Thanks for reminding me why I don't invest in physical precious metals.

 

I don't know where you're located but in the Vancouver area there are lots of places to buy and sell gold. Several years ago I had a small number of coins. The coins were basically keep sakes gathering dust. Coins gifted to my kids, baptisms', that sort of thing. These type of things are just useless sitting around, the possibility of theft/loss etc. We had some $100 dollar Canadian plus some old Canadian $5 $10 coins etc. I also think we had a few pieces of gold jewelry as well. So we asked the kids (in their 30's) what they wanted to do with them. In the end we sold the whole lot, for about 2500 -3000. I took them in to a dealer. They first checked if they were valuable as coins, (which I had already done) then weighed them and offered me what ever it was for them. I walked out with a cheque, deposited it and gave it all to our kids.

Make an appt. Why wouldn't you make an appt. The price will be reflective of the gold price at the time. But don't think their going to give you full spot gold price. They are in the business of making money. If you don't like what's offered try somewhere else. As I recall I did phone around a bit and they all seemed to be about the same, so I just went with the most convenient.

 

Jack - I don't invest in the physical gold either. Many years ago, we set up a family trust and part of the setting up process was the puchase of 2 1oz Canadian Maple Leaf coins. The trust was wound up 10 years ago and the coins have been sitting around since. With the current gold price, this seems like a good time to cash them in.
RetiredGuy - I am in the Yukon Territory. Actually, in addition to the 2 options listed above, there is a third - a jeweller who gives you 90% of the spot price. With Kitco, after the minor expenses are taken into account, you get about 97%. To me anyway, that is a significant difference so unless the bank can match Kitco, I am going with the latter. Why I wouldn't make an appointment? Because these clowns at the bank are talking about appointments
10 - 20 days out. I told them that the volatility of gold prices are such that we could easily be talking about huge swings in the price from one week to the next. No, the only way I would sell to the bank is to go in on a AM when I am happy with the spot price and then sell it at that price.

 

I don't invest in the physical gold either . . . The trust was wound up 10 years ago and the coins have been sitting around since. With the current gold price, this seems like a good time to cash them in.

Another possibility is that you could hold onto them as a long-term investment asset. You mentioned these coins have been sitting around for 10 years.

They have actually outperformed the Canadian stock market while you've been holding them. In the last 10 years, gold valued in CAD has appreciated at roughly 8.0% annually, whereas the TSX index has performed at 7.4%. Both have solid performance of course, but I just wanted to point out that your gold coins have outperformed the Canadian stock market.

Gold has also outperformed the TSX over the last 5 years. Without planning to do so, you have been holding an asset which does very well in a high-inflation environment.

 

Don't know where your located but maybe a local company who purchases. Colonial acres in Kitchener, On is good to deal with.

 

BorderGold.com shows the prices at which they sell and buy precious metals, in USD and CAD.

They might offer to give you an agreed upon price at the time you talk to them.
Or they might agree to hold them in storage (for a fee) until the price is where you like it, and then sell.

If the coins were in my possession, I would keep them, but I realise that's not how most North Americans think.

 

I finally went with Kitco. > That's exactly what happened. I was happy with with the price - 3121 CDN - when I closed the deal with them over the phone. This was before I shipped the coins to them. Alternately, I could have shipped the coins to Kitco and sell them subsequently when I was OK with the price.

 

Very curious about this. Kitco has a great reputation but I've never used them. Were you happy with the procedure to ship the material / agree on payment etc?

 

I made an error in my previous posting. I did have a phone conversation with them but it was regarding the shipping / insurance, not the pricing of the coins. You have, as I said, 2 options as regards the price. Accept the current price when you finalize the sale of your gold Maple Leafs online or ship the coins to Kitco and sell it any time thereafter when you are happy with the price. I have chosen the former and as you can see from the attachment, everything is finalized at that point.

They provide you with a shipping label and insurance coverage. All you have to do is box up your coins. Couldn’t be simpler! 2 weeks after shipping, I got a cheque in the mail for the indicated amount.

Another nice thing about dealing with Kitco is that there’s a very small spread between the spot price of gold and what Kitco will pay you. So if gold is @ 3000 CDN at the time of your purchase, you will get about 2950 CDN which is very fair.

What is not to like about this experience?