got gold in your bug out bag?

[Icebreak]

TedTheLed -

Interesting subject/thread. I've been reading it since you first posted it.

Do you think the 1/10 oz Canadian Gold Maple might be a better bartering commodity in SHTF scenarios than the US 1/10 oz Golden Eagle due to the Gold Maple being 24kt as opposed to the Golden Eagle being 22kt? Or, if the SHTF scenario took place in the US the Golden Eagle would be a better barter commodity due to the traditionally dim view of Canadian nickles by US citizens?

I'm thinking the US coin would be better for me because I live in the US. The question comes up because I've been lightly researching the issue since I read your first post.

I was speaking with a co-worker about gold yesterday. He follows almost all markets closely. He mentioned something I found to be interesting. I think a Fist Full of Dollars would be good to have. I don't remember much about that Clint Eastwood movie except that he used gold coins as buttons on his shirt. When he got into a jam or really needed something he would cut a button off.

Tangenting now...I won't own a blazer/sports jacket with gold buttons. They must be dark buttons. Now I'm thinking Clint might have been on to something. A dark blue blazer with real gold coin buttons on the sleeves. Where best to hide your diamonds than in the chandelier in the entryway? Where best to hide some of your gold than on the sleeves of a jacket not many people want to wear?


OT?

Sub_Umbra -

I took notice of the drab green screen used behind the shutters. I lived in an apartment on the second floor of a apt complex way back. It had the standard sliding glass door to the tiny balcony. The balcony had a frame with slats. I wanted to be able to leave the curtains open but not allow people on the ground to be able to see through the slats and through the sliding glass door. BUT...not make it obvious. So I tacked two layers of charcoal grey screen to cover the space between the slats so it just looked like shadow. Worked great.

Like most modern vehicles, my truck has tinted glass. Sometimes I just put a ball cap on the top of the back of the passenger seat. Its amazing what it looks like from 280 degrees in the dark. One is a less tasty target than none. Two is a less tasty target than one.

I've read most of your posts on making it through extremely adverse conditions in a metropolitan environment. What about condensation on windows revealing humans present in the abode?

RainX? De-humidifiers?

On interior atmosphere, did you use special filters for the HVAC?

 

[TedTheLed]

Icey, thanks very much for posting that about the Maple Leafs (Leaves?) --

I have been checking them out for a couple minutes and have discovered that although the FRACTIONAL ounce Maple coins are relatively much more expensve than the Eagle coins, the ounce Maples are the SAME or $5 LESS than the Eagles!! -- yet contain more gold -- even the golddealer website says they are the most highly recignzed and sought after gold bullion coin of
all.. if I had bought a bunch of ounce Eagles and then saw those Maples for less $ I'd ave pooped my pants! -- Thanks!!

as you can see the fractional ounce Maples are way more expensive than the fractional ounce Eagles -- yet the ounce price is less than the Eagle!!?? Think they made a deal?? ---- wait a minute! --- I jus tchecked the golddealer and the Eagle ounce has been replaced wit that Buffalo coin for $635 ! The ounce Maple is now $5 less than the Eagle -- golddealer says "to call" for fractional prices of the Maple leaf, so maybe their prices are lower than these from the website you lister (above) ?

"..The (Maple Leaf) coin is offered in 1/20 oz, 1/10 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/2 oz, and 1 oz denominations and is guaranteed to contain the stated amount (in troy ounces) of .9999 fine gold (24 karat). The coins have legal tender status in Canada, but as is often the case with bullion coins, the face values of these coins (C$5, C$10, C$20 and C$50) are purely symbolic and do not reflect their true value. At current market value the coins are worth and sell for about $89, $204, $394, and $754 USD respectively.."

In fact, at this moment I am thinking of forgetting about gold and getting a stash of silver US "Peace dollars" -- for $13.00 each at the moment...

http://www.golddealer.com/bullionpage.html

 

[Sub_Umbra]

...I've read most of your posts on making it through extremely adverse conditions in a metropolitan environment. What about condensation on windows revealing humans present in the abode?

RainX? De-humidifiers?

On interior atmosphere, did you use special filters for the HVAC?

Hey Icebreak-

The green stuff was some bug netting my wife stapled up -- it was kind of ratty by the time we took the pics.

We were lucky we didn't have a condensation problem. Also, it is a very traditional house and with those shutters you can never see any of the windows. So many houses in New Orleans used to be equipped with those same cyprus shutters that some have said that it was a great deterrent to street crime because it's so easy to see out of the house that anyone on the street would never know if they were being watched or not. It is almost impossible to see in through the shutters in the daytime and if you manage your lights, the same is true at night. It's really cool.

