Howling Wolf Gold Coin Review – Make $100 or Keep it

In the world of finance, the word “arbitrage” refers to buying something in one market, and simultaneously selling it in another, profiting from a temporary price difference. According to Investopedia, this form of profit is considered practically risk free for the investor/trader. 😀 Well I have recently found such an arbitrage opportunity in the gold bullion market.

Introducing the 2014 Howling Wolf 99.999% Gold Coin

Several days ago I went out to buy the 1 oz. pure gold 99.999% – 2014 Howling Wolf coin made by the Royal Canadian Mint. The Howling Wolf gold coin cost me $1,389 CAD to purchase. The slight premium over the spot price of gold is due to the spread charged by the broker and the unmatched purity of the coin (most bullion is only 99.99% pure gold.) Details below with proof of purchase.

14-11-wolf-gold-coin-99999

If you live around Vancouver you can buy it from the VBCE, which is where I bought my coin. The current quoted price on their website is about $1,400 CAD. In Calgary albern.com currently sells it at $1429 CAD. In Florida, gainesvillcoins.com sells this coin for $40 over spot per oz. If you live around Toronto you can visit the Canadian Bullion Services to buy the coin. You can also order it online and pick it up in their store or have them mail it to you. In fact many of these companies I mentioned ship worldwide. There are hundreds of dealers across North America so this coin is relatively easy to obtain.

Howling Wolf .99999 Gold Coin Review

This is one of the best coins I’ve ever seen. The design of the wolf on the reverse side is very detailed, and the finely wrought texture of the wolf’s coat and the realistic portrayal of its gaze is almost lifelike. 🙂 The obverse side of the coin features the exquisite profile of Queen Elizabeth II and stamps for the year, and the face value of $200. The face value is what makes this coin legal tender so there are no taxes, tariffs, or customs charged on this coin. It also means this coin will always be worth at least $200 CAD, which is nice to know in case gold ever falls below $200/oz. Haha, yeah right. 😛

14-11-howling-wolf-gold-front-back

Each 2014 Canadian Gold Howling Wolf coin comes sealed in an uncirculated assay card, signed by the chief assayer, which is basically a quality assurance expert who makes sure each coin meets the highest standard of purity and quality. 😀

Personally I’m going to hang on to this coin and maybe give it away on this blog some day. However if you want to make some quick and easy money, you can try to sell this coin on eBay for a premium. 🙂 Below is a step by step tutorial for anyone who might be interested.

How to Make Money From this Coin

We’ve already went over where to buy the coin. You can Google “bullion dealer in (your city’s name.)” to get started. 🙂 The price of gold is constantly fluctuating but as of this post gold is currently at $1350/oz CAD ($1200/oz USD.) With a slight premium the Howling Wolf coin can be found for about $1,400 CAD each. 🙂 Next, sign up for an eBay account if you don’t already have one, and list the coin on it for $1,700 CAD, or whatever the equivalent USD amount is. According to previous listings that sold on eBay, buyers are willing to pay about $1,700 CAD for this coin. 😀 The last one that was sold actually went for $1,725. And at the time of that transaction the spot price of gold was about the same as it is today.

14-11-howling-wolf-ebay

So to summarize.

  • Step 1: Buy 99.999% howling wolf gold coin for $1400 from bullion dealer
  • Step 2: Sell it on eBay for $1700
  • Step 3: Make $300 in profit before fees 😀

<edit> Thanks to some smart commentators below, it’s estimated that about $200 in fees will go to eBay and PayPal after selling the coin for $1700. This means the final profit on this coin flip 😀 will be roughly $100. </edit>

Of course you can also use leverage to potentially increase your investment gains. For example, borrow $7,000 on a bank loan or line of credit. Buy 5 of these coins at $1400 each. Sell all 5 coins on eBay individually. Thus, make $500 in profit before interest expense. That’s a lot of profit without even using any of your own money. Reminds me of my first swing trade lol.

However there are risks to this bullion arbitrage plan. Since now that I have revealed this secret, the eBay market will probably get flooded with 1 oz gold howling wolf coins. 😕 If that’s the case then you’d need to drop your price down to about $1650 in order to make a quick sell. But at least you’d still make a profit. Another risk is eBay fraud so make sure you’re dealing with a reputable buyer. The price of gold could also fall dramatically after you buy the coin and are not able to liquidate it on eBay without taking a loss. 🙁 There’s also the small possibility where you can’t even get rid of the coin at all. However personally I don’t think owning some physical gold bullion for awhile is necessarily a bad thing. 🙂

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Random Useless Fact:
In the entire written history of Canada, there is not a single incident of a person being killed by a wolf.

