Shop Talk: Gold Buying 101

Ever wondered what it takes to master the gold market? Brace yourselves as we, the O'Connor brothers, bring to light the secrets of gold buying in our newest Numisphere episode. From the intricacies of spot pricing to the strategies for verifying the authenticity of sovereign-backed bullion coins, we promise to transform your understanding of investing in precious metals. Discover with us why gold is weighed in Troy ounces, and learn how market prices hinge on this ancient unit, as we explore the increasing need to guard against counterfeit coins that threaten the integrity of your investments.

Join TJ and me, Tyler, as we navigate beyond the gleam of the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf and into the practicalities of purchasing gold and silver with confidence. We'll share harrowing tales of deals gone wrong and the invaluable lesson of having an exit strategy. This episode is not just about buying gold—it's about cultivating the discipline and foresight that guides savvy investors. We'll dissect the long-term benefits of a consistent approach to gold buying and reveal why less than 3% of Americans currently hold precious metals. So, if you're looking to bolster your financial fortress with the luster of gold, this conversation is pure gold—literally.

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Chapters

• 0:15 Understanding Gold Buying
• 13:58 Buying Gold and Silver Coins Tips
• 29:26 Consistency and Discipline in Gold Buying

Transcript

Tyler O'Connor: 0:16

Welcome back to the Numisphere If this is your first time joining us. I'm Tyler O'Connor and I'm TJ O'Connor. We own and operate American Historic Coins and Collectibles here in Bellingham, massachusetts. Join us in today's episode Shop Talk Gold Buying 101, as we unravel the fundamentals of purchase and gold, explore popular options in the market and share valuable tips to ensure a successful and informed buying experience. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to the Numisphere podcast for our wealth of knowledge on precious metals, numismatics and market trends. Stay connected with us on Instagram, facebook and YouTube for exclusive content, updates and behind the scene glimpses into the world of the Numisphere.

TJ O'Connor: 0:59

So you're interested in acquiring physical gold. Well, let's begin with some fundamentals. Tyler, if I wanted to purchase some gold, what are some things that I might need to know?

Tyler O'Connor: 1:14

Well, I guess we would need to start at what the market value of an ounce of gold might be.

TJ O'Connor: 1:20

Now there's something that I hear quite often. It's called spot price. You heard this A few times. Okay, Well, basically, spot price is going to be the price that the trading activity on the futures market is determining, and this is going to be the base price of the commodity of gold before anything is added on like a premium. So we have spot price, which will go up and down with the futures markets and the trading activity all putting pressure and influencing the physical price of gold as we go to purchase it off of the market.

Tyler O'Connor: 2:01

So where can I find that information?

TJ O'Connor: 2:03

Well, that's a great question. So spot price? If you look for this information, you can find it in several different places, but one of the industry standards that's relied upon most frequently with a lot of sellers throughout the US is Kitco. Now this can be found on kitcocom. I know that they have an app as well. It keeps you up to date with what the trading price is, not only of gold, but with silver and other trading mechanisms that are out there other markets. So it's definitely a great resource. But again, that's just the base price of the commodity.

TJ O'Connor: 2:39

So we have to remember that we're going to be adding on premium as well. Well, what is premium? Premium is going to include things like the cost of production, the packaging, the transportation and any profits for any seller of that gold. Think of it as the acquisition cost for the physical form of gold. Now, all of this is usually determined and predicated around one specific unit of measurement, and that is an ounce. But, tyler, this is not just any ordinary ounce, is it? It is not. Can you tell us a little bit more about this?

Tyler O'Connor: 3:18

ounce. So in the precious metal industry and in the commodity it is measured by what's called a Troy ounce. So you'll hear everybody talk about ounce, ounce, ounce. It is not the ounce. As you may know it. A Troy ounce is 31.1 grams, versus a traditional ounce is only 28 grams.