About the condensation... If I were in a location where it would be a problem I would sure want it in my plan ahead of time. Since I wouldn't be able to count on having power it sounds like a real challenge.

I'd be tempted to try one of those window washing solutions formulated specifically to stop condensation from forming on the inside of small airplane windows.

A better but more expensive solution would probably be some dedicated way to keep the air moving, but that sounds like it could be pretty complex and expensive if you also need it even when the power is out.

That is really a tough one.

 

[ledlurker]

Another thing that I feel your bug out bag should have is several 30 minute prepaid phone cards, they weigh almost nothing. If the event is not very bad then phone service will most likely work. and they will make great trade bait. I have used my prepaid phone cards to also make local calls when my cell is down.


BTW, has anybody else check out the basic 72 hour 2 person bug out bags that can be purchased at your local Red Cross chapter? My only and biggest dislike about them is that they arer red and have a red cross on them. I told the office personnel that you might as well hang a sign on a person that says "mob me". My advise is to go buy your own back pack an transfer the contents.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Another thing that I feel your bug out bag should have is several 30 minute prepaid phone cards, they weigh almost nothing. If the event is not very bad then phone service will most likely work. and they will make great trade bait. I have used my prepaid phone cards to also make local calls when my cell is down....

Good idea. I also have the access number and PIN entered into my watch. One thing, though. Be sure your calling cards access numbers begin with 800. After Katrina I ran into people who had cards with local access numbers that were either blocked or were unuseable for some other reason. I didn't run into anyone who had any trouble with cards using an 800 number.

We had ~$50 in quarters going into it to which was a lifesaver.

 

[z96Cobra]

When we both meet at the 'gas station' and I offer a tenth ounce gold coin for a tank of gas. and you offer feathers, or diamonds, (who knows what they're worth?) who do you think is going to drive away?

(of course you might use the feathers to fly away.. )

Me, 'cause I'll be packin' some lead! I'd also like to think that my morals/faith/upbringing would keep me from using a gun to steal from someone, but in times like you describe, who knows what will happen if it ever gets that bad. I know I would use it for self/family defense, and I hope that is all I'll ever need it for (hopefully I wouldn't even need it for that either). We have some cattle, goats, and horses, so we should be OK on food for a while, and our farm has 1/4 mile of river frontage, so water shouldn't be a problem either, unless it gets contaminated. Our water comes from a natural spring, so hopefully that would be good even longer than the river.

When it comes to survival, not too many people would be able to "keep the faith" and not do whatever it takes to survive.

Roger

 

[MicroE]

Another thing that I feel your bug out bag should have is several 30 minute prepaid phone cards.....

That's an excellent idea. Just make sure that you buy cards that do not expire with time. Some phone cards, like gift cards, expire slowly over a matter of months.

 

[ledlurker]

I have a 7 year old AT&T 1-800 one that I have refilled a total of 5 times. I keep expecting it to expire.

Like anything else, you might have to rotate. We currently do not have long distance phone service. In stead of spending $20 a month for the average long distance service, we just buy a 600 minute AT&T card which will last any where from 3 to 6 months. I even have a teleconference card which has been handy in family legal discussions.

 

[TedTheLed]

gold's up $19.00 an ounce -- :shrug: perhaps 3% isn't that much of a move for gold..? ? ?

 

[NeonLights]

gold's up $19.00 an ounce -- :shrug: perhaps 3% isn't that much of a move for gold..? ? ?

Up 3% since when? I seem to recall hearing that long-term gold has averaged just under 4% per year. Almost as much as inflation.

-Keith

 

[TedTheLed]

Up 3% since when? I seem to recall hearing that long-term gold has averaged just under 4% per year. Almost as much as inflation.

-Keith

sorry, I meant the price to buy an ounce bullion coin; the gold eagle, went up from $630 to $649 at golddealer.com since last week -- the 1/10 ounce went from $70 to $71...

 

[twentysixtwo]

Gold as an investment is pretty dicey.

As something for a BOB, I think I'd rather have $500 of stuff like lights, lithium batteries, magnesium firestarters, MRE's, knives, etc than $500 of gold.

Of course if anyone wants to donate some for my BOB, I'd be happy to hold onto it.

 

[TedTheLed]

fyi update:

when this thread was opened nearly a year ago gold was $622. an ounce,

it's $710. an ounce now.. and $15 of that rise has been in the past few weeks..

(those 1/10 ounce bullion coins were $70, now $76.00)

 

[oregonshooter]

But it still is worthless when you need food and the other guy needs ammo.

 

[Meeshi_ma]

Reading back through this I kept thinking that I can't think of many situations where gold (or silver) would make a better trade commodity than cash.

