Understanding Prepping

[Steelman]

I maintain a few of the basic tenets of prepping, but cannot understand the long-term prepping efforts.

Why are these companies/shops exchanging life-saving goods/silver/gold for useless dollars when we're expecting the economy to collapse?


Wouldn't they be smarter to exchange goods for gold/silver?

Why is gold and silver being exchanged for dollars?


I'm pretty sure I know the answers to these questions. Just want to hear other opinions.

 

[10-32]

I maintain a few of the basic tenets of prepping, but cannot understand the long-term prepping efforts.

Why are these companies/shops exchanging life-saving goods/silver/gold for useless dollars when we're expecting the economy to collapse?


Wouldn't they be smarter to exchange goods for gold/silver?

It's so they can get your dollars and buy even more gold and silver for when the economy does collapse.

Why is gold and silver being exchanged for dollars?

They're making a profit off you then turning around buying even more gold and silver.

I'm pretty sure I know the answers to these questions. Just want to hear other opinions.

.

 

[Steelman]

.

So you think that the gold broker's margin is immediately reinvested in the market? The average consumer is not buying in ounces. What's the commission on less than an ounce of gold?


Also, I don't think Wal-Mart is buying gold as a primary investment. Could be wrong, but reasonably certain.

 

[10-32]

So you think that the gold broker's margin is immediately reinvested in the market? The average consumer is not buying in ounces. What's the commission on less than an ounce of gold?


Also, I don't think Wal-Mart is buying gold as a primary investment. Could be wrong, but reasonably certain.

I don't know that it's immediately reinvested but if I was running one of the businesses, I'm have the money put back into gold or silver asap. Preferable silver.

I don't know what the commission percentage is either. I'm assuming you pay a few dollars over the current going rate when buy gold like you do silver. Again, only guessing here.

 

[TheRude1]

Cause they can make money doing it !

VIVA LA CAPITALISM

 

[Steelman]

Cause they can make money doing it !

VIVA LA CAPITALISM

Sure. Capitalism is a beautiful thing. The question lies in the mechanics. Dollars or gold. Which is retained? Which is sold?

 

[TiminMishawaka]

It's simple. They are fear selling to consumer preppers.

In a past life I ran real estate investing club meetings in Chicago and even put together a small conference that some of the real estate "guru" speakers made their presentations too. I saw behind the curtain. I saw how broke these "millionaire gurus" were. I saw their sales tactic techniques. I left the business after that and got a real job but I will never forget what I learned from watching those vultures at work. Gold companies are doing the same fear sell. It's ridiculous.

Why is it being exchanged for "useless" dollars? They're not useless yet.

 

[Steelman]

It's simple. They are fear selling to consumer preppers.



Why is it being exchanged for "useless" dollars? They're not useless yet.

^This is what I'm thinking. ^


Fear (unsubstantiated) is the primary motivator in prepping, gun/ammo stockpiling and Mitt Romney votes.

The powers that be need to keep their flock in fear so they will consume.

 

[kman1977]

^This is what I'm thinking. ^


Fear (unsubstantiated) is the primary motivator in prepping, gun/ammo stockpiling and Mitt Romney votes.

The powers that be need to keep their flock in fear so they will consume.

I agree with this analysis

but --- I would also like to add that there is the "investment" side to gold/silver. Precious metals ( physical not paper ) as a buy and hold for several years have done very well as an investment.
Now if you want to play these investments in the short term you are better off with the paper ETF's.
The radio / tv ads for physical gold are also ads for companies that seem to have very high commission charges.

kman

 

[churchmouse]

Sure. Capitalism is a beautiful thing. The question lies in the mechanics. Dollars or gold. Which is retained? Which is sold?

They are buying gold at street price to the sellers and they in turn sell it to their buyers at a substantial mark up. This is not un-like the scrap business. They pay us X for copper by the pound and re-sell for Y at a mark up. JMHO

 

[Valvestate]

They are buying gold at street price to the sellers and they in turn sell it to their buyers at a substantial mark up. This is not un-like the scrap business. They pay us X for copper by the pound and re-sell for Y at a mark up. JMHO

Exactly. Plus since it keeps rising, they make substantially more. Silver is ok because it's cheap gold depending how you look at it.

