DBCooper

Each to their own way of storing their own coins but, whist some of my nicer, rarer coins are stored safely in flips or capsules Personally I have only ever brought best value Sov's at bullion prices and as such I regard them as just that, Plain old bullion. I store all mine in tubes, not even purpose made tubes just, old industrial plastic tubes that originally held drill bits. I find it fairly easy to find tubes that are the perfect fit for a full Sov,s once at tube is filled and stashed away they don't move around and even if they did it wouldn't bother me in the slightest. regards DB

I made a few phone calls today and it seems that there is a NEW bullion dealer just opened in Quezon city Manila just across from SM North Edsa on west avenue very recently and they are supposedly the First bullion seller in PH ? I carnt vouch for them at all as I have never used them and they must be very new as I am often on West avenue and I have never seen them there before (although I suspect they are not operating from a traditional shop front) Apparently they are only selling bullion right now and my source said they don't buy over the counter ? which does make sense in a city where even MacDonald's has armed security on the front door. seems like they operate by pre booked appointment only Details below One ounce trading 6F west Insula 135 west avenue Quezon city 1105 Metro manila Landline 8932-2497: Smart(0947)203-6582 By appointment only for appointments contact (0995) 262-3209 trading hrs 10am -6pm: lunchbreak 12pm-1pm Saturdays and Sundays by schedule admin@oneouncetrading.com I haven't had time to check out their website so have no idea about what type of stock they carry or prices but they might be worth a call for your mate that needs to sell to see if they buy bullion as well as sell ? Regards DB

I take it this person who is not on the forum is planning on going as a tourist not living there? if they live in PH they can probably work out where to sell or buy gold themselves so ill assume we are talking about a visitor? Although I am currently back in the UK for Business . I have lived in the Philippines for the last 15 years both in Manila and in Laguna province in the south of Luzon and I am also married to a Filipina. As I have said before on this forum I buy and sell fair amounts of Gold in Asia, Australia and West Africa so feel I can offer some advice. Firstly I wouldn't generally recommend anyone who doesn't live and or work in PH trying to sell or buy large amounts of Gold in the Philippines. Other than purchasing Jewellery from a big international Mall in Manila. PH is a country were most people can lay their hands on a firearm very quickly and little respect for the law is shown generally. Street crime is rife and people get shot over a bog standard mugging. let alone a gold deal gone bad!. another piece of advice don't walk around showing off expensive gold chains or even a decent watch on the streets it just marks you out as suitable to mug! so what type of Gold does this person want to sell / buy? Coins. Modern bullion, is almost unavailable legitimately in PH and to my knowledge? there are no main stream bullion dealers even in the Central business district of Makati in Manila. Most people in PH wanting to buy bullion will fly across to Singapore or Hong Kong or buy gold vaulted outside the country. You do see the odd seller of older silver and possibly Gold? collectable coins and notes issued in PH knocking around on street corners etc occasionally but most of the stuff they are selling will be tat and or fake . Bars. The simple advice if somebody offers to sell you a Gold bar in PH it is fake end of. There are a lot of fake bars knocking around usually advertised on social media like FB marketplace etc .or maybe offered up to an outsider sitting in a bar etc by a helpful local. I have heard of instances where even local law enforcement officers have been trying to sell off fake bars. Also plenty of the fake gold bars are offered up as lost Japanese loot from WWII which somebody has just found out in the forest, which of course they are not. Jewellery Obviously the bigger shopping malls like the Mall of Asia and SM north Edsa in Manila will carry all the big international brands, just as in any other country but the gold is no cheaper than anywhere else and in some cases much more expensive than for instance Thailand. Duty Free at Manila Airport. there are a few big brands selling Jewellery at the airport duty free for good prices and you can also access the Duty free shop coming Inbound through Manila airport after passing through immigration, as well as outbound. There are a few slightly more dodgy small scale jewellery sellers operating from stalls in parts of manila that sell gold at a good price but they tend to be in areas rougher than a badgers ar** that your average tourist wouldn't usually be in, although somebody living in manila and able to speak Tagalog might be prepared to risk selling to or buying from such sellers?. These sellers flog off second-hand jewellery purchased by overseas Filipino workers brought back home and then sold for cash in PH. Returning locals get heavily taxed on any cash brought back to PH earnt working abroad, hence they will buy and wear lots of gold when coming back home then sell it on to the local dealers. But be aware that these type of sellers will more than likely also be handling locally stolen jewellery. One decent seller that springs to mind that I have purchased some nice chains from before at good prices is a small stall alongside the post office counter on the second floor of Victory Mall just off of Monumento in Caloocan city Manila. If selling gold in PH one of these small scale dealers would probably be the best avenue for selling for cash. On a side note in most malls here there are Silver Jewellers selling superbly made silver Jewellery at very very cheap prices obviously aimed at the local market and this silver is usually very good Quality & value. Raw Gold. The Philippines is awash with raw gold mined illegally by all and sundry. it is available In the form of Gold dust, Gold Flakes, Nuggets and amalgamate anywhere there are illegal miners operating in the country, which in short is most provinces. The average person should not get involved with trying to buy any raw goId in the Philippines. It is mined illegally and it is illegal to export out of the country, The penalties for smuggling it out of the country are very high. The illegal mining in Ph is controlled by organised armed criminal gangs and unless you want to be staring down the wrong end of a loaded gun with no money and no gold don't try and buy any of this stuff as a visitor to PH regards DB