TJ O'Connor: 3:39

Hold on, let me get some more fingers here. So that's like a whole 3.1 grams more than a traditional ounce.

Tyler O'Connor: 3:48

And this throws a lot of people off. Oftentimes we've had customers that are trying to do the math and they're using 28 grams and the math just doesn't add up. So keep in mind 31.1 grams Troy ounce. So when you hop on KITCOcom, all you're using for your unit of measure is a Troy ounce. That's pretty helpful.

TJ O'Connor: 4:10

Now the premiums themselves, though. Those things can vary slightly right, depending on where it is that I buy the gold from.

Tyler O'Connor: 4:19

Premiums are very much independent to each seller, okay, so whether you're going on to websites or local shop, wherever it may be, they get to dictate their own premiums. Everybody has different costs, right? If you're moving massive volume, you can generally have a smaller premium, but if you're a little shop or you don't necessarily have a lot of a particular item, you might be seeking to have a little bit higher of a premium, right? So premiums are essentially the wild west, okay, and I think that the best way to measure that and for the purposes of what we're talking about in regards to one ounce, is one ounce coins, okay, and by coins I mean bullion coins. So what is a bullion coin?

Tyler O'Connor: 5:03

Generally, they are sovereign issued gold bullion coins that are typically made of 22 carat or higher. They have a face value with a couple of exceptions, and are considered legal tender and their nations of origin. So, when you're looking at a bullion coin, what are some of the indicators that tell you that this is a sovereign backed bullion coin? And keep in mind by sovereign I mean it's actually issued by a government, okay? Okay, so you should have a way to determine the weight on the coin. For instance, if you look at a one ounce gold eagle. It actually states one ounce on the coin, okay. Okay, you're gonna see a face value. Okay, whether that's a $50 hundred dollar, you will see some form of a denomination, okay, you'll see the nation of origin on the piece and you will also see a gold purity and, again, when it comes to Particular nations, it might be a 22 carat, right, so you won't see them put a 91.67% on there, but you'll see a three nines or four nines, like a gold maple leaf, or Britannia that's actually on the piece.

TJ O'Connor: 6:13

Okay, okay, now that's odd. So you're talking about all of these different purities, right? Is there a difference between the price of 22 carat and 24 carat?

Tyler O'Connor: 6:26

So with most of these coins again, sovereign backed coins there really isn't, because what you're actually getting is still one ounce total in pure actual gold. Okay so, for instance, an American gold eagle it's a 91.67% Gold mixed in with a little bit of silver and copper, but it weighs approximately 1.08 ounces. Okay why? Because it makes up for that difference. So by making a little heavier, more mass of that mixture, you're still getting that one ounce of pure gold.

TJ O'Connor: 6:59

So there's still one Troy ounce of pure gold in that American gold eagle.

Tyler O'Connor: 7:04

Absolutely gotcha, and same holds true with gold Krugerans and any others that are not 24 carat gold, as you are receiving one ounce, and an example of that 24 carat sovereign bullion coin for the United States, would that be the Buffalo coin? Absolutely Yep, that is a 4, 9s, 24 carat, 1 ounce gold coin, which is one of my favorite, by the way.

TJ O'Connor: 7:29

But essentially the both, that, that American gold eagle and that gold Buffalo. They both have the same amount of gold in them. Is that correct?

Tyler O'Connor: 7:37

That is correct. You're still receiving one ounce, so one Troy ounce each of those pieces. Okay, regardless of the purity.

TJ O'Connor: 7:44

That's good to know. I didn't.

Tyler O'Connor: 7:46

I was getting worried there that I might not want to buy gold Eagles, fearing they have 10% less Gold than the well lows me so I was actually lead into what are the most popular buying options for one ounce gold sovereign coins in 2023. So the number one most traded worldwide is actually the one ounce South African gold Krugeran. This has been the number one gold traded coin for decades. Wow, so it is again 22 carat gold. So it's 91.67% gold mixed with 8.33% copper. Okay, so it's total widths actually 33.93 grams. Again, you're getting one Troy ounce of gold. Okay, now here's the interesting thing this is a sovereign issued coin with no Denomination. There's no face value on this coin.

