gold has just hit a new high as its now $1244 per once, i was thinking of buying some gold here in thailand, but i have very little knowledge of this in LOS, just a few questions to the forum is.... what carat is availble here, best place to buy / sell gold, & also how to notice fakes?????

I'm sorry if this sounds offensive Biscuitz, but you sound like a "babe in the woods" regarding your gold questions. Why would you want to buy gold at it's highest price? Your questions are the most basic of questions and indicate a complete lack of knowledge about gold in Thailand. This would seem to warn you about getting involved with the trading of same. I see a lot of pain in your future regarding funds. Once again, sorry if I have offended you, just being honest. LL

If you are serious about buying or trading gold, here is a web site that will explain how it's traded (bought and sold) in Thailand. http://maxpages.com/orchidofsiam/gold_in_thailand

Yes Biscuitz, I'd have to agree with LL there. Don't buy into things if you don't already understand them. And currently you would be buying into gold at the (very?) top of the market (= highest prices).

It's about 96% pure gold here, maybe 98%, thus very soft and wears and bends easily, though the Thais see it as better than our less pure but harder 9, 18 or 22 carat stuff.

Gold has reached such high prices because of the uncertainty over currencies, e.g, particularly the troubles with the Euro, and because it's price is set in dollars it is affected by the dollar exchange rate. It's too late to buy in now. The time to have bought gold would have been about 6 years ago!!

Also remember gold pays no interest, (not that the banks pay much currently), and if it's a gold chain it can very easily be stolen.

thanks for the advise aray & loonglee no offense taken, yes the price is high but i believe it WILL go higher still, & keep going up in the coming months, ive some spare cash just sitting in my thai bank so would like to put it to good use as an small investmant, so this is a forum to gain some knowledge for which you have gave me, & the cost of information is PRICELESS, thankyou

biscuitz wrote:thanks for the advise aray & loonglee no offense taken, yes the price is high but i believe it WILL go higher still, & keep going up in the coming months, ive some spare cash just sitting in my thai bank so would like to put it to good use as an small investmant, so this is a forum to gain some knowledge for which you have gave me, & the cost of information is PRICELESS, thankyou

Yes, the price will go much higher and jumping in even at these levels is a good idea, BUT the current surge has more to do with technicals and short covering in the Comex (aka the Crimex) and panic buying than anything else. If you wait a couple of weeks it may drop down to just under $1200 or so, but will rise again rather quickly if it does. Plan on holding it for a few months or longer to see any decent "profit" though.

Gold is a CURRENCY first and a commodity second. That is often confused in today's world by the typical layman. Buying it is significantly sounder than trading your dollars for, say, GBP or Euros. Good on you!

Duh,maybe ya didn't all hear ,even though gold is selling at an all time high,it's not A bad time to buy.It's reported that it's going up to $1500 an ounce by the end of the year.I have A friend who just bought A 40 ounce bar from switzerland.
Anyway if ya want A good deal go to Bangkok Yarophat road in chinatown.
And gentlemen if ya snooze ya lose,good day.

Depending on how much you want to invest (I do see it as an investment) I'd consider buying Gold certificates vs physical gold.....It means you don't actually have to worry about where you keep the stuff and if you are buying high quality gold. Most international banks have the facility to buy gold certificates. (I do mine through HSBC account in HK.)

If you really want to buy phyical gold, I'd consider taking a trip to Hong Kong and either buying gold coins from Standard Chartered bank or buying 99.999% gold from one of the many gold shops. It is more pure than the thai gold and you will get an official receipt that can be used when you want to sell.

Here's some background information for you, along with several differing viewpoints on the subject:

http://www.kitco.com/kitco-gold-index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/pers ... price.html

Hi,
Bought a gold braclet 2B, in Patts. and when at home went into a jewellers to get it checked, in case I had been conned, they did a quick check and said it was over 99% . was advised not to wear it regular as it was to soft.

Educate yourself and buy gold. Also buy silver. Anyway that is what I plan to do and have done.

Are you supposed to declare gold when crossing borders? I'm not talking about jewelery.

old-timer wrote:Are you supposed to declare gold when crossing borders? I'm not talking about jewelery.

I think the normal rule of thumb is anything over US$10K should be delcared......varies depending on where you are going of course. I think from memory you can bring as much as you want into HK (goes for cash too) but places like UK / OZ you need to declare it or lose it! :-&

If your worried about transporting large amounts across borders, probably better off with diamonds....easier to shove up your garry glitter

The latest news on the subject:

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/gold-f ... af1d4.html

KHONDAHM wrote:If you wait a couple of weeks it may drop down to just under $1200 or so, but will rise again rather quickly if it does. Plan on holding it for a few months or longer to see any decent "profit" though.

Ok, we're in the dip. Prepare to buy.

Been in the stock market for 25+ years now, and have never seen such strange things as of late. That is the market dropping from -2% to nearly -10% in less than an hour, and then back again. And then today, I see the Nasdaq, down more than 5% while the S&P and Dow are down in the 1%+ range. What is going on here?

Gives me more impetus to buy gold. Gold is genuine, hard, there is no amount of BS that can change its' long term worth.

KHONDAHM wrote:

KHONDAHM wrote:If you wait a couple of weeks it may drop down to just under $1200 or so, but will rise again rather quickly if it does. Plan on holding it for a few months or longer to see any decent "profit" though.

Ok, we're in the dip. Prepare to buy.

May 21st, 2010 - 4:39 pm | by GoldAlert
Gold Prices

GOLD PRICE NEWS - The gold price declined $6.31 to $1,177.65 as the price of gold fell amid a continued rebound in the euro currency against the U.S. dollar. Over the past five days the gold price dropped $52.78, or 4.3%, capping off another tumultuous week on Wall Street.

time to buy??????

Heck yeah! Buy buy buy! The dip was profit taking in the Crimex (the manipulated paper gold market) by traders. A 4%+ off the high is a gift. It could dip another 1% or so, but it will spring back on negative news, find an equilibrium, then continue trending up again. We'll hit $1400+ before the year is out for sure. If one is aware of and understands the catalysts, it's a slam dunk.

im in luang prabang, laos. went to the china market today, there were a few jewelry shops that i had a look at as i wanted to purchase a gold bracelet, i spotted one that took my fancy, the chinese lady didnt speak much english except for (ok).. she weighed the bracelet that came up as 13.2g, so now i wanted to know the purity of the gold so i asked the lady this (as easy as i could for her to understand), weres the hallmark / stamp i said, she repied ok, ok, look here.. so i looked at what she shown me & the hallmark was stamped ( ok ) is in OK

"A one-dollar bill in 1913 is worth 3-cents in purchasing power today, $100 is worth just $3. During this same time gold miners increased the supply of gold, but certainly not at the rate that paper money was printed, and the increased supply was balanced against an increase in the population. Which is more valuable, the shiny metal or the crinkled paper?

Against a 1980-high of $850/ounce of gold and $49/ounce of silver, the inflation adjusted value should be $2275/ounce for gold and $132/ounce for silver. Yet gold today (May 2010) is selling for ~$1200 and silver ~$18 an ounce. (The price of silver has seemingly dropped since 1980 because of the Hunt Brothers hoarding of silver to manipulate the market in the early 1980s. Prior to this market manipulation, silver was selling at ~$5.00/ounce.)"

http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi168.html

They are many and varied opinions about investing in gold or silver.