Buying Gold Bars

Gold has been a sound investment for many years. In good economic times gold generally has a steady, if low, rate of return. During the bad times gold out performs most other types of investments by a significant margin.

For this reason many people have turned to investing in different forms of gold, such as coins, certificates and bars. The following list is a brief outline describing the necessary steps for buying gold bars.

Determine the spot price

Before making a purchase a savvy investor should research the current spot price of gold. Spot price simply refers to the price that you would pay right now for the gold. These prices usually reflect the price per ounce of gold.

In order to determine how much you can purchase simple divide you allotted investment amount by the spot price per ounce. This will give you the number of ounces that you can buy and you can look for gold bars near this size accordingly.

If you find the spot price listed in grams you will need to first convert the measurement into ounces to get a true assessment.

Understanding the difference between bar prices

You can purchase either a cast bar or a minted bar. A cast gold bar is made by having gold poured into a cast. Once it cools the gold is in the shape of a bar. A minted bar takes the process one step further by using the cast to make a minted shape on the bar. The additional step makes the minted bar more expensive

Comparing Gold Prices Online

Various websites are available to offer comparison pricing. Most of these sites are dealers of good reputation and can be trusted to offer a fair price and an easy transaction.
Keep an eye out for any site that offers a tremendous discount for the same gold transaction offered by other dealers. This could be the mark of a scam artist attempting to sell you a false bill of goods.

Payment, insurance and shipping

It should go without saying that the purchase of gold is a serious transaction. Unscrupulous people lurk everywhere and will take any chance available to steal a bit of gold. Therefore anyone that is entertaining the thought of buying gold bars should include the cost of shipping, insurance and payment fees into their calculations.

Shipping should be handled by a freight company that is experienced with transporting gold. In addition, it is a very wise idea to obtain insurance on the shipment to repay you for your loss should something happen during transport.

Bank Wire Transfers

Finally, consider using a wire transaction to pay for the gold bars. This provides an indisputable proof of payment if something should go wrong.

Purchasing gold bars for long term investment is an important part of a wise investment strategy. It allows investors to provide diversity among the portfolio and is an outlet for investing into an item that has proven its worth and its reliability over the test of time.