# Gold & Diamonds



## confide (28 Aug 2012)

Now seems to be a good time to invest in things like gold and diamonds. 

How does someone go about buying? Are there specialists in Dublin?

Anyone got any tips or advice? Thank you!


----------



## Brumel (28 Aug 2012)

You could try Vanguard.com in the US, they operate various index, and managed funds with very low management fees.
For example Precious metals and mining fund 0.29% management fee, which covers gold and diamonds.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0053&FundIntExt=INT


----------



## confide (28 Aug 2012)

Thanks Brumel. I'll take a look 

But isn't there somewhere in Ireland? I found what seems to be a good [broken link removed], and I'm guessing you don't walk into a jewellers on the street if it's for investment purposes, considering the markup they add on.


----------



## Brumel (28 Aug 2012)

Hi Confide,
I tend to stay clear of products on offer in Ireland, as we tend to get ripped off with inflated management fees, administration fees, loads/exits fees etc.. and poor returns to boot.
I purchased a Iife assurance product from Irish Life about 30 years ago, what a pup I was sold, learn't a very expensive lesson about buying in Ireland.
I have no connection with Vanguard, they have 1.7 trillion on account from satisfied customers.


----------



## Slim (29 Aug 2012)

confide said:


> Now seems to be a good time to invest in things like gold and diamonds.
> 
> How does someone go about buying? Are there specialists in Dublin?
> 
> Anyone got any tips or advice? Thank you!


 
Whatever about buying gold as an investment, it seems to a be a regulated genuine commodity openly traded, I understand that the value and price of diamonds is much harder to guarantee and the market is controlled by diamond producers who keep the value/price of diamonds artificially high.


----------



## Chris (31 Aug 2012)

Slim said:


> Whatever about buying gold as an investment, it seems to a be a regulated genuine commodity openly traded, I understand that the value and price of diamonds is much harder to guarantee and the market is controlled by diamond producers who keep the value/price of diamonds artificially high.



I would agree with this regarding diamonds, the supply is kept at bay by the DeBeers and Zales and I'm not aware of any of the major commodity exchanges trading diamonds directly. I have also seen and heard a marked shift by many females towards buying artificial diamonds, (a) because of the cost (b) because no average person can tell the difference and (c) for moral reasons around blood diamonds. It's not a total societal blockade of real diamonds by far, but it's enough for me to steer clear of them.


----------



## paperclip (31 Oct 2012)

I wouldn't recommend diamonds unless you really know what you're doing, I did a mini investment course which covered buying diamonds, there's a lot of different factors, colour, clarity etc... 

I think you'd be better off with Gold and Silver, bullionvaults a good option for buying and selling gold and silver online, short explanation of it here, http://su.pr/2N9vLW

I've used them for over 2 years and never had any problems... you can still get a free gram of gold, although they'll be changing that to silver in a few weeks.


----------



## MrEarl (31 Oct 2012)

Hello,

When I saw the title of this thread, I first thought of something my wife said to me about buying an expensive engagement ring (some years ago, now) ... that it would be an "investment" etc.

One thing for sure, while (thankfully), we've not had to go down the road of encashing this "investment", anyone I have ever heard of who has split up from their partner and tried to sell their gold & diamond rings, have obtained very little in percentage terms, of what they paid for it - I'm thinking sub 20% from the couple of people I know about and they all bought their rings a long time ago, so the value of both gold and diamonds should have increased radically... despite the original retail prices etc.

Moving along ...

Has anyone tried using the services of the business on the following website and if so, what has the experience been like (if you type in gold.ie it redirects to the following website also) ?

http://www.goldcore.com/


Thank you.


----------