TJ O'Connor: 8:35

Wait a minute. You just told me that we should be looking for face values on all the sovereign Bullying coins, exception. Right, this is the exception.

Tyler O'Connor: 8:42

Okay, so in 1989, south Africa passed the South African Reserve Bank Act, which actually made it so that this did not need a Denomination on it. But it is considered legal tender within South Africa. Cool, so that's the number one traded coin 2023 for one ounce gold. Sovereign coins. Number two is the American gold Eagle.

Tyler O'Connor: 9:05

Mm-hmm again another 22 carat Peace, okay 91.67% gold, yep, 3% silver, 5.33% copper, but still one Troy ounce. Still one Troy ounce, okay, but this also offers you in fractional sizes. So you have a half ounce, a quarter ounce and a 10th ounce, also available in the same design For the American gold Eagle.

TJ O'Connor: 9:29

Oh, that's pretty cool, so you can kind of get smaller components of gold is rather than just that one ounce.

Tyler O'Connor: 9:35

Absolutely yeah, and they've been making the gold Eagle in the United States since 1986 and just recently, in 2021, they finally changed the design to kind of pull in some additional security features to it. Absolute, gorgeous coin. The new reverse is Much more modern than what we had before. Okay, but all of them are still one ounce. They still hold their value. There's still awesome coins.

TJ O'Connor: 9:58

That's why the number two worldwide now I heard a rumor that if you go smaller than an ounce like, for example, those the gold Eagle that you just described you talked about it being Available in half ounce, quarter ounce and one tenth yeah, does the premium go up for that? It's skyrockets.

Tyler O'Connor: 10:20

So the small you go, the Higher all of that premium is because it takes more time, takes more effort. Your production costs go up, more packaging, all those costs go up. Okay, when it comes to smaller pieces, mm-hmm. Now our recommendation is always Hold off until you can afford to acquire a one ounce gold piece. They're easier to sell, you generally do better when you sell them, but we don't all have the budget for that right. So the the fractional sizes, while they have all kinds of purposes that people look for barter ability or ease of peace, so you know you're not shaving off gold to go right here Right deal.

Tyler O'Connor: 11:01

So they're there, they have their place. Okay, but from an investing aspect, you're definitely paying more than you need to. So let's say, today you might be at about $260 for one-tenth gold eagle, but you could pick up a one ounce gold eagle for 2110.

TJ O'Connor: 11:23

Give or take right so that's like wait, let me do this map. We have ten one-tenths at $260 that's $2,600 For one ounce of gold, and yet I can buy that same one ounce of gold for around 2110 dollars exactly that is, the acquisition cost of fractional sizes.

TJ O'Connor: 11:47

Wow. So even though it may be difficult to try to acquire gold in one ounce form, especially if you're on a tight budget, you have to weigh that against the premium that you're gonna pay out to have smaller pieces of gold, and there's there's always a give-and-take. I'm sure in everybody's situation is gonna be slightly different and and, but it seems like what you just explained to us is that the best buying opportunity, standardly and most commonly, is gonna be in the one ounce format right?

Tyler O'Connor: 12:19

so when you balance all those aspects of Premium, what you get back when you sell a piece, how easy is it to sell a piece? How easy is it to acquire a piece? Because, as a Retailer, our acquisition costs for those fractional pieces are higher as well, right, so I really we carry them. It's not preferred, right, because it just costs us more to carry it, sure? So, when you take all those aspects and you balance them out, the one ounce piece In the industry is generally your best buy and sell okay on all sides. So I would just want to share with you the number three piece I for 2023 most popular gold bullion coin, and that would be the Canadian Maple Leaf. Okay, what makes this one unique is that Canada has gotten a little fancy and instead of doing a 99.9% 24 karat gold coin, they do a 99.99 percent. Wait a minute, there's four nines there. That's it. They do.

