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Goldbugs Fall foul of Swindle; Always take Physical possession
Topic Started: 7 Sep 2015, 05:37 PM (739 Views)
The Whole Truth
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Downtown Austin vault of precious metals turns up mostly empty
Sept. 4, 2015 

Gold first caught Ron Barbala’s eye in 2008. With the housing values plummeting and the stock market cratering, the Phoenix engineer felt betrayed by the economy, which increasingly he considered little more than a mirage. “The standard American method of investing, all of it,” he said. “I’d had it.”Desperate for something of value he literally could put his hands on, he began acquiring gold and silver bullion. “Its value is in its physicality,” Barbala said. “It just is.”

Over the next several years, Barbala bought more than $100,000 worth of precious metals through a little-known downtown Austin company. Started in 1999, Bullion Direct began as an online virtual trading floor where thousands of customers could buy and sell precious metals to each other, with the company taking a cut of each sale.

Later, it began selling the metals to customers directly. It also stored the commodities for those who requested it — such as Barbala — with the glittering coins and bars kept safely in individual piles for each investor in an old bank vault in its Lavaca Street offices.

At least that’s what everyone thought. By the time auditors and lawyers got access to Bullion Direct’s 14th-floor offices six weeks ago, there were only a handful of gold and silver coins in an office safe. A second vault it had recently rented held only slightly more. An estimated $30 million in cash, metal bullion and valuable coins, meanwhile, had vanished. The cumulative weight of the unaccounted for metal is the equivalent of dozens of standard-sized gold bullion bars and hundreds of silver ones. Also missing are an estimated 1,400 ounces of platinum and palladium.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/downtown-austin-vault-of-precious-metals-turns-up-/nnYS2/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral
Edited by The Whole Truth, 7 Sep 2015, 05:38 PM.
"Panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been previously destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works." John Stuart Mill
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createdby
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Never go paper or digital, let's get...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vWz9VN40nCA



Edited by createdby, 7 Sep 2015, 06:32 PM.
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zaph
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I thought gold was safer than houses.
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createdby
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zaph
7 Sep 2015, 07:45 PM
I thought gold was safer than houses.
Twas paper gold. Not the same as physical in your hand (or in your own vault).
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herbie
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createdby
7 Sep 2015, 07:52 PM
Twas paper gold. Not the same as physical in your hand (or in your own vault).
I'm going to cut my body open in lots of places 'n stash mine there.

To keep it 'close'.

And just think how much fitter carrying all that extra weight around will make me - Damn, the money I'll save on gym membership fees!

'Course when I hop on the scales down the doc's, he might suggest I go on a diet; But I'll have my answer lined up - I'll tell him Nope, no need Doc; I'm just 'naturally dense' ... :)

Or I could stash it in the freezer bit of the fridge.

As no nasty criminally minded type would ever think of looking for it there.

'Cause they're dumb - Not like me - I'm smart ... :)
Edited by herbie, 7 Sep 2015, 08:57 PM.
A Professional Demographer to an amateur demographer: "negative natural increase will never outweigh the positive net migration"
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The Whole Truth
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zaph
7 Sep 2015, 07:45 PM
I thought gold was safer than houses.
Missed the moral of the story did we? I find it analogous to the story of the stock market, where everyone there was convinced it's as safe as houses. Or the housing market where everyone invested believes what tbey were told about houses always going up after a small correction.

It's funny how people can told something is true based on limited evidence, then take that and make it a personal belief they are unwilling to let go of. Even long after it is disproven, and long after the people who profited from selling the belief have taken their share and left the table.
"Panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been previously destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works." John Stuart Mill
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