Umicore poor quality

[AllThingsShiny]

I've just received this 5 gram umicore bar from a well know online dealer. I find the quality of the bar to be extremely poor for a item which is meant to be sealed. Is this something i should be concerned about?

 

Sorry about the poor quality pictures. 

[Chandler365]

Are the scratches in the plastic or the gold ? 

[modofantasma]

I mean... I've seen worse when people are unboxing proofs recently from Royal Mint 🤔 

To me the bars are just bars I wouldn't be bothered if it was in or out of the packet (I'd prefer it out) 

[AllThingsShiny]

21 minutes ago, Chandler365 said:

Are the scratches in the plastic or the gold ? 

on the gold itself

 

[Goldfever20]

Well, if you are not 100% happy with it, send it back for a refund or a replacement. It looks pretty bad to me.

[AllThingsShiny]

1 minute ago, Goldfever20 said:

Well, if you are not 100% happy with it, send it back for a refund or a replacement. It looks pretty bad to me.

I am not bothered about the scratches itself, I am more concerned in how they got there in the first place.

[dicker]

I don’t buy gold in plastic of any sort so am not an expert.  I *have* seen and handled a Umicore gold bar in similar packaging (genuine of course) and it was pristine.  
 

[LawrenceChard]

2 hours ago, AllThingsShiny said:

I've just received this 5 gram umicore bar from a well know online dealer. I find the quality of the bar to be extremely poor for a item which is meant to be sealed. Is this something i should be concerned about?

Sorry about the poor quality pictures. 

 

Presumably you were buying it as an investment in gold bullion. As such, you should not be expecting a perfectly engineered piece of scuptoral art. You are buying a mass produced product.

If you are looking for perfection, then a proof coin would be more in line.

Hopefully you bought it at a low or reasonable premium, although a large bar or coin would or should be better value.

See my / our advice here:

https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041

There is also not much advantage in buying a "sealed" gold bar, or a new one compared with secondary market one. 

In fact, sealed and certificated bars are too easily faked compared with their unsealed counterparts.

😎

[AllThingsShiny]

1 minute ago, LawrenceChard said:

Presumably you were buying it as an investment in gold bullion. As such, you should not be expecting a perfectly engineered piece of scuptoral art. You are buying a mass produced product.

If you are looking for perfection, then a proof coin would be more in line.

Hopefully you bought it at a low or reasonable premium, although a large bar or coin would or should be better value.

See my / our advice here:

https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041

There is also not much advantage in buying a "sealed" gold bar, or a new one compared with secondary market one. 

In fact, sealed and certificated bars are too easily faked compared with their unsealed counterparts.

😎

thanks for the reply, i have just unsealed the gold bar from the package. i have to say its better in the hand outside the plastic 😁

 

my main concern was how did the scratches get onto the bar in the first place?

[LawrenceChard]

11 minutes ago, AllThingsShiny said:

thanks for the reply, i have just unsealed the gold bar from the package. i have to say its better in the hand outside the plastic 😁

my main concern was how did the scratches get onto the bar in the first place?

It's a mass produced product.

Ingots get rolled into sheets, sheets get stamped. There are almost bound to be scratches, scuffs, and imperfections, unlike proof coins, for which you would expect to pay about twice the price.

I presume you did pay a reasonable % premium. Expect to pay about 10% pre-owned, or about 15% new, sealed. Plus postage.

Do you know how much % premium you paid?

😎

[AllThingsShiny]

I havent really worked out the premium %. I only brought it because I had a referral deal where i received a free 1ounce silver Britannia. i dont really pay too much attention to premiums on small purchases as i dont intend on selling for at least a decade or more. where HOPEFULLY!!! the premiums would have been swallowed up by a big juicy profit 

 

[dicker]

I would respectfully suggest you do the maths….

Precious metals are never sold at bargain prices and special deals when I have looked at them have been…..unattractive at best. 
 

Best

Dicker

[AllThingsShiny]

2 minutes ago, dicker said:

I would respectfully suggest you do the maths….

Precious metals are never sold at bargain prices and special deals when I have looked at them have been…..unattractive at best. 
 

Best

Dicker

no need to do any maths. The dealer i purchased from was marginally cheaper than all other well known online dealers. that was without the free coined I was given due to a refer a friend scheme. so if anything i paid 10% less premium than any other dealer which i could of purchased from

[dicker]

29 minutes ago, AllThingsShiny said:

no need to do any maths. The dealer i purchased from was marginally cheaper than all other well known online dealers. that was without the free coined I was given due to a refer a friend scheme. so if anything i paid 10% less premium than any other dealer which i could of purchased from

Not sure I follow your logic but all the best to you.

Best

Dicker

[James32]

42 minutes ago, AllThingsShiny said:

no need to do any maths. The dealer i purchased from was marginally cheaper than all other well known online dealers. that was without the free coined I was given due to a refer a friend scheme. so if anything i paid 10% less premium than any other dealer which i could of purchased from

What price was the 5gram bar?