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PC
PC
11/18/2014 10:05 am

You don’t practice what you preach. Have you actually tried this method and successfully completed a $300 gain?? Now you’re telling your readers to go and make $300 easily off by buying the Howling Wolf Gold coin and selling it off Ebay? What if the Ebay buyer says they never received your coin and pulls the Paypal buyer insurance claim on you? Then what? You lose your coin and don’t get payment from buyer… Just saying!!

Asset Grinder
11/18/2014 10:36 am

Great lil idea. Arbitrage exists especially with unknowing consumers. Reminds me when the iphone 6 came out, people would line up and buy them and make a craigslist ad selling them for $200 over the list and they would do this for 3 days straight making thousands of dollars. Most people thought they were all sold out but little did they know Apple store had lots of stock.

Good tip on selling coins over bars on ebay. I bought a bar once and got dinged with sales tax once. Lesson learned!

Gold is getting at some good levels and I think imma pick some more up soon.

Chris
Chris
11/18/2014 11:03 am

Just out of curiosity, doesn’t ebay charge you a percentage? if so, how much is that and doesn’t that reduce your potential profit? (I’ve never bought or sold anything, so these are real questions btw). Thanks

Brian
Brian
11/18/2014 11:05 am

Have you figured what the eBay and Paypal fees would be? That $300 profit would get eaten away really quickly. Using the calculator finalfeecalculator.com/ and saying shipping costs nothing and cost you nothing that $300 profit is quickly taken down to $80 (sales price $1700 initial cost $1400). Not really worth it IMO.

Maybe that website is garbage… but it doesn’t make the flip seem quite as worth the effort

Anonymous
Anonymous
11/18/2014 11:35 am

Ebay’s current fees for coin & currency are 6% and Paypal charges 2.9%. That takes ~$150 out of profits, plus whatever it may cost for shipping and insurance.

Finance Journey
11/18/2014 12:38 pm

After reading the comments and eBay fraud, it looks like riskier business than penny trading 😀 . Quick money always comes with big risk. So, lets make slow but steady progress.

Cheers,

Mario
11/18/2014 12:48 pm

I’ve dabbled a good amount in hustling via eBay and stopped because charge-back fraud is super-obnoxious. If you’re going to do this — or perhaps continue to do this — you’d better be vigilant about making sure your eBay buyers have long positive histories. You’re protected a little bit because they have to give you a physical address in order to receive the coin, but at $50 margin per item, you just need one transaction in 30 to go sour before you’re back where you started.

Now, if you’re already one of the group of power-sellers who eBay treat like gold, you might be safe… Anyhow, good luck

TIPIT
TIPIT
11/19/2014 6:59 am

Hi Liquid,
“[…] and the unmatched purity of the coin (most bullion is only 99.99% pure gold.)”

Just so you know, when a 1oz bullion is made, the total weight of pure gold (100%) is equal to a FULL troy oz. So even if you have a 1 troy oz gold bullion with a purity of .925, you still have a full 1 troy oz of gold in it, the bullion total weight would be a little more than 1 troy oz in this case.

BTW, you have a lot of “negative” comments in here, but I still think this is an opportunity. Yes selling on eBay has some risk implied and you have to be aware of this, but some people are still willing to pay 1,700$ for this beauty… so if you can find them out of eBay (kijiji, personal webstore like I built, etc.), or manage the risk… some big money can be made!

JR
JR
11/19/2014 11:24 am

It does sound like a tempting way to make a little extra cash.

But personally, I would recommend not letting it distract you from your main trade. You will find (and probably already found) that the more you work at your main job, upgrade your skills and even side jobs in the same trade/industry; the more valuable you will become. Your skills will improve, you will become more efficient, you will become faster and more knowledgeable.

It may be a far more profitable way to earn cold hard cash, instead of trying to compete in the gold merchant industry.

I have an uncle obsessed with minimizing his taxes. He spends a lot of money on accountants, devotes much time getting through audits. Always moving funds around between shelf companies. Running around trying to make everything look non-arm’s length. And that’s all good and everything; but it just seems like it’s a larger opportunity cost since it’s taking him away from the one thing he is most good at…. farming!

Tawcan
Tawcan
11/19/2014 11:42 am

Haven’t looked into holding physical gold or silver. The idea of getting a safety deposit puts me off. 🙂

Anne @ Unique Gifter
11/20/2014 8:41 am

I’d like to know more about the banana. It’s a rather curvy banana. Did you put it there for scale?

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