Advantage To Selling Thai Gold In Us?

[Khun Jean]

For gold to go over $1,000 /oz something will have gone seriously wrong with the dollar, like Congress not authorising the next cash injection.

Wow, what a different view from mine. That is why it is called a market after all.

I expect the gold to really start to go up in price when congress authorizes the next cash injection, and the next, and the next, and the next...

[khaowong1]

Well in theory you guys are right but having just come back from the US and having taken gold I bought only the week before for 730usd per oz. in thailand, I had no problem selling it their for over $1000 usd as there is a shortage of gold in the US. I bought gold coins here in Thailand 96.5 and and had no problem taking them into the US 4oz in my carry on. They pretty much went unnoticed. I have heard of people paying 1200usd an oz on ebay at auction. Op I would check your numbers though as I don't believe you did your math correct. 1baht =15.16gr. which is just under one half ounce which at the time of this writing is 912usd per oz. which would put the value of a baht of gold at 456usd X .965=440 per baht not taking into account the weight difference. about .5%. This would give you a value of 15,400baht with a 100 to 200baht premium added on it should be selling for 15,500 to 15,600baht. I have people willing to pay me to buy gold here and send it to them, for a tidy profit of a least $50 to $ 100 per oz. I wouldn't advertise the fact as one or both of the governments might frown on it. Not sure but I don't want to find out the hard way.

I have a friend from the U.S. who has paid for his vacations to Thailand for years using this same formula, buying his gold at a known shop in Pattaya and selling to a jewelry shop in L.A., plus selling assorted gold jewelry to some Asian girls working in the bars in San Pedro.

[khaowong1]

I don't know i think some of you live in a different Thailand then I do. I had no problem getting gold coins and 5 and 10 baht bars here in chiang mai. I had no problem selling them to private parties in the US as they are paying high prices for coins in the US. I think there is a split unofficial of course between forex gold, paper gold and gold bullion. As time goes on I think this will become more obvious. I'm not a big player just took enought to get free airfare to hawaii and back. Had a nice vacation. Also took machettes 5usd each and sold for 30 usd as well as a few other well chosen things to sell.

As far a thai jewelry goes there is money to made there also. Most jewelry stores have a mark up of 2 to 3 hundred percent on there jewelry 14k. You can take thai jewelry 23k and make a tidy profit for under what people are paying for 14K and there happy to get it. I have done this with silver chains also.

Yes, this is right on the money. The problem is when people get too greedy and try and bring in to much gold to the U.S. and get caught.

[JimsKnight]

As I'm sure all you gold bugs know if the gold is at near 100% purity it'll wear away at a faster rate if being touched etc.

a fairy tale which does not become true no matter how often it is repeated Honourable Knight.

Umm, that's simple physics, sorry to correct you oh all knowing one!

[Naam]

As I'm sure all you gold bugs know if the gold is at near 100% purity it'll wear away at a faster rate if being touched etc.

a fairy tale which does not become true no matter how often it is repeated Honourable Knight.

Umm, that's simple physics, sorry to correct you oh all knowing one!

it's not simple physics but BS oh Honourable Brave Knight as i speak from pragmatic experience. my wife wears some 24k gold jewelry (necklace and bracelets) since decades without "wear and tear". the latter happens of course with rings touching quite often hard surfaces. as i was not familiar with the claims of "pure soft" gold but quite curious i was once trying to bend one of the rather big links (2.5cm long, 2mm diameter)) of a chain. result: nothing doing.

the "soft" story was invented by "jewelers" in countries where they sell rubbish and call an alloy which contains less than 50% of the precious metal "gold". there is only one valid reason to buy jewelry with a gold contents of less than 21-22k and that is when precious stones are set in the metal or when intricate workmanship creates flimsy thin designs.

[Sunbelt Asia]

At 15.16g/baht of processed Thai gold that puts you at 75.8 grams or almost 2.674 ounces.

At kitco.com the closing price of gold on January 30th for "NY Spot Gold" was $927.10 USD (per troy ounce right?). I assume this is the price basis for gold bought and sold in the USA? This would place the value of the gold at $2479 USD. How does this differ from the price you could actually get?

Yesterday the selling price at a Thai gold shop was 14,850 per baht of gold. This would give you 74,250 baht. Converting to USD, at 35 BHT per dollar, gives $2121 USD.