Tyler O'Connor: 13:22

That's a fancy country to make a four nines gold coin Okay, beautiful pieces. Obviously our neighbors to the north, so it's it does very well in our market, yep, and they have done a great job. I think it was around 1979 that they started producing it, but then in 1982 they started doing the four nines pure. Okay, again, great pieces. Obviously it's why it's trading at number three Super low premium for a nice government issued piece.

TJ O'Connor: 13:58

Yeah, it sounds it, sounds it. I know that I myself have seen them and I would say that my preference would fall on the Maple Leaf, just for the attractive or the appeal.

Tyler O'Connor: 14:07

I would say yeah, I mean, it's a great design, even with Charles on the new one.

TJ O'Connor: 14:13

Well we, we don't always have to flip the coin over to the other side, right? We can always take a gander at that wonderful Maple Leaf there on the front, absolutely. And that kind of leads us into some other things where we talk about Tips, right, overall tips for what people should be doing when they're buying. I Do because we were just on the topic of the Maple Leaf.

TJ O'Connor: 14:35

This is fresh in my mind only because I saw an article on it, but there's a lot of fraud happening around the gold Maple Leaf and I would heat a little bit of caution and and buying from Non-reputable sources for these Maple Leafs, knowing that they have things now that are are passing XRF tests. Is this true?

Tyler O'Connor: 14:57

Absolutely is. They have gotten very crafty. We'll say, okay, how they're choosing to counterfeit Bullion coins now that blows my mind.

TJ O'Connor: 15:05

We we have a Very expensive piece of equipment out here in the shop that we use to test these things with a certain degree of surety, and I heard rumored that these are passing the XRF test.

Tyler O'Connor: 15:17

Some have been okay and keep in mind too, the XRF really only goes so deep, right? So if you take a nice thick layer of foil or Plating onto particular pieces, I can imagine be pretty easy to fake. That's the importance of having more than one means of testing, right.

TJ O'Connor: 15:37

Yes.

Tyler O'Connor: 15:38

So not only do we use XRF, but we also have Sigma testers. Okay, you also look at the basics of what's the weight, what's the diameter? Does everything match up? Does the overall design look clean as it should, or or the reeds actually on the edge Too shallow? Are certain indicators on the coin that are supposed to be there? Yeah, just not quite right. Yeah, on top of that, the number one thing that I'm seeing happen is that people are hopping online eBay, facebook, teamoo, aliexpress, all of these places and they're like oh wow, what else? Gold coin 39.99 and we'll ship it to you for free. Hate to tell you, folks, it's fake too, good to be true.

Tyler O'Connor: 16:23

I mean, I think in the last month we probably had half a dozen customers walk in here and they have the fake silver Eagles that they got off of Facebook Marketplace and they got Was it like 10 for 30 bucks or something? And they're certifies right, no come on if it's too good to be true. It's fake. Yeah, it's not legit. You're buying off of some scammer somewhere. Don't do it. Buy from a reputable source, whether that's the top sellers online or your local coin shop.

TJ O'Connor: 16:56

All right, being a professional reseller wholesaler now for a number of years, how many times have you come across Precious metal below spot price for purchase?

Tyler O'Connor: 17:07

I Mean it would depend for us, right? Because if we're buying scrap metal or something, right then I mean I mean purchasing from the public, against. But yeah, I mean spot prices. Just it's not reality, right, it's a point of reference, but that is not the market value, right? So if someone's telling you you're getting something at one one thousandth the cost of an ounce, then come on. I mean that nothing about that makes sense.

