Anyone For a Golden Ticket?

The bullion industry is always looking for ways to extract more than the actual cost of precious metal from the unsuspecting public. The classic approach is to dress up what amounts to an ordinary gold bar or coin and lay claim to it being a “Collectors Item” or, better still, a “Limited Edition” and then charge a nicely inflated price for said item. It’s been going on for years and happens with silver as well. It’s all well and good when you simply want to admire your newly acquired piece of lustrous metal but, when it comes to selling you may well end up less than happy as, in most cases the window dressing applied to your item does not survive contact with the bullion dealer!

We recently picked up the Willy Wonka 5g bar of gold you see below. Luckily the owner had won it in a competition but if he had purchased it from new it was originally sold at a price approximately 150% over the value of the gold. Even luckier still for its owner, gold has done really well this year so he was in the pound seats but the hard truth of the matter that, when faced with this type of item, precious metal dealers pay no attention the marketing hype but rather value it as nothing more than what it is – in this case 5 grams of gold. We ignore glitz and the glamour and the “they are for sale on eBay for £xyz” commentary and simply pay for the metal.

Our best advice is to stick with basic coins and bars – at least you know then what you are paying for and that your local friendly precious metal dealer is going to have an easier life. So, if you have any gold or silver to sell (in any form!) please do get in touch – we do our best not to disappoint and pay a fair price for your precious metals on the spot.

We cover most of South Devon from Exeter to Plymouth and onto Liskeard and all stops in-between including the South Hams, Torbay and South East Cornwall.