Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ruminating on gold…

Jan. 27, 2009
Posted by Noah

Am sick today, having picked up whatever bug my wife and daughter shared. The less details I provide, the better, but I have had plenty of time to ponder the new Heritage Weekly Special Gold Auctions that have just gotten started. Why? Who knows… Maybe just because I wish I had something sparkly and/or shiny to distract me from my stomach woes, and maybe because gold is one of the few places that seem to be holding value as the economy has gone nuts. I know for sure I’m not the only one looking at different places to put my meager savings until we all wake up and find mortgage backed securities were actually a big April Fools joke and that the economy is actually in great shape…

These Weekly Special Gold Auctions are going to be an every Wednesday type of thing, and the aspect of it that I find so interesting is that it seems, in many ways, to be the anti-Heritage auction, and I mean this in a good way. Heritage coin auctions are known for the rare and singular coins, those ones that bring millions and stop collectors in their tracks. Yet here we have weekly gold auctions that are simply about giving HA bidder-members another venue to diversify their investments. These are all good coins for auction, and all with a certain numismatic value on top of the precious metal value. As our Gold Director Doug Baliko puts it, however, these are all generics and slab coins. These are not sexy auctions, beyond the inherent sexiness of the gold itself.

Wholesale gold coins to dealers are a longtime staple of this company, but this is the first chance regular old Heritage members have had to get in on the action. It doesn’t take a tremendous amount of money, relatively speaking, and it’s a chance to get some good gold coins at or below market value. Not glamorous, not really sexy, just smart… Wish I was bidding now…