TJ O'Connor: 17:31

Yeah, agreed, agreed. So just heed caution. Have multiple forms of testing. This would definitely lead into Get a hold of your local coin shop, your local LCS. Find out to before you begin this journey. In purchasing gold or silver, you might want to find out what sells well within your current area. You can go to your local coin shop. Talk to the owners. Find out what it is that they sell frequently, like, for example, what might be in stock. Right, we know that they're looking to sell those things that are in stock to the public. They probably circulate very well. It will help you make decisions on what you'd like to buy, especially if you're looking as the liquidity or ability to exit that precious metal as one of your influencers for your decisions.

Tyler O'Connor: 18:23

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we get calls every day asking what types of gold we have in stock and most shops will have no problem sharing that with you. Mm-hmm, I do always say you know, take a heat of caution Right, you don't want to make them think that you're casing the joint.

Tyler O'Connor: 18:38

All right, right, so ask questions and let them know why you're asking. Hey, I'm just wondering you know what's a popular coin that moves for you? I'm trying to get into some gold myself and I'm just looking to make sure there's a market for it around here.

TJ O'Connor: 18:50

That was presented very well, and if I was on the other side of that counter I would have received it very well.

Tyler O'Connor: 19:00

But yeah, so definitely you know, whether you go in person, make a phone call, have an idea, just so you know, because you always need an exit strategy. Yeah, whether that's a quick thing or in ten years or it's your kids going somewhere passing it on. Yeah, because there's different things that do really well in different markets. Sure, generally United States, you're gonna have your top coins, your Eagles, your buffaloes. They'll pretty much do well everywhere in the US, right? But will a gold Krugerrand do well everywhere? Some parts of the country they don't and some they do, right? You bring me an Australian gold kangaroo and it's tell you that there's not much of a market in New England for it. I'm right. So your Sell right is gonna be much less than you may get Versus selling a one ounce gold buffalo right.

TJ O'Connor: 19:48

So, basically, to make it as easy as I can for myself to sell those things and to make sure I'm not buying into a premium that I'm gonna basically lose when I go to turn it in, I can stick with the things that are familiar in the market, that it is that I'm buying. Absolutely. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Now, if the LCS or the local coin shop is not an option, a lot of people they're turning to online purchases. So how do they determine who is the right person to go to or who they should be shopping with in this online world that's so vast and open and out there? Tyler, what are some of the thoughts you have about buying bullion online? It has its place, right.

Tyler O'Connor: 20:33

I think that the unique aspect to online sellers is the diverse inventory in which they can offer you. It's phenomenal, right? I mean they have warehouses filled with all kinds of products from all over the world, and it's great, but does that necessarily mean that online is always going to be the way to buy? In my opinion, no, right. Generally, most local coin shops should be at a point where they're either pretty close to most online sellers or they can beat their pricing.

TJ O'Connor: 21:10

Okay.

Tyler O'Connor: 21:11

Now obviously take that with a grain of salt, because some yes, some no, right, Sure, Most as a whole, in my experience they can get pretty competitive Okay.

Tyler O'Connor: 21:20

Now you'll see an array of pricing and actually in a bit, I'm going to put on the screen a chart that I just put together this morning that will show you the buy premiums on a bunch of products, right. So we're going to cover the Gold Eagle, the Gold Buffalo, the Canadian Maple Leaf, britannia Philharmonic and Krugeram across three other major online sellers, and then what our prices were this morning, and you're going to see that there's some products that we're able to beat them out on, and then there's some products that we might not. And keep in mind, there's a couple of items on there that have a crazy sale. So if you're seeing this anytime soon, you should hop on there, because the gold's pretty good, oh nice, but those shops should be able to compete at a reasonable level.

Tyler O'Connor: 22:07

Now, when you're buying online, you also need to make sure that you are informing yourself about whatever the state federal, local taxes might be Right Whether that's a sales tax, because unfortunately there are still states like Massachusetts that will charge you sales tax on transactions. Those laws are different everywhere. Hop on Google, get familiar with your own right. And the other part, too, is that online there's shipping costs on certain things, right? So that, again, is another added cost to acquiring that physical piece of gold. You don't have that at your LCS, right? You walk in, here's my money, you walk out. You got your ounce in hand, hopefully. So there's definitely those things that you need to just familiarize yourself with. And again, if you don't have immediate access to a proficient LCS, then definitely online is great.

