Recently I quoted an email from reader "P" who earlier reported in from the DFW area that there was little physical gold there.
He just now sent me an interesting idea. That some of us, he suggest 12 would be enough, prepare a standardized set of a few questions that we would ask our local PM dealers. This could be done domestically AND internationally. I always am looking at the Stats area of my blog, and I have readers from all kinds of interesting countries. Reports from overseas would provide good context (hey, look, it was "Jonny Bahrain" who FIRST mentioned non-investment gold was UNAVAILABLE in Bahrain).
I will just pop-off a "Prototype Questionnaire" for reader comments and improvements:
1) On a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being nice and heavily stocked), how well are you stocked with American 1 oz Gold Eagles (overseas: whatever the local "flagship" form of gold).
2) Same scale, how well are you stocked up re other forms of gold?
3) What is the $ premium of AGEs to spot (or %, but we could calculate that)
4), 5) and 6) Same for silver
We could also get similar info from APMEX, Tulving and Gainesville as well as look at the 24hgold / eBay widget.
Any shortages would likely show up very quickly after a survey is sent out...
We could do this every month or two, but perhaps we should do such a survey VERY SOON, to establish a baseline, meaning that we presume that things are now pretty normal. Then if supplies start to get squeezed (or premiums go up), well that would be useful information for us all.
This kind of information could go onto an Excel spreadsheet very easily... Easy to share...
PLEASE send me your feedback! Especially if you would like to do the survey in your city. I do not need names, etc. Just what city you would monitor. And what a simple but good survey should include. Hey, I just winged all of the above! Nothing is set in stone. Anyone who has SURVEY EXPERIENCE is even more welcome to make suggestions.
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Games, frontiers... Suggests the below video:
http://youtu.be/LKb9XQ39-zc
No chance here in the UK. All dealers outside London are numismatic shops with a bit of bullion on the side.
ReplyDeleteGo to Dublin and it's worse, there's one market stall that sells silver dead expensive.
Last November I was in Amsterdam and bought a silver 2 1/2 guilder coin for about £12 I think. It was pretty close to spot price. Anyway it was more of a souvenir than an investment.
I was in Paris in July this year and there are only seriously expensive numismatic shops there.
I'm going to Berlin next month and I know not to bother even looking. They don't like looking at the past for some reason. The only thing of mild interest is a gold machine in one of the department stores.
http://www.gold-to-go.com/en/the-gold-vending-machine/photos/berlin-galeries-lafayette/
Hooray for the internet. In the last 2 years I have bought around £15 in sovereigns & half sovereigns (they are still legal tender) and about 130 oz of silver.