Adam,
Since you are so persistent in promoting Aurum products, which in my opinion carry disproportionately high premiums, I have to ask you directly for full disclosure:
- A. Do you or PeakProsperity have or anticipate in the future any business gains from promoting Aurum products?
- B. Do you have a business relationship with Valaurum who is the manufacturer of the Aurum products?
Also up front, I would like to ask Chris for expressing his opinion about Aurum product(s), in particular is it PeakProsperity’s opinion that maybe up to 1% of PM holdings of an individual would be worth of holding in Aurums?
I apologize to the readers for the uninspiring explanation I will provide below why I think the Aurum product is NOT the right gold bullion/”film” to buy for an average PM holder. I thought that in my previous note, the example given would be convincing enough to close this discussion. Apparently Adam in NOT convinced, and he insists on apples-to-apples comparison, no matter whether it makes sense or not.
Let me start with two tables to make the unit conversions and gold spot pricing in troy ounce and grams clear to the reader
![](https://peakprosperity.com/files/users/u35724/table_1.png)
![](https://peakprosperity.com/files/users/u35724/table_2.png)
So I found two equivalent weight gold bullion products overlapping with Aurum units. This is comparison of Aurum products (0.25 gr and 0.1 gr ) vs. gold bars found on-line (LBMA –approved bullion). These are found on E-bay w/o shipping cost. So Adam, just to satisfy your repeating challenge about finding the cheaper equivalent products , here you have in Table 2 bullion @ 0.25 gr and 0.1 gr being cheaper by 15%-20% than Aurum official prices. References included. And I was not searching too extensively.
Seems like this is your major promotional point for Aurum, and seems to me it does not exist, if one compares face value of Aurum vs. equivalent bullion. (Also keep in mind that Ebay prices of bullion carry Ebay 6-9% and PayPal premiums). To be fair to Valaurum, their website does not promote Aurum for buying groceries or equivalents (as Adam) but quote: “…The result (i.e. Aurum) is a new, beautiful way to use gold for artistic, commemorative and branding purposes”. Aha, this I get. They promote it for these specific reasons, and therefore the premium is secondary. But Adam promotes it for buying "groceries", and here we are dealing with a money (Aurum currency) which can only buy the most ½ of groceries, based on Aurum face value (premium exceeds 100%) as compared to low(er) premium gold/silver/copper products, like bars w/ higher denomination (or even gold grains). So, to summarize my point (again, I stress one man’s opinion), Aurum product (currency) carries very poor value for low denomination “change”/ money in crisis. It is not designed, according to the manufacturers, to satisfy this role. I fully agree with them. It is also important for the readers to understand clearly the conversion of 1 troy once unit (and its widely followed daily spot price) to Aurum units (1/20 gr, 1/10 gr, 1/5 gr) . This is, based on my observation, poorly understood in US. Therefore, for an average reader / potential buyer there isn’t a clear explanation what are the premium involved. Valaurum website is not helpful here neither, because the only gold spot price being quoted there is in (you guessed it) Troy Ounces. Why then their products are not denominated in Troy Ounces of Gold (say 1/100, 1/200, 1/500 oz t) but in fractions of gram? I leave the answer to the reader. Please remember though, that the major point behind selling complex products like life insurance, etc. is making the facts complex and non-transparent, so the buyer cannot really compare apples-to-apples. But isn’t Adam insisting on apples-to-apples? Why does he not ask the founder of Aurum products to explain the details of Aurum valuation? Isn’t it important? Why is his interview, frankly, shallow? This, basically, prompted me to respond to the original Adam’s post to express my opinion about poor value behind Aurum products. Hope that we can close this silly discussion. And thanks to pinecarr who asks Adam for a bit higher level , non-personal exchange of opinions. Regards, Peter