[SilverJacks]

The referral scheme is a loss leader, but an excellent one for the customer. You don't even get badgered by the dealer or anything, and you really can get unbeatable prices when you factor in the free Britannia, which can stack up to a maximum of 10 if you refer enough people.

@AllThingsShiny, It may not have interested you much, but if you had paid a higher price for a Pamp bar, you'd have had a perfect ingot. I've always found them to be top quality, and they have the Veriscan feature too..

[LawrenceChard]

1 hour ago, AllThingsShiny said:

I havent really worked out the premium %. I only brought it because I had a referral deal where i received a free 1ounce silver Britannia. i dont really pay too much attention to premiums on small purchases as i dont intend on selling for at least a decade or more. where HOPEFULLY!!! the premiums would have been swallowed up by a big juicy profit 

 

 

59 minutes ago, dicker said:

I would respectfully suggest you do the maths….

Precious metals are never sold at bargain prices and special deals when I have looked at them have been…..unattractive at best. 
 

Best

Dicker

 

54 minutes ago, AllThingsShiny said:

no need to do any maths. The dealer i purchased from was marginally cheaper than all other well known online dealers. that was without the free coined I was given due to a refer a friend scheme. so if anything i paid 10% less premium than any other dealer which i could of purchased from

 

23 minutes ago, dicker said:

Not sure I follow your logic but all the best to you.

Best

Dicker

 

10 minutes ago, James32 said:

What price was the 5gram bar?

Most of the best dealers tell you the percentage premium so you don't have to work it out. The less competitive ones don't, for obvious reasons.

Why not just post a link to the dealers offer page, then all can see, and save time. This will help the people who are trying to help and advise you.

"Free" stuff and loss leaders are often not free or good deals.

😎

[GoldDiggerDave]

Honest answer no I would not be concerned about a scratch on a gold bullion bar.  

I watched a YT video a few weeks back, I can't find the link it showed the process of small gold bars being manufactured and sealed into small blisters  like yours.  The process is a lot rougher than you would think for a precious metal, they don't use kid gloves it's a fairly industrial process.  

If you don't mind me asking what made you chose a bar over a bullion UK CGT currency coin? £289 ish for 5 grams of taxable gold  £57.80 per gram (if you paid £289) where you could have bought a sovereign thats CGT exempt at £378 ish for £51.74 per gram of gold?

Also when you come to sell your bar back to a dealer you are like to only get 95% of spot or you might find it harder to sell on the secondly market due the number of fakes around.  No way would I buy secondary market gold bars but thats just me. 

Not saying theres anything wrong with bars "you  pay our money and take your chances"  just a 2022 gold bullion sovereign is far the better store of wealth IMO as these are likely to carry a semi-numismatic added value on top of the spot price.  Look at any other special year reverse bullion sovereign.  

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by GoldDiggerDave

[SilverJacks]

3 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Why not just post a link to the dealers offer page, then all can see, and save time. This will help the people who are trying to help and advise you.

The forum rules may or may not suit posting the exact deal. 

2 minutes ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

If you don't mind me asking what made you chose a bar over a bullion UK CGT currency coin?

I know this question isn't aimed at me, and I am being presumptuous, but having been there before, I found the 5g bars to just suit the minimum spend required to activate the deal...

[LawrenceChard]

31 minutes ago, SilverJacks said:

The forum rules may or may not suit posting the exact deal. 

I know this question isn't aimed at me, and I am being presumptuous, but having been there before, I found the 5g bars to just suit the minimum spend required to activate the deal...

Which deal where?

I don't think forum rules prohibit posting to external link and deals, except where it constitutes blatant promotion and advertising, particularly as affiliate links, eetc.

 

[SilverJacks]

11 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

I don't think forum rules prohibit posting to external link and deals

I agree, but in the past I posted a link to the deal, just the deal and no personal referrals or anything I would personally benefit from, and my comment was removed, which left me a little unsure about what can and cannot be said exactly

[LawrenceChard]

5 minutes ago, SilverJacks said:

I agree, but in the past I posted a link to the deal, just the deal and no personal referrals or anything I would personally benefit from, and my comment was removed, which left me a little unsure about what can and cannot be said exactly

There are sections "See a gold / silver deal, post it here", so it is encouraged, but some spammers get paid to add multiple spam advertising / affiliate links to sites, which is clearly undesirable, and I guess these are often just bare links without any significant relevance or interest.

If you didn't know why it was removed, I am sure you could have asked a Moderator and got a suitable reply.

😎

[SilverJacks]

11 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

There are sections "See a gold / silver deal, post it here", so it is encouraged, but some spammers get paid to add multiple spam advertising / affiliate links to sites, which is clearly undesirable, and I guess these are often just bare links without any significant relevance or interest.

If you didn't know why it was removed, I am sure you could have asked a Moderator and got a suitable reply.

😎

B* G*

[LawrenceChard]

6 minutes ago, SilverJacks said:

B* G*

?

[SilverJacks]

2 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

?

Sorry. That was a cryptic clue referring to the dealer(s) as described on the Chards price comparison. If you can decrypt the competitors acronyms, you will know who is offering the referral scheme, FYI, BTW