2479-2121= 358

Do these calculations sound right? Am I missing anything ? Would one really stand to gain an extra few hundred dollars by selling in the states?

• The formula for calculation:

= USA Gold price x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x (THB/USD)

Note:

1 troy ounce = 31.1035 grams

1 Thai gold Baht Bar = 15.244 grams

USA gold price is based on 0.995 gold

Thai gold is 0.965 gold

As an example

905.30 x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x 34.89 = 15,013.68 Baht

If you buy gold now in Thailand you are buying gold lower than its "true selling price."

Physical Gold bars in the USA or most of the World is selling at a premium. $100 over "spot" is quite common. The key is to sell to someone looking to buy rather than selling to a dealer to get near the spot price.

http://www.goldprice.org/ebay-gold-prices/

Average price today is $988.41 with prices selling as high as $1,076 and as low as $942 for one ounce bullion

988.41 x (15.244/31.1035) x (0.965/0.995) x 34.89 = 16,392

If you had a buyer that is looking to save money, you can arbitrage gold bars. Otherwise it would be easy to lose money. If you sold it to a refiner or pawnshop in the USA and the price was the same you would lose lots.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Edited February 9, 2009 by Sunbelt Asia

[cloud96]

I don't know i think some of you live in a different Thailand then I do. I had no problem getting gold coins and 5 and 10 baht bars here in chiang mai. I had no problem selling them to private parties in the US as they are paying high prices for coins in the US. I think there is a split unofficial of course between forex gold, paper gold and gold bullion. As time goes on I think this will become more obvious. I'm not a big player just took enought to get free airfare to hawaii and back. Had a nice vacation. Also took machettes 5usd each and sold for 30 usd as well as a few other well chosen things to sell.

As far a thai jewelry goes there is money to made there also. Most jewelry stores have a mark up of 2 to 3 hundred percent on there jewelry 14k. You can take thai jewelry 23k and make a tidy profit for under what people are paying for 14K and there happy to get it. I have done this with silver chains also.

Yes, this is right on the money. The problem is when people get too greedy and try and bring in to much gold to the U.S. and get caught.

So do you think 2.5 oz is too much gold to bring in?

[colibra]

No up to ten oz should be no problem, Just keep it in your pocket as I don't believe it sets off the metal detectors. womens jewelry doesn't seem to. I usually just throw it into my fanny pack with a bunch of other loose change. Just don't put other things in there that might draw attention. Customs unsually doesn't make you declare currency up to ten thousand dollars so i see no problem bringing in under that amount in gold. Put on a few heavy gold necklesses under your shirt and your set. Be aware that you must declare merchandise over 700usd if traveling into the US.

[cloud96]

So, I checked the gold shop today to consider selling some gold. I've been dating this Thai gold and she had given me what I thought was an accurate explanation of the numbers on the wall. Surprise, turns out she was completely wrong. I'll leave it to your imagination to guess what she told me the numbers mean.

There are three numbers. Today, the top number was 14,850. THe next number was 14,750. The third number way below the other two was 14,050. They only offered me 13,300/ baht for my gold. What gives? What do the numbers mean? Why such a low offer? Any way to get a better price from the shop?

[chiangmaibruce]

Colibra, Just curious about the question of confirming the purity of the Thai gold you sell in the States. Clearly the little card you get from the Thai gold shop means jack #$%^ to the folks in the US. Do they ask for independant verification? Do they assay it and take that off the price they pay you ... or other?

[andyc2006]

To be honest is there really any point going to all that hassle of flying, buying and then trying to find a seller in the US when if you moniter the thai gold market you can make money just by the gold sitting in

your drawer!

Two months ago i bought a 10baht weight in gold for 125,000 and a few days ago cashed it in for 145,000 making 20,000baht for doing nothing.

Why'd you go through all that effort? You had to go outside twice for only 55000 baht.

Just get a futures account someplace like thinkorswim.com, and buy gold futures (such as /YG). You can save the space in your drawer and don't even need to put clothes on for a trip outside.

[thetravellingcat]

For gold to go over $1,000 /oz something will have gone seriously wrong with the dollar, like Congress not authorising the next cash injection.

