What’s This All About?
I’ll tell you, it’s about freedom, that’s right freedom to lose my money the way I see fit.
I, like millions of people were sold a big bill of goods some years ago when the government introduced the 401K retirement savings plan. I fell for it like many others.
It was the fear of our social security system failing that led me to “take action” for my retirement. I say fear because that is just what it was. The hype initiated by the government and hammered by the media, put me into a frame of mind that, I could be left without anything come retirement time. I started my 401K late but I thought it was better than none at all.
The idea of tax deferred really wasn’t that important to me and the 10% early withdrawal penalty was so understated that I gave it little thought.
Well, now that a new crisis is being hammered on us, causing the stock market to all but evaporate the money that I and my employers contributed to the 401K, I have decided to take matters into my own hands. I stopped the bleeding. Well not completely because I will still have to pay taxes on the money that I saved and I am sure the IRS will attempt, possibly successfully, to collect a 10% penalty against me because I saved my money from complete evaporation. I will not go down easy on the penalty. In a situation where I have had almost zero control, I have paid my penalty by nearly 6000% and if the hungry IRS dogs try to take another 10% of the little that is left, they will be opening up a can of worms.
This blog will be of my adventure. I will publish each of the steps that I have taken as well as how well I am doing at losing my money.
If anyone decides to read and follow this, I hope you can learn from my mistakes and hopefully successes. Comments are greatly welcomed so please feel free to communicate.
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CURRENT GOLD AND SILVER BULLION PRICES
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/quotes_2a.gif)
To Find Out If Gold Really Went Up Or Really Went Down, In Relasonship to the US Dollar, CLICK HERE.
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Trend Graph of 1 oz Buffalo Gold Coins sold on eBay
Updated on November 25, 2009
As A Comparison To The Spot Gold Bullion Prices
Updated November 25, 2009 Pre-Close
eBay Report
Since the 15th of November, there are no single Canadian Maple Leaf’s selling for less than $1200.00. The Buffalo’s (what few there are) are reaching up into the $1300.00 range with a few exceptions in the high $1200.00 range.
You can buy Maples in the high $1100.00 range but you have to buy multiples, anywhere from 4 to 100 coins at a time.
Could It Be True
Could gold actually go to $2000.00 an ounce?
I haven’t posted for about a month now. I haven’t forgotten and I share the excitement that most everyone else has. The market has been so steady at rising that it almost seemed unnecessary to post.
eBay has been weird. The Canadian Gold Leafs have been very active and the selling prices have reflected the activity. But the Buffalo’s have been not so active. In part, I believe that most of the private collectors of Buffalo’s don’t want to let go of the coins that they have because the supply of older coins is dwindling and with the upward spike in bullion, why would anyone want to sell now? Most of what is attempting to be sold in Buffalo’s are some 2009 releases that the commercial sellers are asking prices that the ebay community for the most part does not feel ready to pay. When there are some private sellers, the bidding gets pretty dramatic. For example, a common number of bids in the past, has been between 10 and 15 on a common gold coin. Now, I have seen it as high as 54 bids with plenty of 31 bids. (Plenty only meaning when a coin is put up for auction which doesn’t seem to be that often).
The result has been that the Canadian Maple’s have just about caught up with the selling prices of the Buffalo’s. The Buffalo’s have been historically selling at prices $100-150.00 above the Canadian Maple’s. As you can see from the trend graph, this is not the case now.
To say the least, I am happy with the way things are going with my little investment. And as usual, I wish I had more to spend when I did buy my small stash.
Plenty Of Maple Leaf Activity
Prices are still strong for the Buffalo’s but the real game is being played on eBay’s Canadian Maple Leaf pages.
Maple Leaf’s still continue to climb up, though gradually. Touching in some cases just above the $1200.00 mark. That’s good news for me. At that level, my two Maple Leaf’s have gained slightly over 15%. Of all of the coins I bought (6) it was the Canadian’s that I was most concerned about. Actually I bid on them expecting that I wouldn’t win (it was a single auction selling two).
