[gman129]

Problem is as soon as you buy it you lose money. The reason being that if you want to sell it back you must go to a dealer he will low ball you and you will have a hard time getting the actual value of the gold. It is not like $100 bill that you could just spend on whatever you want, you are stuck with something that in order to cash out you must take a cut by selling it to a dealer.

[pmorici]

How is that different than any asset, stock, bond, Bitcoin? The broker always gets a cut.

[dustcoin]

Physical precious metals have some of the worst spreads/fees and friction involved buying and selling compared to other assets.

Stocks: $5 flat fee per trade is typical, index funds charge as low as 0.05% / year.

Bonds: Cheap bond index funds charge 0.1% to 0.3% / year. Buying bonds directly from the treasury carries no fees.

Bitcoin: 0.20-1% fee is typical when purchased online

The only common asset class that is worse in this regard would be real estate, but unlike precious metals, real estate can at least produce income or provide utility while it is held.

[pmorici]

"Physical precious metals have some of the worst spreads/fees"

Here is a site that buys 1 ounce gold bars for $10 below the current spot price and sells them for 30 above. that is 0.8% spread on the side a slightly over 2% on the buy side.

http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/topProducts

Are there bad vendors out there, sure, but they are in every market. Look at Bitcon ATM's some of those charge fees amounting to 10%