Wanderer

Sorry. I know it isn't really adding to the debate, but really....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3705851/3bn-gold-yacht-is-worlds-most-expensive.html

Has Goldfinger been splashing out?

OK, if no-one else can be bothered....

1304 and counting

If you look VERY VERY carefully at CID then, from time to time, they get their VAT rates wrong and it is possible to buy silver at 7% VAT. Just now and again.... :-)

Don't know why people buy from Sarnia, even with no VAT it still seems cheaper to pay the VAT and buy at CID as their pre-VAT price is so much cheaper. (This is especially true if the VAT is 7%!!).

+8.50. Ignition sequence in operation?

At home today. Couldn't help checking Kitco and noticing a little 'rocketing' going on.... $1265!

Our rent is 1/824th the price of the house I live in. its much cheaper than just the interest if I had an interest only mortgage thingy.

Wow, Azazel, that is quite amazing. Where in SW England are you roughly? Renting is a no-brainer for you...

We were doing the maths the other day and of course it is even more in our benefit than the figures suggest AS LONG AS HOUSE PRICES STAY STATIC OR FALL. We pay no buildings insurance, we pay no maintenance costs (and in a 400 year old house these are several!) and we have a couple of hours of gardener a week provided. We're happy! (though we hope they'll fix the few little roof leaks soon... :-) )

Our landlady has put our place on the market. She is asking x290 our current rent. There hasn't been a single view since it went on 3 months ago. I don't think there's any danger of us having to move out before out lease is up next July.

Interesting. My rent is one 413th of the asking price our landlady couldn't sell her house for until we rented it this August. Can anyone beat that?

Must agree that UK is in that 'sweet spot' between announcing reductions in spending (and so getting the credit for them from optimistic markets) and actually carrying them out (with all the associated pain and loss of political capital).

In reality, the axe hasn't even begun to swing yet. The scale of what is required to carry out 25% cuts is enormous. Every project that gets mentioned in the papers comes with complaints from each lobby: be it aircraft carriers, troop numbers, schools buildings, hospitals, public sector pensions, arts budgets, embassy closures etc. The only thing I've not heard complaints about is housing benefit cuts.

Once the axe begins to fall (coincidentally around the time that Labour will get a new leader) then we'll see genuine testing of the political resolve of the new Government. Cracks in that resolve will hurt the pound no doubt.

As an aside cuts to housing benefit may have an enormous impact on the housing market. As I understand it, under the current system you, my friend Mr A may be unemployed and on housing benefit and you can agree to rent a house from me, Mr B, for £X00. Now £X00 may be £Y00 more than the going rent but the housing benefit people don't query it too much. DHSS pays your rent to me and I might even feel inclined to give you half of £Y00 for being part of the scam. Isn't that more or less the £2000 a week asylum seeker story?

I had conversations about that with my team this week. None of my team earn over £25,000. Seeing someone getting paid £2000 a week housing benefit means it is more difficult to motivate them to work for that amount per month (before tax)....

Dr B,

I suspect this little (2 and a half minutes) video of 'living small' will be up your street if you haven't seen it already....

http://vitality.yahoo.com/video-second-act...shafer-20910192

Wanderer

Does anyone else own Hawthorne Gold Corporation - CVE:HGC . I bought a bunch of minor miners in February 2009 and this has been the only dog. Now 60% down. Time to give up? Or is it worth holding as a loss in case it comes back to former glories (previously 30 times higher than this a few years ago).

Anyone out there? Now down almost 80% and feel can't do worse than to hold onto it. Worth buying more?

Where is the best place to buy a bulk order of British sovereigns?

Try CID (of course) or Weighton (sp?) Coin Wonders - the latter do 'lunch boxes' of coins...

Gold - you gotta love those $20 bumps down from time to time. Just don't drink coffee while you check the price....

You'd be surprised how little space you need for a tonne of gold. After all, it is only about 85 London Good Delivery Bars and they're not very big. Could fit it all in a suitcase in your attic. Now, where's your $50m?

A metric tonne (1000kg) is worth 40,000 dollars x 1000kg = a mere 40,000,000 (that's $40million dollars to you - or c.£27m) - or about a third of a Eurofighter.

So the US's gold c. 8300 tonnes is worth about 8300 x $40m = a snip at $332billion dollars or £200bn odd quid. Or, to put it another way, for less than half the cost of the TARP you could have bought the entire US gold stock...

If you want a ton, I've got one for you, but I don't have change for a $50m note....

FT is reporting Saudi holdings of gold at all time high too....

Little mini rocket for gold in dollars today. Haven't seen one of those in a while.

Thanks, but that is not what I meant. Is there a country where many people from the UK might travel to that has no VAT on Silver. ie if I was on a business trip in e.g. Finland (for example) could I pick up lots of nice VAT free silver coins and bring them home? I don't want to buy them one by one in the post!

It is a personal import so up to the money laundering limit is not a problem. I always try to bring something back from whatever trip I take with silver though weight quickly becomes an issue on airplanes so I generally only bring it back when I travel by train or car.

Id5, Where do you go that VAT is less on Silver?

Good silver buying day? 17.36 down 59c!

You can import as much as you like Wanderer but you may have to pay import duties if it is from outside the Eurozone and those roughly equate to the cost of paying for the VAT in the UK plus you still have to deal with shipping costs etc. The only advantage is in personal importation by beating the VAT difference by going to Germany for example, buying silver there and bringing it back.

Yes, that's what I'm wondering about. Could I, for instance, go to (lets say) Canada, buy British Silver Coins VAT free and come back with them through customs legally, thus saving the VAT? Not worth a special trip, but if you travel a lot with work it is worth taking the effort to do this if you were going to buy silver anyway. Only if it were legal of course.

Through GoldMoney?

 

Maybe Jersey has different rules regarding retail bullion as well?

GF,

Thanks. I meant little bits of silver you could hold in your hand. Jersey is a possibility. I wonder how much you can import legally if you were to go there and buy, say, UK silver coins?

What about the USA or Canada?

W

Does anyone know if there are any countries where you can buy silver without paying VAT or equivalent?

Interesting, the front page of the FT website has a headlining story about Britons buying sovereigns and britannias in large numbers to avoid CGT. I can't access as I don't have a subscription?

Media interest and the start of the mania phase (early stage)? Or softening up public opinion to remove what is described as a CGT 'Loophole'?

Good call on the election and you are probably right on timing of gold purchase...but I am more concerned about gold being there when you want to buy-if it is physical you are talking about. Already we have seen some big dealers depleted of supplies and a rush to gold bythe Europeans and I read yesterday the Americans too. Will the gold be there when you want it? I am not advocating buying every top, just pick up on the dips.

 

My favored dealer in Japan does have gold now but silver is another story. I have been told that supplies of US junk silver coins have been depleted, and the bullion coins are all out. Closest I could get was a 30kg block! As I had the push chair, I declined and filled up on fractional gold instead.

Jake,

I was in Japan for years and will be back there one day. What do most people do for gold and silver investment there? Are there BoJ gold and silver coins? Or bars etc? Do people buy online or at stores? Are there many people interestsed in gold there?

Also, was talking to a US friend today about gold. Where could he buy gold coins in the US? Anyone know any reputable dealers online in the US?

Wanderer

Friday 3pm smackdown in progress? Few minutes early....