Checking in from china- PM report
morgantype
Posts: 456
Hey all,
I am sitting in bed, it's 5 am on Thursday and I will be heading to the Great Wall today.
I finally managed to finds some PMs yesterday.
My tour guide didn't realm have an answer for "where to buy" some silver and gold. They talked about going to the government run stores, going to the stock market, or finding the official billion store. Many of these answers were kind of vague, indirect and short. It felt to me like they didn't really know what I was talking about. But my hunch says that they probably didn't really have a good answer for a Westerner like myself.
Anyhow, the guide was telling me that everything has a major tax on it. 20% tax on cars (Chinese manufactured) this would be like a Ford/GM that is manufactured in China by a Chinese forieign JV. If you want to purchase an imported car not made in China (ie BMW, Mercedes) the import duty is on the order for 200-300%. He told an anecdote about how the 2 Bentleys at the Beijing car show sold for 8.4 million yuan each rather quickly.
So, i am staying next to a large shopping mall that my guide said that is where all of the Chinese people go to buy the imported goods. Everything here is priced high, and the reason being is the import duties. All of the large global brands are here, Nike, Puma, Sealy, North Face to name a few. And everything is pricing out a uS retail or above!
The exchange right now is 6.4 yuan to 1 dollar. I found some gold silver in some of the nicer jewelry stores. They had a great selection of gold bars, ranging in size from 10 20 30 50 100 500 grams. Many of them had the Lunar calendar designs ( rabbit, horse etc) or nice scenic paintings. There were a lot of colorized bars forthe lunar calendar as well. The coolest was this great gold bar shaped like a fish (looked like a lung fish/carp) which is probably what I would buy if I were to buy some gold.
Now for the cost, 394 yuan for one gram! I believe this works out to something like 61 dollars a gram!!!!! I was figuring the premium on a 10 gram bar and it came to aboout the price of 1/10 age value plus another 60-70 dollars. I am a fan of 1/10 age gold and the last I heard they were trading for 170 (back at 1420 gold). Anyway. Very expensive!
Now for silver, I did find a few silver bars or rounds, at a store andthis is where I made my buy. Silver was selling for 16 yuan a gram! Which comes out to about 77 dollars an ounce! Did I say ounce or ouch!!!
Anyway, they had some nice display items, 5 oz panda for 450 dollars, other presentation style items for MANOR mark ups. I found some nice struck bars with a dragon stamped on them which were cool. They had 100 200 500 and 1000 gram sizes. All selling for 16 yuan a gram and no price break for buying size.
I bought the 100 gram for 1600 yuan for 250 usd. I figured, with this current run in silver I should be even by year end.
Hah! Time to head for the great wall, and before anyone starts saying this was a rip off, I know. But I had to have the momento.
Will post as I learn more, keep stackin n
I am sitting in bed, it's 5 am on Thursday and I will be heading to the Great Wall today.
I finally managed to finds some PMs yesterday.
My tour guide didn't realm have an answer for "where to buy" some silver and gold. They talked about going to the government run stores, going to the stock market, or finding the official billion store. Many of these answers were kind of vague, indirect and short. It felt to me like they didn't really know what I was talking about. But my hunch says that they probably didn't really have a good answer for a Westerner like myself.
Anyhow, the guide was telling me that everything has a major tax on it. 20% tax on cars (Chinese manufactured) this would be like a Ford/GM that is manufactured in China by a Chinese forieign JV. If you want to purchase an imported car not made in China (ie BMW, Mercedes) the import duty is on the order for 200-300%. He told an anecdote about how the 2 Bentleys at the Beijing car show sold for 8.4 million yuan each rather quickly.
So, i am staying next to a large shopping mall that my guide said that is where all of the Chinese people go to buy the imported goods. Everything here is priced high, and the reason being is the import duties. All of the large global brands are here, Nike, Puma, Sealy, North Face to name a few. And everything is pricing out a uS retail or above!
The exchange right now is 6.4 yuan to 1 dollar. I found some gold silver in some of the nicer jewelry stores. They had a great selection of gold bars, ranging in size from 10 20 30 50 100 500 grams. Many of them had the Lunar calendar designs ( rabbit, horse etc) or nice scenic paintings. There were a lot of colorized bars forthe lunar calendar as well. The coolest was this great gold bar shaped like a fish (looked like a lung fish/carp) which is probably what I would buy if I were to buy some gold.
Now for the cost, 394 yuan for one gram! I believe this works out to something like 61 dollars a gram!!!!! I was figuring the premium on a 10 gram bar and it came to aboout the price of 1/10 age value plus another 60-70 dollars. I am a fan of 1/10 age gold and the last I heard they were trading for 170 (back at 1420 gold). Anyway. Very expensive!
Now for silver, I did find a few silver bars or rounds, at a store andthis is where I made my buy. Silver was selling for 16 yuan a gram! Which comes out to about 77 dollars an ounce! Did I say ounce or ouch!!!
Anyway, they had some nice display items, 5 oz panda for 450 dollars, other presentation style items for MANOR mark ups. I found some nice struck bars with a dragon stamped on them which were cool. They had 100 200 500 and 1000 gram sizes. All selling for 16 yuan a gram and no price break for buying size.
I bought the 100 gram for 1600 yuan for 250 usd. I figured, with this current run in silver I should be even by year end.
Hah! Time to head for the great wall, and before anyone starts saying this was a rip off, I know. But I had to have the momento.
Will post as I learn more, keep stackin n
Many buy and sell transactions. Let's talk!
0
Comments
The official rate is 6.53................However, 6.40 ain't bad.
All my Fall 2011 business was locked in at 6.3. It was 6.8 not to long ago. Drifting slowly.
Have fun and make sure you walk up the steep side of The Great Wall. You can tell which side the steep side is because there will be hardly any people there
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
just don't discuss religion and/or politics there
At $77/oz silver it's no wonder the Chinese might feel that $100 for a MS64 Morgan isn't such a bad deal.
roadrunner
Maybe the government doesn't want their citizens to buy silver as much as they let on.
--Severian the Lame