I have just had a “small world” moment. Whilst I have not met Mr August from the videos I have sat at his very posh boardroom table several years ago discussing the merits of silver as an investment – although the price then was AUD$280/kg not the ironic AUD$666/kg it is today (26 April 2010).
I agree the heft of a 5kg bar of silver feels good in the hand, pity though they didn’t bring out some of their 15 & 30kg bars, but they would have definitely left a dent in that table.
Every commentator on precious metals at some point bangs on about how small the precious market is but I have never heard anyone point out how ridiculously small is the number of professional bullion traders, I estimate there is about 12 in Australia (a G20 nation with US$1Trillion GDP) and I have met or corresponded with a third of them. 12 brokers to service every private and institutional investor – these guys and girls should be placed on the endangered species list, more humpback whales swim past Sydney on a summer’s afternoon than work as bullion brokers. In contrast two blocks away from where those videos were filmed is the Australian Stock Exchange, where no doubt you can find 12 stock brokers per square meter.
As an aside just as well you can’t see the view out of the boardroom window as it looks down on a lane straight out of a Dickens novel that last saw the sun in about 1850, but the funky Japanese restaurant hiding in the gloom is very good.