Concrete Jungle
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Posts posted by Concrete Jungle
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I used to be able to pick up pre 1955 silver Mexican pesos for next to nothing on ebay a couple of years ago, now they appear to be selling for not bargain prices. There has definately been an increase in awareness albeit a tiny increase in the grand scheme of things.
yep - i agree with what you're saying but interestingly the older lunars have become very collectable, esp. the 2000 dragon which rarely sells under £50. Also the silver - gold embossed lunars are quite collectable.I regularly trawl through the scrap silver jewellery / antique mixed lots now to hunt for bargains, it's getting harder though!
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Crazy prices I have seen similar and more for the older Australian and lunar coins upto £40 an ounce! On a brighter note I picked up 5.96 oz silver in pre 1947 coins for £11.90 an ounce.
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I am quite fond of the noise all the Sarnia / CI silver packages make as the front door brushes them across the hallway floor, quite a nice way to be welcomed home after a day at work.
No! Is that not backwards?17.5% is the premium you pay to expunge your fake sterling for real sterling.
My feeling is mixed. If the tax is so high to buy silver they must be trying to convince you it is a bad deal. Therefore buy. Plus I don't mind paying a little tax to help mother england.
Still it is cheaper on the Continent.
And tax free if you don't mind a hundred packages bunging up your letter box. -
I had to double check in here to be sure Kitco aren't playing pranks with Kcast this afternoon!
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Pidgley: Market stable, but no dividend yet
Tony Pidgley, chairman of Berkeley Group, said the housing market stabilised in the year to 30 April 2010 but not to the extent that the residential developer would pay shareholders a dividendAnnouncing a 12% fall in turnover to £615m last week, Pidgley said: “Berkeley’s strategy is to maximise shareholder value in a sustainable and safe way over the long term. At present, the board believes that greatest value will be achieved through land acquisition, investing in work in progress and opportunistic share purchases, as opposed to declaring a dividend.”
The consensus expectation was a dividend of 10p per share.
Despite admitting to a “growing sense the worst is over”, he remained cautious amid the austerity measures being imposed by the government.
He said: “Such reviews and changes in policy are inevitable and necessary. Most important is that hard work and innovation are rewarded and growth is encouraged. In our own industry, this means a continued and concerted commitment from the private and public sector to work together to address the shortage in supply of quality housing.”
Pre-tax profit fell 8% to £110m and the company ended the year with net cash of £317m, which compares to the net debt position of most of its listed peers.
Although completions rose from 1,501 to 2,201, the average selling price fell from £395,000 to £263,000. Transaction levels are still 40% below what was the historic average.
It produced an operating margin of 17.3%.
Managing director Rob Perrins, the heir apparent to the company founded by Pidgley, said results had been boosted by the weakness of Sterling and the appetite of overseas investors although this was tempered by domestic economic and political uncertainty and restrictions around mortgage finance.
The company added 2,200 plots across 20 sites over the year, which Cammack said was disappointing although outweighed by the positive trading numbers, which were at the upper end of expectations.
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The smart money is still buying gold
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/inv...icle7144491.ece
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<br /><br /><br /><br />What are rough buffaloes?<br /><br />Which silver coin?<br />Buffaloes
http://www.sarniasilver.com/id32.html
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<br />Used to be able to pick up sterling silver medals and commemorative coins on eBay for spot or below no problem. But recently I have been getting significantly outbid. Could it be that either savvy members of the public are hoovering it up as an inflation hedge or the pros are doing it?<br /><br />Int he same vein.... Just spoke to a car dealer and he has sold 93 top of the range land rovers recently! And this is in a reasonably small outlet. He says the people buying are all quite wealthy but they all have the same story of wanting to buy now as they think/know the value of their sterling cash is being eroded rapidly. These folks want of of cash right now.<br /><br />Deflation in things priced in sterling? Forget it!<br /><br />Always makes me laugh that one. My newspaper keeps trying to tell me that we should all be awake at night worrying about deflation. They put up their subscription charges by 33% in the same issue! <img src="style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Ah well at least they have a sense of humor eh? <img src="style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /><br />I have noticed the old Mexican pesos .800 - .720 silver are now selling for daft prices comapred to what I paid for mine a few years ago.