Tyler O'Connor: 23:03

How do you determine which ones to go to? There's a lot of them out there. Some are good, some are bad. You got to do your own due diligence. Look at reviews, look at policies that they're posting, look at the types of products they're posting. Are they too good to be true or are they asking asinine premiums, right? So there's definitely a few industry ones that are really well known Atmex, jmbullion, sdbullion those are kind of the ones that everybody always talks about.

Tyler O'Connor: 23:31

There's definitely some others out there and even now shops like us that are competing online. So it's definitely worth doing your due diligence just to find the one that works for you. Right right, yeah, so just do due diligence. Excuse me and I don't know. Compare shop around right, there's not one option anymore right, so I'm.

TJ O'Connor: 23:54

I'm actually just gazing over at the screen here, and I think I'm seeing the chart that you are referencing that you're gonna be sharing with the crowd, but basically it looks like they're pretty competitive. We see, on the goal legal, everybody's pretty much within a range from 5.25 percent of a premium over the spot price to about 6.43, 4, 3 percent over the spot price. Now that's Seem seemingly a small tolerance, but that can add up to some serious dollars too, especially if you're looking for multiple pieces.

Tyler O'Connor: 24:28

I mean when you're talking a percent difference, give or take on, you know, $2,100. Mm-hmm, it adds up. So if you're making large purchases, it definitely has an impact. Yeah, so there's no harm in just shopping around, seeing where you get the best deal, find a sale or, you know, at your LCS. You also have the benefit of negotiating, right. Okay, you want to make a package deal? Cool. You want to spend a whole lot more money? Okay, I can lower my premium on that right, yeah, absolutely.

Tyler O'Connor: 24:55

So there's no harm in asking and honestly, let's be real, it's pretty easy to do Mm-hmm. I'm happy to take a piece off each one and encourage you to buy more right, absolutely, and that's how most business people are. So you can negotiate there. Where you do see tiered pricing online At most sites, which is great, but again you're talking about having to do bank wire, send checks, wait for product.

TJ O'Connor: 25:22

Yeah.

Tyler O'Connor: 25:22

So there's just a lot of kind of Delays and hurdles you have to go through in purchasing online and that kind of quantity, mm-hmm, and if you're okay with that, then it's great to do and especially if you don't have the option of going to an LCS, then that's what you're dealing with.

TJ O'Connor: 25:38

Absolutely so staying with the most reputable ones is probably the safest way to go. If you're not quite sure or don't have any type of reference for the site that you're exploring, you might want to just hold back and wait until you can get confirmation of somebody else who's had a shopping experience with them, just to see if it's an okay place to shop. Definitely yeah. So I'm taking another look here at that chart. I think I see you were mentioning a sale. Was that sale on Krugerans? Yes, indeed.

Tyler O'Connor: 26:08

My, oh my, am I as low as 1.43 percent?

TJ O'Connor: 26:12

Oh, my goodness. So it looks as though we have an SD bullion and JM bullion competing Against each other here, with a 1.43 percent over the spot price of gold and a 1.95 percent over the spot price of gold. Just to put it into perspective, the next competing price has a premium from atmex of 4.38 percent over the spot price of gold.

Tyler O'Connor: 26:37

That's pretty good. It's a sale on a product like this for a reason? Yeah, because gold Krugerans do not trade For too much of a premium on buy or sell in the. United States. They are a low premium option.

TJ O'Connor: 26:55

Gotcha, that's important to remember too, because obviously, if you're paying a low premium to get into it, you'll probably be considering a low premium when you get out of it as well. Exactly, but that's okay, because it probably just makes it more relevant to the spot price or whatever the commodity prices at that time.

