Money Watch – Personal Finance Blog

Strolling round our local shopping centre, as I do of a lunchtime, I stumbled across a new stand which differs from the normal ornament and cheap sunglasses stands which we’re normally treated to – and what surprised me was that this one is offering people the chance to buy and sell gold.

Gold  is going through somewhat of a renaissance at the moment.

On the one side you’ve got the companies advertising that they’ll help cash-strapped punters out by buying any gold they have lying around their house (or possibly more worryingly, lying around other people’s houses, or indeed, still attached to their appendages).

You know the sort, like the one advertised by Mr Mahogany himself, David “The Duke” Dickinson (he once went to jail, you know), waving a wad of notes around offering to pay cash to take your family heirlooms off your hands. You let them know what you’ve got, and they’ll quote you an amount to buy it from you.

Of course, although you may think the item is worth loads, a lot of the time the actual scrap value of the gold will be far less than you may value the item at yourself, and probably less than you’d have it insured for, so be prepared for a quotation below your expectations. A lot will also depend on the quality of the gold (e.g. number of carats).

And on the other side of things, gold is also returning to be seen as a “secure” investment, as every other type of investment around it disappears into oblivion and investors become disillusioned.  Whilst a little gold might not be a bad thing to have in your portfolio, it’s not something I would consider as being a core investment – it’s a pretty secure investment, but unless you’re a sophisticated investor, it’s unlikely to make you particularly rich.

I’m also not too keen on the idea of investing in something that’s being hawked outside the local Spud-U-Like.

If, like me,  you’d prefer to look elsewhere than your local shopping centre for gold bullion, here are 10 other ways to invest in gold.

Of course, the obvious next step is buying gold from a vending machine.

So would you invest in gold from a shopping centre stall? Let us know your thoughts, or indeed any gold buying or selling experiences you’ve had, in the comments below.

photo credit: BullionVault