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Dont always look in there, but notice they slightly pushed up the price of Eagles the last few days.
Think they provide a good customer service.
The last lot of "rough Buffaloes" I purchased from Sarnia / Silvercoinsbullion not that long ago cost £13.50 per oz posted, now up to £14.99.
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Silver having a good day up to $17.93. Making me quite pleased with my decision to buy more physical last wek, rather than this week.
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$1120 taken out
will she hold out?
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House prices fall in Feb - Nationwide
LONDON (Reuters) - House prices showed a surprise 1.0 percent fall in February, ending a run of nine consecutive monthly increases, figures from the Nationwide Building Society showed on Friday.Analysts had forecast an increase of 0.4 percent for the month and Nationwide said it was too early to say if the figures were the start of a new trend or a temporary blip.
The end of a stamp duty holiday on property sales and snowy weather were cited as possible factors behind the price decline.
"In light of low growth in household incomes and elevated levels of unemployment, house prices were beginning to move ahead of the recovery in general economic conditions," said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's Chief Economist.
"With the longer term stability of the market in mind, it would be a positive development for house prices not to become decoupled from the economic fundamentals," he added.
"A pause in the upward trend will also be a relief to potential first-time buyers who are no longer benefiting from the stamp duty holiday and for whom affordability had begun to deteriorate again over the course of 2009."
The annual rate of inflation increased to 9.2 percent from 8.6 percent because the price decline in February was smaller than the 1.5 percent fall 12 months ago.
The British economy crawled out of recession in the last quarter of 2009, according to provisional data. A second estimate of the quarterly GDP figures is due at 9:30 a.m. on Friday.
The country's housing market had recovered quite swiftly from sharp falls seen in 2008 and early 2009, helped by record low official interest rates and a shortage of properties coming on to the market.
The government had also removed stamp duty tax on properties sold for up to 175,000 pounds. From the start of the year, the threshold for the sales tax has been restored to 125,000 pounds.
Nationwide said the average price of a property sold in February was 161,320 pounds.
Naturally this was totally unexpected and merely down to the stamp duty holiday being scrapped and bad weather. Nothing what so ever to do with the fact UK property remains vastly over valued no matter how you look at it.
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Has anyone used the following site. It has some interesting coins and bars
Coins turned up 3 days after ordering in the post. They are in small plastic bags rather than cases. Other than that they are fine. SCB looks like it is run by the sister / wife / daughter / partner of Paul at Sarnia Silver.
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Has anyone used the following site. It has some interesting coins and bars
Looks very similar to Sarnia. At £13.50 for a 1oz Buffalo, I decided to order 4 (the most it let me order) £3p+p = £57 for 4oz physical, not a bad price imho. I will update the thread when / if I receive the coins with my thoughts.
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unless they have sellers then they definitely dont have a business and they are after all working for the sellers. i mean check out this 'must view' property
http://www.taylorsestateagents.co.uk/pdf.p...sTYW-KIW090405-
Is that a garage that has been converted into a "house"
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The only sweet way to think about that is that you are exchanging crap for something of worth.
Someone said to think of it as an exit tax on fiat.
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Yep, I am looking to buy a little silver... a 20% discount would be nice.
I am in the same boat, down to $18.60 at the moment.
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Gold on the BBC website
Gold hits yet another record high.
The price of gold has struck yet another record high as the dollar continues to weaken.Renewed vigour in early trading in London pushed gold to a new high of $1,217.23 an ounce. It has hit a number of new highs in recent weeks.Other precious metals have also rallied strongly. Silver, at $19 dollars an ounce, is 5% off its all-time high.
Demand for gold is being driven by two main factors - a weak dollar and investors' appetite for safe assets.
The price of gold is not just at a record in dollar terms, but in yen, euro and sterling terms too.
Three golden rules
Gold is a commodity that investors rush to in times of uncertainty - what is often referred to as a flight to safety. This week, investors pulled their money from shares after Dubai World reignited fears about bank lending by calling for an extension on its debt repayments.
Investors with large dollar holdings - including countries' central banks - have focused on gold as a safe investment.
Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets, said central banks in China, Russia and India had all looked to protect themselves against economic uncertainty.
"It is a store of value while investors have serious doubts about the global financial system - it's something that is not going to lose its value like a currency," he said.
Another key reason behind the sharp increase in the gold price is the fall in the value of the dollar. The US has said it will maintain low interest rates for some time, which makes the dollar less attractive to investors.
The dollar has fallen by 14% against the pound this year, and by 8% against the euro.
The third reason for the rise is speculation - as the price of gold keeps rising, more investors bet that the price will keep going up.
"Pressure remains on the dollar," said Peter Fertig at Quantitative Commodity Research.
"A weaker dollar is the main driver for gold, alongside speculation that central banks may buy more."
Not amongst the most viewed / shared news items however.
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Fortunately that includes VAT. Or is that 'unfortunately'. BTW when is the VAT reverting back? (inthe UK)
I think it is on 01/01/10 - must remember to top the car up on 31/12/09.
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£20 for a Britannia!! Not forgetting the increase in VAT due very soon.
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Special offer on 1oz Britannia coins at Weighton
2003 1oz Gold BRITANNIA - Helmeted Design - LAST BATCH
We have a limted quantity (40) of the 2003 1oz Gold BRITANNIA coins, and these will probably be the last of these we will see in a quantity. These are available to purchase at a FIXED price of only £749.00 - THAT IS ONLY 4% over the spot gold price. This price is limited to our last batch, and will only be available at this price until the 1st December 2009. After this date, if still available they will revert back to our usual price of 12% over spot gold - currently £799.00 each.If anyone is interested.
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Another story spotted on HPC
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/plan/india-plan...re-gold-imf-410
India is open to buying more gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It bought 200 tonnes for $6.7 billion on November 3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may well buy IMF's remaining hoard of 201.3 tonnes on acceptable terms, which are now under negotiation.A government official said that the additional purchase would depend on the "successful pitching by RBI". "RBI is an independent body, and the government does not interfere in its affairs. It will get the gold if its bid is successful and at the price it has offered," said the official.
RBI did not respond to Financial Chronicle questions if it was bidding for the remaining IMF gold. The purchase of the first lot of 200 tonnes, RBI had said at the time, was a part of its foreign exchange reserves management operations.
Responding to query from FC, an IMF spokesperson said the gold sale process was still under way and "there is no fixed timetable for completing the sale". Its spokesperson further said that "the fund does not wish to comment on discussions with individual members."
RBI has good reasons to further enrich its gold reserves. In just three weeks it has been able to benefit by as much as $800 million on the investment of $6.7 billion it made in buying 200 tonnes from IMF.
The article continues, click on the link to see all.
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HSBC starts gold rush as it kicks small clients out of its vaults
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbys...its-vaults.html
The British bank, which has sizeable vaults underneath its US headquarters overlooking Manhattan's Bryant Park, has told retail customers – many of whom are middle-men and custodian services which store gold with HSBC on behalf of hundreds of their own clients – that all their gold must be out of its facility by July 2010. The decision has seen fleets of armoured cars laden with gold ferrying the precious metal out of New York.An HSBC spokesman declined to comment, but it is understood that the increased demand for physical storage of gold by corporate clients is behind the move to end the retail service, which HSBC inherited when it took over Republic Bank a decade ago.
The decision comes as the price of gold continues to touch new highs – reaching $1,174 an ounce on Monday – and in spite of the fact that an increasing number of private investors want to buy and store physical gold rather than buying contracts linked to the precious metal's meteoric rise.
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A quick word of recommendation for SarniaSilver. I placed an order for multiple different items on Thursday and my order arrived this morning. 100% present and correct. First impressions - very impressed.
Sarnia have always dispatched my orders in a timely fashion. However once the cost of 1oz plus postage reaches £18, I assume Sarnia will have to start charging VAT.
And tax free if you don't mind a hundred packages bunging up your letter box.
" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Ah well at least they have a sense of humor eh? <img src="style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
GOLD
in Gold, FX, Stocks / Diaries & Blogs
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Hmm I wonder what else could end up hidden in the small print / ambiguous wording of this legislation?