Hong Kong: The Cheapest Place to Buy Gold Coins

[Gumby]

Buying some gold (or gold for others)? Here's an interesting idea. Plan a trip to Hong Kong and the savings alone might be enough to pay for the trip...

http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/hong- ... -buy-gold/

[jackely]

Interesting, since I just returned from Hong Kong with some gold, only in the form of jewelry.

Unfortunately, the gentleman in the article didn't say what to do with the gold after you bought it.  My gold was subject to a 3 percent customs fee for the amount over $1600 (2 people * $800) and that was just on the first $1000. I think it would have been more if I had gone over that.

I wonder if he meant to park it in Hong Kong, smuggle it in, or pay the fee?

[Storm]

Shanghai is like this as well.  When I was there they were selling gold bars for almost exactly spot price.  It was unbelievable.  I was skeptical about the bars though - who knows if they are legit.  But it definitely seemed like there were a lot of reputable jewelry stores selling them.

[Larshus]

Couple of things to consider when you buy bars (this is from my experience in the wholesale gold industry)

1) Non-marked, non-named, or "non-known good" bars as called in the industry always trade at a discount. Reason? No one trusts them and in the wholesale world wont take them unless an assay is done on a melted super-sample. That assay costs money hence the discount.
2) Stick to "good" bars. Englehard, Pamp ect for liquidity reasons.
3) The larger the bar, the lower the premium. Obviously 1 oz bars have the highest premium. Often you can find 1 Oz coins for the same as bars. Coins are made by governments... there is no issue on fineness.
4) On the wholesale side larger bars regularly trade under spot. This is because of the shipment and storage costs.

The point here is if I was in Shanghai I would not be surprised to see bars at or slightly over spot. However I would make sure they were non-counterfeit good bars. If they are sealed, like Pamp bars can be, I still would be cautious as counterfeits have been showing up on the market now from China.

[jackely]

Still hoping someone will respond to my question about what you actually physically do with gold purchased in Hong Kong or Shanghai as I am very curious. I plan to retire in the Philippines where my wife is from so I'm thinking it would be nice to return from trips to either place with just enough Philippine Pesos in our pockets to NOT have to declare to ANYONE.

Not that I would ever cheat the taxman. I believe we all have a moral obligation to pay our fair share.

[smurff]

You can store them in a safe deposit box or allocated storage in Hong Kong where you bought them.  They can ship them to you in Thailand. 

[jackely]

That was basically what I was thinking. One worry would be China actually getting serious about communism again, now that it has pseudo-control of Hong Kong. Probably a bigger and more realistic worry is the U.S.A. doing something to completely piss China off and having them bar access to Hong Kong in retaliation. Would be a real bummer to have a lot of gold sitting there in a safety deposit box.

You can store them in a safe deposit box or allocated storage in Hong Kong where you bought them.  They can ship them to you in Thailand. 

[smurff]

You don't have to wait.  You can have them shipped to yourself anytime--including right after you arrive home.

You can also have them shipped to your account in another country, like Singapore.

FWIW, China never really left Communism.  They simply added market-based industry (based on being the world's manufacturing plant) as an interesting accompaniment to it. 

[Storm]

Also, I think China pretty much has a "hands off" policy towards Hong Kong.  HK is a huge worldwide financial power center and China would be foolish to mess with a good thing.  They still let them print their own currency and set their own tax rates.  A lot of Chinese students that go to University in HK bring iPhones home with them frequently because the tax rate in HK is so low compared to the mainland that they can make about a $100 US profit for every phone they buy.

The gold bars I saw there were in 10 gram, 100 gram, 500 gram, and 1 kilogram sizes.  You have to convert 28.35 grams to each ounce to figure out the spot price, but when I did, it was amazingly almost exactly spot price according to Comex.