Buying Gold Bars In Phuket

[Miami Bob]

Does anyone know where to buy gold bars [ bullion, not jewelry] in Phuket and how much of a price difference would there be as opposed to buying it in Bangkok?

[LivinginKata]

I was told by one of the Phuket Town gold shops that they would have to order gold bars (even very small bars) from Bangkok and that I would have to pay in advance. I abandoned that idea, too much money to risk paying in advance to a shop vendor. I expect it would save the local middle man commission to buy direct from a Bangkok merchant.

If you want to buy gold as an investment then maybe better to buy gold certificates. Google gold certificates and you will find plenty information.

[LivinLOS]

www.GoldMadeSimple.com and keep it in free storage. Proper allocated bullion, your own, not pooled or shared. Can even go pick it up in UK or have delivered in many western countries.

A buddy was buying bars from shops in Phuket town.. I think the ones close to the circle..

[Miami Bob]

www.GoldMadeSimple.com and keep it in free storage. Proper allocated bullion, your own, not pooled or shared. Can even go pick it up in UK or have delivered in many western countries.

A buddy was buying bars from shops in Phuket town.. I think the ones close to the circle..

Thanks for the info folks, I will check out all these suggestions. I lean heavily toward the idea of having physical gold in my possession where no one, especially the US government, can find it. Besides I just like to look at the stuff! I'm a bit of a doomsdayer regarding the US rapidly becoming a police state among other things and I'm worried they might revive the 1933 law making it illegal for private citizens to own gold. Of course now gold has bumped up so much with Greece etc. but it was this high last Nov. and came back down to about 1050 2 months later. I just want to have a buying plan in place so if I decide move some liquid assets into gold I can do it quickly.

[thrilled]

Go to bangkok,chinatown yaraphat road,And if your thinking about doomday scenario,you should have 3-4 months of MRE's on hand "meals ready to eat".

[Ping]

A buddy was buying bars from shops in Phuket town.. I think the ones close to the circle..

Lil is that the same place (a jewellery shop near the circle) where, many years ago, an old Thai bloke used to sit out the front, set up with a bowl of acid, a car battery, a handful of gold leaf and boxes of cheap silver coloured necklaces that he used to convert to 'pure gold'?

[LivinLOS]

Thanks for the info folks, I will check out all these suggestions. I lean heavily toward the idea of having physical gold in my possession where no one, especially the US government, can find it. Besides I just like to look at the stuff! I'm a bit of a doomsdayer regarding the US rapidly becoming a police state among other things and I'm worried they might revive the 1933 law making it illegal for private citizens to own gold. Of course now gold has bumped up so much with Greece etc. but it was this high last Nov. and came back down to about 1050 2 months later. I just want to have a buying plan in place so if I decide move some liquid assets into gold I can do it quickly.

The problem with physical for investment amounts is safe storage.. Not only from house robbery, but house destruction, all manner of unforseens (my last villa slid down the hill in a land slide so I kinda have a strange perspective on that) even stored at home, with a safe, buried in the floor.. You have the need to be constantly aware of it, you cant relax on a holiday away, etc.

Of course thats not for a couple of ounces, even a kilo maybe, but if making investments.

GMS is not in the USA.

[Miami Bob]

Thanks for the info folks, I will check out all these suggestions. I lean heavily toward the idea of having physical gold in my possession where no one, especially the US government, can find it. Besides I just like to look at the stuff! I'm a bit of a doomsdayer regarding the US rapidly becoming a police state among other things and I'm worried they might revive the 1933 law making it illegal for private citizens to own gold. Of course now gold has bumped up so much with Greece etc. but it was this high last Nov. and came back down to about 1050 2 months later. I just want to have a buying plan in place so if I decide move some liquid assets into gold I can do it quickly.

The problem with physical for investment amounts is safe storage.. Not only from house robbery, but house destruction, all manner of unforseens (my last villa slid down the hill in a land slide so I kinda have a strange perspective on that) even stored at home, with a safe, buried in the floor.. You have the need to be constantly aware of it, you cant relax on a holiday away, etc.

Of course thats not for a couple of ounces, even a kilo maybe, but if making investments.

GMS is not in the USA.

A jewelry shop told me you can rent deposit boxes in Thailand.

I'm looking at a worst case scenario which means having a house that's paid for with solar panels, a garden and something like gold that would still have barter value in a total meltdown. If I was still in the USA I would include in that list my 45 and a lot of ammo.

Forgive me but what is GMS?

[LivinLOS]

GMS = The website I linked.. Gold made simple.. Its the only online web sales and storage company I know that works purely for allocated storage, so that its your gold, in your storage account, that you can if you wish go and collect.. Most of the others (kitco, goldmoney, etc etc etc) are not allocated segregated storage, so actually taking delivery is either not possible or very costly and complex.

Where can you rent deposit boxes ?? I tried to get one for 2 years, I was told theres a waiting list (from the Phuket town banks) and unofficially told that the list is just a face saver and their preferred customers only get them. Secondly (most people dont know this) when you have a safety deposit box with a bank, if the bank goes under, the deposit box is considered their property / asset, not yours !!

This isnt really the place for this kind of discussions, and I am not a world is going to end kind of thinker.. I have used metals simply as a hedge against inflation due to fiat money printing.

Edited May 10, 2010 by LivinLOS

[Miami Bob]

The website I liked.. Gold made simple.. Its the only online web sales and storage company I know that works purely for allocated storage, so that its your gold, in your storage account, that you can if you wish go and collect.. Most of the others (kitco, goldmoney, etc etc etc) are not allocated segregated storage, so actually taking delivery is either not possible or very costly and complex.