Tyler O'Connor: 27:13

Yeah to the market, Absolutely.

TJ O'Connor: 27:15

Well, that's definitely interesting. Good to note here that we're winning in a couple of categories with American Historic looks like we would win with the one ounce gold, canadian maple leaf and and what else we think on the one ounce gold fill harmonic. Yes.

Tyler O'Connor: 27:32

We're a little over two tenths below the next cheapest hey that's not too bad.

TJ O'Connor: 27:37

Well, hopefully, while these items are in stock, people will take notice, head over to our website and take advantage of that low premium, and that'd be a h coin code, oh, fantastic.

Tyler O'Connor: 27:50

So what are some of the things that you would recommend TJ for? Or We'll say stackers essentially right, yeah. Or investors, however you like to look at it, that you think they should avoid when trying to acquire physical gold.

TJ O'Connor: 28:05

Well, I think that you should try to avoid making as many mistakes as you can. Yeah, and and how do you do that? Well, you got you're gonna have to design yourself a plan, and I think that it's important to get that definition before you begin your purchasing. I talk about with yourself what are your goals?

TJ O'Connor: 28:25

And if your goal is to increase the amount of ounces that you own and you're looking to simply build weight and you're not Particular about how that gold looks or how the format of the gold is presented, then you should be looking for the lowest premium generic gold that you could buy right. But if you also want ease of selling out of the market and you want that Recognizability of the coin for the person that you'll end up selling that coin to, you should definitely be considering the sovereign bullion right and even for just a little bit more in premium, you're getting all that much more Recognizability, and it's backed by a government that minted that coin for you. So that's definitely something that I'd be looking for Weighing those two options, whichever it is that sits with you the Recognizability factor maybe it's an aesthetic thing, or just the number of ounces and then carving a path for that. The key is staying consistent and not getting distracted by all the shiny things that have the collectible premium and there are a few out there.

TJ O'Connor: 29:37

We do this in the shop Tyler, we do it on purpose. There are collector item bullion pieces that we pepper amongst the the standard bullion that we sell in large quantity and it's in there because we want people to see this. This is like artwork. But you know what can happen to the average buyers? That they might get drawn in and pay that extra 100, 200, $300 in premium for that piece and they might not necessarily get that if they were to sell the item for its commodity cost in the end.

Tyler O'Connor: 30:12

So it sounds like for the purposes of the conversation today, where we're just kind of covering Gold buying 101 focused on sovereign back coins, what you're saying is have a motivation to find mm-hmm have a plan to execute mm-hmm and. Stay disciplined.

TJ O'Connor: 30:30

Yes, okay, that's the hard part I was gonna.

Tyler O'Connor: 30:33

I think that's. That's the challenge there, because there are a lot of pretty things out there, so I'd like to throw it in on that too is that Whenever I have this conversation with people, I always think of that infomercial back from like the late 90s and early 2000s.

Tyler O'Connor: 30:48

I think it was a, a Ronco rotisserie chicken cooker right, All right and on his ad or his little infomercial, it was always just set it and forget it. Yes, right, and I always think of that, because when you're acquiring Physical metals, whether that's gold or silver, it is not a short-term game. Right? This is not something I'm gonna buy today and I'm gonna sell back in a week or a month or in 10 months and make a boatload of money on. Yeah, right, so Avoid being in that situation where you need to sell too quickly.

Tyler O'Connor: 31:26

Mm-hmm, really, this is a long-term play, and One of the big recommendations that we always have for people is, if you want to buy something, you need to be able to buy it three times, and if you can do that, you should be able to hold on to this for long enough and tuck it away and kind of forget about it. Right, so set it and forget it, right, and get yourself in that position where you don't need To liquidate that as your first option to cover Whatever expense you may have in life. Right, it's always there for that, which is one of the awesome things about this, but it shouldn't be the first thing that you try to get rid of if you don't need to, right so kind of like not getting Overleveraged per se.

