I have to say, I’m disappointed that I missed this journey. If you are looking to invest in gold Bullion – this might be worth reading.
Effective 10/01/11 – EBay Bucks are no longer offered on gold bullion. You can still however realize 2% cash back on your credit card and gas perks by purchasing gift-cards (Up to $5000 every six months per account).
I personally need to wait until Kroger is offering 2x points per gift card on EBay.
Lets say you invest $2000 through a reputable seller on EBay on Bullion.
$2000 * ($.20 a gallon / $50 dollars) * 12 – 15 gallons = $96 – $120 cash back from gas perks+ 2% from Credit Card = $136 – $160, which is 6.8% – 8.0% off your bullion. Might be even better if you have a better gas program than my local Kroger. Not to mention if you are smart enough you may be able to get the auction for 2-7% lower than fair market value.
If you get it for fair market value or below fair market value on EBay from a good seller and you planned on buying bullion– Why not? You also get buyer protection through eBay.
This actually sounds somewhat appealing to me as an investor because normally I’m paying a commission on my securities – not the other way around.
I don’t own any gold at the moment, but I have considered it.
The reasons I ‘m not crazy about gold as an investment:
1. Its liquid, but usually only usually if you are willing to take a small discount. Gold is going for $2000 an ounce, but can you actually get $2000 an ounce? Will you end up giving away some percentage in the actual sale of the gold. Will you have to arrange a sale through a third party – its just more work than a stock sale.
2. Need physical storage.
3. Gold gains are taxed as a collectible (28%), which is not as favorable as the long-term capital gain tax rate of 15%.
4. You need to do your research on gold ownership, quality, grade, certificate, etc.
So gold at times doesn’t sound very appealing to me, but if I was able to buy gold for say, 7% lower than market rate by bidding on 30 auctions and winning 1 and get back another 5-7% through rewards – Yes I would be interested in trying it.
I have to believe people were doing this on a large scale back when BigCrumbs.com was active for EBay. Could you imagine it back in the good old days of Bing.com (For those of you who are not familiar, Bing.com used to offer cash back deals for using their search engine, Microsoft was trying to buy people’s attention and it failed miserably).
I am determined to give bullion + cash back a try. Stay tuned.