Buffalo’s are active meaning a lot of bidding but there are fewer and fewer being offered. This is good for me, although the Buffalo’s are just at about a 12% gain, the fewer that are available should continue to push the price upward.
As you can see on the Trend Graph of October 17th, the Canadian’s are far out selling the Buffalo’s by the shear number of coins being sold.
Buffalo’s And Maple’s Trading Briskly On eBay
Lots going on on eBay. The Maple’s are edging closer to the $1200.00 level with fairly good quantities of bidding. Finally people are realizing that the Buffalo’s are drying up and looking closer at Maple’s.
Buffalo’s are selling sporatically, grabbing up to the $1400.00 range in a few cases for average 2006 coins. The bidding is high! With most of the coins reaching bidding levels of 20-22 bids before the coin is sold.
It appears that the day of thousand dollar Buffalo’s are gone. Maybe not for good but for now.
If you haven’t done anything with gold coins, take a long hard look at the Maple’s, there are still some (albeit few) good buys to be found but you would have to be diligent.
A Little Hard To Accept
It’s a little hard to accept that gold bullion is actually at all time highs currently at $1055.00 an ounce. A seemingly great time to own gold. But why it has risen and still rising is a puzzeling question for most people that don’t follow prescious metals. I found a portion of a website that explains it pretty well. At least it is understanding to a layman like me. Apparently, some of the increase is because of the weak dollar. What that means is that when the dollar weakens, it takes more dollars to buy an ounce of gold. That makes some since when you consider it. Conversly, when the dollar strenghens, it takes less dollars to buy an ounce and that is reflected in the price of gold going down. The other variable is supply and demand. If the demand of gold is higher, the price of gold is reflected as an increase. If the demand is lower, the price of gold drops.
We are in a time of the year when gold is more in demand. It’s hard to imagine that so much gold is sold for jewlery but it is true and this is the time of year that jewlery is purchased for weddings and gifts. India and China consumers are big purchasers along with the US.
Anyway, this is the site that actually explains if gold has really gone up or down. Click Here. I am also making this link obvious near the graphs to better stay on top of what is really happening.
Buy 1 oz Canadian Maple Leaf’s
Before the eBay community gets smart, these coins are an excellent value compared to the bullion market, many of them are being sold at or just slightly above what Bullion is selling for. See for yourself click here.
Here is a great price, below bullion price!
And Here is a great price on a Buffalo if it holds!!
Up To $1032.00 An Ounce!!
If anybody else is wondering why, here is a very recent reason:
By Nick Godt NEW YORK (MarketWatch)
– Gold futures rose by more than 1% early on Tuesday, following a U.K.-newspaper report that Gulf oil producers, in concert with China, Russia, Japan and France, are planning to eventually end dollar-based oil pricing. The dollar came under pressure after the report, lifting dollar-denominated commodities, such as gold. In recent action, gold for December delivery gained $13, or 1.3%, to $1,031.00 an ounce.
Bullion UP, eBay UP
The bullion market is strong in response to an even lower US dollar. $1016.20 as of the time of this post.
Ebay sold Canadian Maple Leaf’s are gradually beginning to move closer to the $1200.00 mark and Buffalo’s are climbing steady. Bidding on ebay has been strong on the sold coins over the weekend but there are still short supplies of the Buffalo.
There seems to be a large supply of the Maple Leaf’s
What Goes Up (fast), Must Come Down (faster)
Weakening Dollar, Large quantities of gold being purchased, The Fed report… All don’t mean diddly squat when it comes right down to it, who the hell knows what (or who) really drives this thing?
Nothing Going On On eBay
3 coins sold in the past 2 days! I don’t get it, I would have expected with the recent rise in bullion, that there would be a lot of activity. Not so. Well I guess you can always count on an adventure.
At least I can feel that what ever happens on eBay, it is not controlled by the government and that there is no conspiracies. Can’t I?