Where can you rent deposit boxes ?? I tried to get one for 2 years, I was told theres a waiting list (from the Phuket town banks) and unofficially told that the list is just a face saver and their preferred customers only get them. Secondly (most people dont know this) when you have a safety deposit box with a bank, if the bank goes under, the deposit box is considered their property / asset, not yours !!

This isnt really the place for this kind of discussions, and I am not a world is going to end kind of thinker.. I have used metals simply as a hedge against inflation due to fiat money printing.

Now that you mention it I do remember hearing something a long time ago that there is a waiting list for a box and what you say about saving face and preferred customers sounds right. And if the bank goes under...oh boy...time for a rethink!

Thanks for taking the time.

[surangw]

are you able to test it to be sure its real gold?

like the jem scams, gold is risky

[Miami Bob]

are you able to test it to be sure its real gold?

like the jem scams, gold is risky

Yes I know. I just finished talking to my broker in NY and he also pointed some things out. I'm sure there is a way to do it without getting beat but with a lot of planning. I'm to old to make mistakes now. Thanks for you input.

[LivinLOS]

are you able to test it to be sure its real gold?

like the jem scams, gold is risky

The baht bars with the chinese chops on are bought and sold fairly easily here.. Yes there are scams but some of these gold shops have been around a long time.

Personally I wouldnt buy Thai bars, not easy globally to sell baht weights.. Much better with eagles / krugerands / etc..

[Miami Bob]

are you able to test it to be sure its real gold?

like the jem scams, gold is risky

The baht bars with the chinese chops on are bought and sold fairly easily here.. Yes there are scams but some of these gold shops have been around a long time.

Personally I wouldnt buy Thai bars, not easy globally to sell baht weights.. Much better with eagles / krugerands / etc..

Thank you for your input. How easy would it be to sell Eagles, Krugerands, Buffalos in Thailand? That's out of their box. I can just hear them saying " Mai Dai" [cannot]. Leaving gold in the USA is not an option as far as I am concerned. In 1933 they passed a law making it illegal for private citizens to own gold and it's not at all out of the question that they could do that again the way things are going. I have no land in the USA to bury it and as the police state progresses they may start requiring video records of everything that goes in and out of your deposit box or just search them. And how would you bring it back to Thailand? Talk about the metal detectors at the airport going off! ...and all the complications that would bring. There is no perfect way.

[LivinLOS]

You would get the gold value from nearly any Chinatown gold dealer.. You wont get the numismatic premium here in asia but then k/rands have far less than buffaloes eagles anyway. IIRC there are a couple of bullion dealers in bangkok who would handle the western style troy Oz rounds and numismatics and would probably get you at least a portion of the numismatic premium. Plus you would have dealers in KL / Sing any financial centre in the world who will take them.

As you say theres no perfect solution.. But I would avoid the Thai specific bars if I could.

[LivinLOS]

Ohh and I also should say I think the risk of a second confiscation order to be highly unlikely and the realm of the paranoid survivalist types because.. Back when that happened in 33 the dollar was gold backed, at a fixed rate, gold = dollars, so the confiscation of gold then was swapping hard currency for 'backed currency' it was a way of forcing fiat on the population and increasing the gold stocks.

Fast forward to now, when thats irrelevant, the dollar isnt backed by anything.. Nixon closed the gold window in 73 and its been unbacked ever since.. Since then the money supply has risen exponentially and the entire amount of gold in the market globally is a spit in the bucket compared to the money supply. Confiscating gold would do nothing to help the currency and actually be counter productive by reducing the public perception of faith in paper.

Looked at logically theres no good reason for a gold confiscation, it a lose lose proposition for them.

But again, this isnt the right place for a discussion of fiat money, metals or fractional reserve banking.

[Miami Bob]

Ohh and I also should say I think the risk of a second confiscation order to be highly unlikely and the realm of the paranoid survivalist types because.. Back when that happened in 33 the dollar was gold backed, at a fixed rate, gold = dollars, so the confiscation of gold then was swapping hard currency for 'backed currency' it was a way of forcing fiat on the population and increasing the gold stocks.

Fast forward to now, when thats irrelevant, the dollar isnt backed by anything.. Nixon closed the gold window in 73 and its been unbacked ever since.. Since then the money supply has risen exponentially and the entire amount of gold in the market globally is a spit in the bucket compared to the money supply. Confiscating gold would do nothing to help the currency and actually be counter productive by reducing the public perception of faith in paper.

Looked at logically theres no good reason for a gold confiscation, it a lose lose proposition for them.

But again, this isnt the right place for a discussion of fiat money, metals or fractional reserve banking.

Excellent point. This balances some of the extreme paranoid outlooks I get from some of my American friends.

[amazedat]

You can buy and sell gold bars at a shop on Montri Road, Phuket City, Thongthip Gold Centre, across and up from the Pearl Hotel. I bought a 1kg. bar from Yaowarat Road in Bangkok and sold it in Phuket later for a nice profit.

[falkan]

were can you fellow the gold price? i guess now its bad to buy gold in Thailand due its soon ramadan, muslims seems to like to buy gold at this period of time..

[LivinLOS]

Kitco.. Or live charting at usagold.com

Muslim Ramadam is far less of a driver than indian festival season.. But Gold is coming out of the usual pattern of summer doldrums and hitting its all time high around 1260 today. Suspect we will have a strong finish to the year.