 

[Steelman]

Exactly. Plus since it keeps rising, they make substantially more. Silver is ok because it's cheap gold depending how you look at it.

They're still exchanging gold and silver for.......dollars.

 

[cobber]

Because if the SHTF, gold and silver will actually be as valuable as paper money. If somewhat heavier.

I'm putting my money in tulip bulbs now.

 

[Steelman]

Because if the SHTF, gold and silver will actually be as valuable as paper money. If somewhat heavier.

I'm putting my money in tulip bulbs now.

So are gold brokers and national retail chains just not smart enough to prep for SHTF?

They're selling off all their vital goods. Don't they know the dollar is in the toilet, circling the drain, never to return?

Why not hoard their survival gear and go into debt to buy preps and gold?

Why would they exchange survival goods and gold for dollars if our currency is bound for destruction?



It seems all the wealthy people in the world still accept dollars.

It seems all the preppers are buying their hyped up goods.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Speculating on gold is big right now because its had a big run up in the last 10 years or so. The 30 years before that it steadily went down, losing half its value over those 3 decades. Before that it had a big spike. It does this constantly throughout modern history, big run ups, trickle downs. What will the next 30 years be like for gold prices? Pffft, if I knew that I'd be sipping a drink with an umbrella in it on some beach where the girls don't wear tops and enjoying my fabulous wealth, not typing with you guys.

People selectively read history and assume gold will always be used as a currency and that paper money is worthless. Some of the first paper currencies issued on this continent were backed by land, and throughout human history metal is only one of a multitude of currencies used. In the end, regardless of the medium, currency is only as valuable as people are willing to make it.

So, a few things to consider:
1) Gold has no intrinsic value outside of certain industrial applications. You can't use gold to survive, you can't eat it, protect yourself with it, use it to keep yourself warm, etc. In a complete every-man-for-himself situation, who's going to trade gold for chickens or canned yams? Would you?

2) You don't "invest" in gold, you "speculate" on gold. Investing is when you use money to make money. A company issues bonds to expand a production plant, and you buy those bonds. That's investing. The company grows, profit grows, you get your interest payments. Buying something (gold, currencies, etc.) and holding it, waiting for it to go up in value, is speculating. That doesn't mean its a bad thing, there's a lot of money in speculating (look what it does to oil prices and ponder that the biggest oil traders in the world don't own a single oil rig), but know the difference and how much of your portfolio should be in speculation, especially in one particular commodity.

3) Its absolutely a good idea to prepare for SHTF. Its also an extraordinarily good idea to plan for S NOT HTF. There's a damn good chance we'll all live to see retirement without meteroites of zombie viruses claiming 90% of the population or whatever. Are you as prepared to live comfortably in your retirement years in "the normal world" as you are to survive the zombie apocalypse? A buddy of mine has stockpiles of seeds, bullets, etc. etc. and absolutely zero retirement savings and a pretty sizeable amount of rotating debt. He almost needs S to HTF. Logically, if you believe there's a 10% chance of SHTF, 10% of your resources should be geared toward that possibility.

Again, I'm not discouraging anyone from buying gold and certainly not from planning for if things go wrong. Just don't get so caught up in SHTF that you ignore S not HTF, and do your own research NOT with a company trying to sell you gold before you decide if its a good idea or not for YOU to put sizeable amounts of income in it.

 

[Meister]

So are gold brokers and national retail chains just not smart enough to prep for SHTF?

They're selling off all their vital goods. Don't they know the dollar is in the toilet, circling the drain, never to return?

Why not hoard their survival gear and go into debt to buy preps and gold?

Why would they exchange survival goods and gold for dollars if our currency is bound for destruction?



It seems all the wealthy people in the world still accept dollars.

It seems all the preppers are buying their hyped up goods.

The big store chains have heads that HAVE been buying another commodity- Land. Many investment bankers and corporate heads have been buy up mini farms and ranches in the NW states. There was a story on it not too long ago, but I can't find it. They are hedging their bets like the rest of us.

Gold and silver won't grow when you plant it, but it can come in handy in a disaster to get you somewhere or something before the bottom totally falls out. Ammunition on the other hand, will get you just about anything you want. Food will also get you anything you want when things get bad. Look at what happened in NO during the hurricane. People were willing to drop their guns and live in a government commune of filth, rape and hunger when given the option.

