

Re:Im sorry

[vertinox]

If you want to buy gold at any reasonable rate, you pretty much have to do it well before you actually need it(or you have to be buying in some other apocalypse currency, like dog food or ammunition).

See. I don't understand the gold bugs. Most of their hyper-inflation apocalypse scenarios they state that gold will be the new currency, but time and time again nations that have went through hyper-inflation have reverted to bartering instead.

When people are in times to need, they look to commodities with utility rather than value.

So in the wastelands in the future people will value gas, water, canned food, guns and ammo and not a pretty metal.

Secondly, if anarchy does set in, you can always use your gun to take someone else's gold if you wanna bother lugging that around.

Re:Im sorry

[Lord Ender]

Meanwhile, back in reality, paper money is gaining in value as prices fall.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aE9AA32hx8ek

So go ahead and buy your vending-machine gold (instantly losing 30%) and keep talking about hyperinflation as the recession eventually ends and gold crashes back to pre-recession prices.

Re:30%?

[david_thornley]

What's so special about gold? There's a whole lot of things you can buy bulk and sell at a considerable markup.

Some of my favorite places to visit do this with books: they buy large quantities, and sell individual copies to me at a markup.

Re:Im sorry

[MBGMorden]

I think you'll notice though that much like the gold mentioned in the article, people are stocking like CRAZY on ammunition right now. Prices have doubled (or more) in the last 6 months. You have about a snowball's chance in hell of finding any common pistol ammunition on the shelves right now (9mm, .45acp, .40s&w, etc) - people are literally waiting at stores as the boxes are unloaded and buying it all up immediately. All the local stores have had to put a per item limit on customers just to try and keep the speculators from buying it all.

Even if you reload your own it's tough times. To load a round of ammo you pretty much need a case, a primer, powder, and a bullet. Cases are reuseable. For slower rounds bullets can be cast at home out of scrap lead (I've got about 400 lbs melted into lead bars if needed). Powder and primers usually must be purchased (you can make black powder at home, but it's usually poor quality and most loaded rounds use smokeless powder rather than black powder anyways). Like the loaded rounds though, the primers have become rarer than hens teeth. When they become available people are buying them 10,000 or more at a time.

I think overall, be it gold or ammo or canned goods, a lot of people are dumping a lot of money into supplies that they feel will see them through some tough times.

Re:The machines charge 30% MORE than trading price

[meringuoid]

According to Ray Jastram's "The Golden Constant," the purchasing power of gold has remained relatively stable over the last 300 or so years.

Relative to what? Suppose I was in London with ten sov'reigns bright in my pocket in the year 1709. What could I buy with them? Suppose now I am in London with ten sovereigns in 2009. What can I buy?

One thing hasn't changed: London was and is a colossal trading centre, so if it exists and I have the money I can buy it. But everything else is completely different. What if I want a passage to Boston, in the colonies - and back again? Well, in 1709, my sovereigns might buy my passage, several weeks on a sailing ship in dubious conditions. Just. The cost of such a trip was many months' pay for a labourer - people would indenture themselves for years in exchange for their passage. What if I want the same in 2009? Why, I can get from London to Boston and back again the next day if I wish it, and I'll have ample change left over for shopping while I'm there.

The same goes for almost everything I might seek to buy. What if I desire personal transport? How many horsepower can I get for ten sovereigns in 2009? A hundred or so? How many horsepower can I get in 1709? One or two? Or contrariwise: what if I would hire myself a servant? Ten sovereigns will get me a labourer for six months or so in 1709. In 2009, ten sovereigns for even two months' work would be a low wage.

Economy and society and technology have changed so much: how do you compare the value of those sovereigns across the centuries?

Oh, of course: some things don't change so much. Always there is demand for beer, and beer changes little enough. When I go into an alehouse, and order whiskeys and wines of the best, what can I have? Well, a pint of London porter was 3d a quart, or a penny and a half for a pint, or 160 pints for a sovereign (this being back when a sovereign really was worth a pound, not just having that nominal face value). Nowadays, a sovereign sells from the Royal Mint for £200, and a pint of porter - Dublin porter more likely nowadays - is something like £3. That's 67 pints for a sovereign.

So to my mind, where it really counts, on a London street buying beer, the value of that sovereign has fallen substantially in the three centuries gone by.

Re:Im sorry

[Rakshasa Taisab]

Demand is through the roof as some of us--the ones who believe that the government is answerable to its people--are stocking up in case of future interruptions in supply.

I'm sorry... Maybe it's cause I'm from Europe, but what does guns have to do with government being answerable to the people?

If they don't answer, you'll shoot them? Hell, in Norway we got 1.5 million weapons with a population of 4.7 million. Yet we don't go around having wet dreams of a future where the government becomes totalitarian so we can shoot people we don't like in an excuse of a revolution.

We got the 11th lowest murder rate in the world. I think you guys just need to stop being so angry at the world.