TJ O'Connor: 32:07

Right making sure your personal cash flow is on the up and up, all of your personal savings goals are being met and you're incorporating into that financial habit a consistent and disciplined Purchase of precious metals. Right to supplement and strengthen that. Yeah.

Tyler O'Connor: 32:24

I think you said that great. Don't over leverage yourself, right, right, because that kind of defeats the whole purpose of this. You're gonna end up taking a loss in the short term. It's just not worth it, right? So the other one I would say is Holding physical metals as an asset should not be your only investment. And I say that because I am a firm believer and again, I'm not a financial advisor do not take this as financial advice but I'm a firm believer and I practice this myself is that all of your Assets, investments, your wealth, should not be dedicated to one basket. So you need to decide what's right for you, how old you are, what your life plans are. Take all those aspects into consideration and say what makes sense for me, how much should I put there, whether that's you set a target announces or a percentage of your total portfolio.

TJ O'Connor: 33:23

Whatever that goal is for you, define that and make sure you're working that plan in a disciplined way, like you said yeah, a lot of times I see guys that might have been Practicing saving right, saving with their weekly paycheck or their bi-weekly paycheck. They would put in a certain amount of money into their savings account and now I just see them allocate a certain amount of that savings to precious metals so they can continue to do this consistently, yeah, like they were doing with that savings account. So they kind of have now two pieces here. One is that cash savings account that they're keeping with the bank and then the other one is that precious metal savings account that they're keeping in their safe or wherever they keep it secured and talk about a Discipline following of a plan.

Tyler O'Connor: 34:11

Yeah, I mean, they literally go across street, cash their check. Okay, you know, here's a couple hundred bucks under savings and then there you go. Tyler, I'm taking ounce of silver or a little bit of gold, please, from my understanding now.

TJ O'Connor: 34:23

You and I both we weren't alive back then, but from my understanding, back in the 60s you could cash your paycheck at the bank and, in the bank, walk 20 feet over to another window where they were selling silver or they were selling gold for cash. And you could walk out with precious metal.

Tyler O'Connor: 34:41

Yeah, there was a silver counter at the hospital trust bank down here and just over the border in Rhode Island. Yeah, and that's exactly what it was. You could walk up anytime and just leave with ounces of silver. I'm right in the bank, amazing.

TJ O'Connor: 34:54

Well, I'll happily fill the gap, while that window is not available at our bank, but it's. It's funny how we've moved as a society away from something that was done so regularly and here we are and we're reintroducing that back into the public is something that they might want to pay more attention to. Interesting.

Tyler O'Connor: 35:15

Well, there's no doubt that physical gold, silver and other precious metals Hold their place and, for whatever reason certain people may have about getting into that, it's your belief, it's your thought, whatever that might be. But I think this statistic was that less than 3% of people in the United States actually hold any type of physical gold or silver. Wow, we went from a society that was backed by gold into the 70s to what one and a half, two generations of just don't even know what. It is Amazing.

TJ O'Connor: 35:54

I think that this whole this country has a whole hell of a lot to learn, and, who knows, we may be learning it sometime soon, and let's hope that when we do learn those lessons, we'll be putting precious metals back into the mix of things so that we can all go to our local bank and trade in the precious metal for and by local bank, you mean? Come down to American store coins. That's what I'm. That's what I'm by that.

Tyler O'Connor: 36:19

Yes, we would be happy to take your We'll say fiat toilet paper and convert that into some sound money for you.

TJ O'Connor: 36:27

Limited time only folks. Limited time only.

Tyler O'Connor: 36:30

All right. So with that, we just want to say thank you for joining us, for Shop talk, gold buying 101. And again, feel free, hop over to Facebook, instagram, youtube, the numus fear come join us. We'd love to hear what you have to say and with that, We'll see you next time.

TJ O'Connor: 36:48

Have a great evening everyone.