Wow, what a different view from mine. That is why it is called a market after all.

I expect the gold to really start to go up in price when congress authorizes the next cash injection, and the next, and the next, and the next...

I was learning about investing in physical metals 4 years ago but only recently did something about it. I learned that all money is debt based and currencies are actually being devalued as time goes on. Money only has value because WE give it value because we give our time (work) for money. It's only ever worth what we (and the 'free' market) thinks it's worth. Electronic Gold traded on the stockmarkets of the world has been oversold. I believe I am correct in saying there is more Electronic Gold being traded on these markets than exist on the planet!

[Naam]

I believe I am correct in saying there is more Electronic Gold being traded on these markets than exist on the planet!

that applies not only to any commodity but to most major currencies too. trading what does not exist has become quite common.

[flying]

I believe I am correct in saying there is more Electronic Gold being traded on these markets than exist on the planet!

that applies not only to any commodity but to most major currencies too. trading what does not exist has become quite common.

Pretty amazing isn't it?

Reminds me of investing during the Tech bubble....Remember Vaporware?

[LivinLOS]

So, I checked the gold shop today to consider selling some gold. I've been dating this Thai gold and she had given me what I thought was an accurate explanation of the numbers on the wall. Surprise, turns out she was completely wrong. I'll leave it to your imagination to guess what she told me the numbers mean.

There are three numbers. Today, the top number was 14,850. THe next number was 14,750. The third number way below the other two was 14,050. They only offered me 13,300/ baht for my gold. What gives? What do the numbers mean? Why such a low offer? Any way to get a better price from the shop?

Yesterday I saw 14900 in the gold shop window.. Previous experience chopping jewelry in was that I got the window sticker price.. Buying gets a 500 - 100 baht per baht premium on workmanship.. So you pay the cost on the buy in.

[LivinLOS]

I believe I am correct in saying there is more Electronic Gold being traded on these markets than exist on the planet!

that applies not only to any commodity but to most major currencies too. trading what does not exist has become quite common.

Pretty amazing isn't it?

Reminds me of investing during the Tech bubble....Remember Vaporware?

Yes ecept this time the discovery that traders are unable to deliver on thier bets has the potential to drive the price higher not lower.

[flying]

Yes ecept this time the discovery that traders are unable to deliver on thier bets has the potential to drive the price higher not lower.

I guess yes & no because the comex has to only give your cash back if they default...sux that they have that option.

But then yes the physical price is always higher anyway & the increase in buyers would only help that price rise if in fact the paper buyers want to hold real gold.

[cloud96]

Yesterday I saw 14900 in the gold shop window.. Previous experience chopping jewelry in was that I got the window sticker price.. Buying gets a 500 - 100 baht per baht premium on workmanship.. So you pay the cost on the buy in.

I feel like all these gold shop people are completely BS'ing me. Today I saw the prices of gold 15,400 and 15,300. At this shop there was no third number. I decided to play dumb (that wasn't too hard), managed to find someone who could speak English and without telling her I had anything, asked her to please explain all the numbers for me. The 15.4 was the selling price of gold bars. The 15.3 was the shop buying price of gold bars (per baht of course). I then asked what about jewelry. She said it is the 15.4 price per baht for gold plus 400 or 500 baht for workmanship. Fair enough. I then asked ok, well what about when people want to sell the gold to the shop. Oh no, she says, we pay 1000 baht LESS per BAHT WEIGHT for jewelry. <deleted>! I say so if I have 5 baht of gold chain, you pay me 5000 less than you pay for the gold bar? Yes she says. Why I say? I don't know she says. After thinking a minute, she says because as soon as you wear the gold, the value goes down. This sound like shenanigans to me.

So I pull out my gold and decide to dick around with them a bit. They lowball me on the offer and so I play some shenanigans of my own. Pretty soon they are upping the offer price, but the best I could get was 72k on 5 baht, when if someone were to walk in and but the same day they would pay 77k plus workmanship (prabably another 2k). Thats a 5-7k difference, or somewhere around $200.

I've come to the tentative conclusion that my best chance of getting the best deal is to enter into a hardcore negotiation with these people. And I think it's a bit too risky to try to find some random person who wants some gold for sinsod. What do you think? Any ideas on how I can get the most money for this?