the new security feature on the brits makes no odds to me what so ever. speaking as a stacker not a collector, gold is gold end of. I buy whatever is available at the lowest premium when and where I want to buy gold. personally I like the design of the modern Brits over Modern Sovereigns but for me it always comes down to what I can buy cheapest and that tends not be new Brits. regards DB

I second the above . older Sov's are much nicer to look at than the newer copper coloured ones. If you do decide to go for best value dealers choice sovereigns on the popular websites such as BBP or HGM, which Is how I buy mine, When I am In the UK. 9 times out of ten you will end up with George the 5th or a Victoria not a new one.

Specifically the managed payments system now means that because eBay have direct access one of your bank accounts they can take any amount out of that bank account anytime they want without informing you they are going to take money out this was NOT the case with PayPal as you could withdraw money out of PayPal the second it hit the account if you had good positive feedback. and if a genuine dispute happened down the line you could then re fund your PayPal account and refund the buyer if needed , something I have happily done on the few occasions a buyer justifiably needed a refund so Now with the only option as managed payments. say you sell a high value item on eBay, a gold coin, a silver bar, a car or watch in fact anything at all the buyer gets the item sent to them while eBay holds the payment to the seller a few days. then later after eBay has had the interest on the money from the sale for 48 hrs or so, they drop it into your bank account and all seems good. Then the buyer says a couple of weeks/ a month later. oh the item never turned up or its not as they thought. they don't want it blah blah blah eBay always side with the buyer in any dispute real or imagined ! So eBay then dip back into your bank account and refund the buyer without even needing to inform you. Possible ( highly likely )end result is buyer has said item and your cash and you have a bank account balance that's minus the funds from the sale without eBay even having to inform you they have deducted funds from your account. For me personally its a no thank you even with a dedicated bank account set up for managed payments hence my Ebay account being closed.. like I said a personal thing but im done with eBay due to this Regards DB

just closed my eBay account after 15 years of trading successfully and 100% positive feedback running into the thousands eBay is finished ! and the sooner it ceases to trade the better in IMHO. It has been going down the sink for years with their policy of favouring scamming / cheating buyers buyers over good solid sellers with long histories of trading on their platform in EVERY single dispute over a sale, be that a real dispute or something dreamt up by the buyer to get items for free and their policy of allowing the sale of fake goods and counterfeit items to be listed every day of the week worldwide. the new managed payments was the final nail in the coffin as far as I was concerned eBay's loss not mine ! there's plenty other platform's to sell on what was a super platform to buy and sell on has in recent times become a cesspit of lowlife scamming buyers and sellers of fake stuff all done with eBays blessing .