Most people envision their BoBs as a short term supply to either get them through an emergency or to get them to another place (where more things are cached). Regardless of WHAT happened (earthquake, tornado, A-bomb, etc), in the SHORT term, most people are expecting it to be eventually resolved. And by "resolved", they're thinking that everything will get fixed and go back to the way it was before (meaning that dollar bills will still be worth roughly $1 each). The only time that I see gold or silver coming into play is in the long term where it would be generally recognized that your dollars no longer have value. If you think about it, when's the last time you saw the gold or silver that your dollar is supposed to represent? (Not that it really does anymore of course, that went out years ago). People take the value of money on trust. They expect a certain amount of buying power to be there per bill, regardless of whether it's actually backed up by gold or not.

That trust tends to last even after the reason for it is gone. I'd imagine that even in a complete disaster, dollar bills would still have a recognized value for quite some time - it would take a while for the intrinsic value change to trickle down to everyone.

So sure, cache gold somewhere safe if you like, but in this age of computerized money (credit, debit, etc) most people think of Franklin's and Grant's as being HARD currency. More importantly, keep a stash of tradeable good (with immediate values unlike gold) on hand - things that can be separated out into discrete packages for trade. It won't take too long before packages of spaghetti, fresh batteries, or even individual cigarettes (and no - I don't smoke either) become very valuable.

Although, as I think about it - those types of things will initially have a wildly fluctuating value - if looting is rampant, everyone who wants cigarettes will have them... I think I'll stick to cash in the small bag (as far as trade goods go - I already have spare batteries ).

Anyway - this is a good thread - fun to see how different people prepare for things. :twothumbs

-Brian

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Reading back through this I kept thinking that I can't think of many situations where gold (or silver) would make a better trade commodity than cash...

That's true. The problem is that while those situations may be rare they are also somewhat universal in their nature -- having happened in many different places and throughout man's entire existance. The odds are definately with those who decide they'll never need it. And yet....

 

[Meeshi_ma]

The main plus for gold is to impress someone with a ready supply of something valuable - I'm coming back to the earlier argument of it perhaps tipping the scale to get you those last couple of gallons of gas. Alright, sure - you can flash a couple of ounces of sparkly stuff at the gas station attendant and hope he goes for the novelty. If he bothers to think it through, the only reason that the gold has value to him (can't eat it after all) is that he's betting that someone else will trade him for it - either cash later on or a further trade.

I can't remember the last time that I paid cash for gasoline. I know that some places give a slight discount for doing so, but they aren't around my area, so it hasn't come up. Its just so much more convenient to carry and use credit/debit cards that we all do it. If you've got a ready supply of cash in your bag, you'd get much the same reaction from the attendant by flashing $200 as a couple of small gold coins - besides, if the computers are all down, no one can use their credit cards anyway - so they're all stuck (or more likely getting out and stealing gas).

It would be interesting to see which would motivate people more - cash, gold, or usable items. It would depend on how far ahead the person was thinking I guess - short term emergency - cash or gold; long term - personal survival stuff.

Honestly, it would probably come down to the guy in the back of the line with the gun getting the gas AND taking your gold...

Oh well - here's hoping we never have to find out.

-Brian

 

[TedTheLed]

of course you should always back up your gold with a supply of the good stuff;

good as, or better than gold?

Jumbo Toilet Paper 12" 2 Ply Non-Perforated, White 12 Inch Roll 6 per case
$42.33

2000 feet per roll! ...also available in 1000 foot rolls for just $1. more
:thumbsup:

http://www.bobthejanitor.com/lag--toilet-paper.html

anyone have any experience with this "Windsoft" brand?

 

[thesurefire]

Not in the BOB, but I do have some silver rounds.

I read once the fact that in and around 1900, an ounce of gold was worth about the same amount as a really nice suit. Now 110 years later, the same holds true. 2 world wars and the great depression didn't change that. I think gold and silver will hold their value. Just in case not, I still have dollars and stock euros. I encourage everyone to have at least 100 euros in a safe somewhere.

Another image that I won't soon forget is a restaurant sign that's been passed down through generations in my family. It reads 'Steak, fries, choice of veggie, choice of drink, 25 cents' Just a reminder of inflation.

 

[InTheDark]

Where is a good place to buy gold or silver bullion coins, preferably in the southern california area? I went to a couple of local coin places to inquire about buying eagles or krugerrands, and they didn't seem all that helpful. In fact, they were pretty rude about it, one of them repeatedly mentioned that they don't really want the business as they don't make much money selling bullion coins, and the other one just ignored me after they found out what I was looking for. I guess since they're aren't rare $10K coins, they dont' really take that kind of purchase seriously.