I'm of the mind set that after the fist 2 months of starvation, there will be far less silliness to deal with.

Keep a little cash, a little silver and lots of food, guns and ammo.

Speculating on gold is big right now because its had a big run up in the last 10 years or so. The 30 years before that it steadily went down, losing half its value over those 3 decades. Before that it had a big spike. It does this constantly throughout modern history, big run ups, trickle downs. What will the next 30 years be like for gold prices? Pffft, if I knew that I'd be sipping a drink with an umbrella in it on some beach where the girls don't wear tops and enjoying my fabulous wealth, not typing with you guys.

People selectively read history and assume gold will always be used as a currency and that paper money is worthless. Some of the first paper currencies issued on this continent were backed by land, and throughout human history metal is only one of a multitude of currencies used. In the end, regardless of the medium, currency is only as valuable as people are willing to make it.

So, a few things to consider:
1) Gold has no intrinsic value outside of certain industrial applications. You can't use gold to survive, you can't eat it, protect yourself with it, use it to keep yourself warm, etc. In a complete every-man-for-himself situation, who's going to trade gold for chickens or canned yams? Would you?

2) You don't "invest" in gold, you "speculate" on gold. Investing is when you use money to make money. A company issues bonds to expand a production plant, and you buy those bonds. That's investing. The company grows, profit grows, you get your interest payments. Buying something (gold, currencies, etc.) and holding it, waiting for it to go up in value, is speculating. That doesn't mean its a bad thing, there's a lot of money in speculating (look what it does to oil prices and ponder that the biggest oil traders in the world don't own a single oil rig), but know the difference and how much of your portfolio should be in speculation, especially in one particular commodity.

3) Its absolutely a good idea to prepare for SHTF. Its also an extraordinarily good idea to plan for S NOT HTF. There's a damn good chance we'll all live to see retirement without meteroites of zombie viruses claiming 90% of the population or whatever. Are you as prepared to live comfortably in your retirement years in "the normal world" as you are to survive the zombie apocalypse? A buddy of mine has stockpiles of seeds, bullets, etc. etc. and absolutely zero retirement savings and a pretty sizeable amount of rotating debt. He almost needs S to HTF. Logically, if you believe there's a 10% chance of SHTF, 10% of your resources should be geared toward that possibility.

Again, I'm not discouraging anyone from buying gold and certainly not from planning for if things go wrong. Just don't get so caught up in SHTF that you ignore S not HTF, and do your own research NOT with a company trying to sell you gold before you decide if its a good idea or not for YOU to put sizeable amounts of income in it.

 

[Steelman]

I wholeheartedly agree that land is a superior investment to gold or Mylar-lined five gallon buckets of rice. After paying operating costs, employee salaries and shareholders - where is Wal-Mart's real estate investment budget?

The big store chains have heads that HAVE been buying another commodity- Land. Many investment bankers and corporate heads have been buy up mini farms and ranches in the NW states. There was a story on it not too long ago, but I can't find it. They are hedging their bets like the rest of us.

Gold and silver won't grow when you plant it, but it can come in handy in a disaster to get you somewhere or something before the bottom totally falls out. Ammunition on the other hand, will get you just about anything you want. Food will also get you anything you want when things get bad. Look at what happened in NO during the hurricane. People were willing to drop their guns and live in a government commune of filth, rape and hunger when given the option.

I'm of the mind set that after the fist 2 months of starvation, there will be far less silliness to deal with.

Keep a little cash, a little silver and lots of food, guns and ammo.

 

[Meister]

I wholeheartedly agree that land is a superior investment to gold or Mylar-lined five gallon buckets of rice. After paying operating costs, employee salaries and shareholders - where is Wal-Mart's real estate investment budget?

They have 107 billion dollars in current real assets. 8.9 billion in global profits.

 

[Steelman]

They have 107 billion dollars in current real assets. 8.9 billion in global profits.

Please link to a nation retail chain purchasing real estate for SHTF preparation and not operational use (ie land used for existing and future stores).

 

[Meister]

Please link to a nation retail chain purchasing real estate for SHTF preparation and not operational use (ie land used for existing and future stores).

I have no such news articles. If you'd re-read my statement, it was referring to the heads of the entities, not the entities themselves. As I said before, I cannot find the article detailing this. Looked but it's an older story from early in the year.