Over cards last night someone mentioned they knew a friend who had hosted a gold party. Having never heard of such a thing I asked for more information.
Turns out this friend ended up making $400 on just hosting fees alone where the host gets a cut of what is generated. There was $4,000 worth of gold that changed hands at the party.
Doing a simple Google search shows there is lots of activity on the Internet for these parties. Reading some of the news sites that talk about gold parties it is mainly a female party similar to the basket, Tupperware, chef, Mary Kay parties of the past. In this case, there is a buyer from a company that brings their checkbook who first tests the gold to find out how pure it is and then makes an offer with a check for the gold.
Here in Nebraska there are a couple of bills in the state legislature (LB 109 and LB 226) that try to put more restrictions on the sale and purchase of gold. These laws would certainly make it harder to conduct a gold party. Scrap metal dealers and pawnbrokers are already restricted on how they must perform a transaction with gold. The new legislation attempts to add anyone else doing the same to these restrictions. You can read more here.
As someone who saw the stock clubs spring up during the .dot com bomb which then lead into friends buying rental or fixer-upper homes before the real estate crash one has to wonder if this gold party is the sign that we've reached the top of the gold bubble?
There's a general rule I use that if it plays in Nebraska you're near the top. It might be time to move on. Reason I say that is that due to our slowness to "get it" and also the lack of population, by the time something popular comes here (a newish restaurant chain, popular musical artist in concert, clothing craze, etc.) that something has hit its peak with no growth left, i.e. no more suckers to find.
Time will tell if this is the peak of the gold bubble (chart). The money printing will never go away, but bubbles do go bust. If gold is in a bubble, then what's next?
(Note: If you get financial recommendations from blogs, please stop now and just give me your money. Also, I happen to like the fact that we don't "get it" as fast as the rest of the country. That's why we're more conservative in this state then in others. And that's fine by me.)
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